11/28/2023 - Minutes
City of Tigard 13125 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard, OR 97223 | 503 -639-4171 | www.tigard-or.gov | Page 1 of 1
Community Navigator Ad Hoc Committee
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, November 28, 2023 | 4:30-6PM | Virtual-Microsoft Teams
Start time: 4:34pm
Attendees:
• Community Committee Members: Councilor Jai Raj Singh, Jimmy Brown, Kelli Pement, Valerie
Sasaki
• Teammates: City Manager Steve Rymer, Strategic Initiatives Program Manager Kim Ezell,
Management Analyst Alex Richardson
Discussion
Purpose tonight – identify gaps that exist in City services that impact communities of color and
immigrant communities. Slide on Equity Commitment Declaration – discussed that document, when it
was adopted by City Council, and the Racial Equity Action Plan. Prompt - The City of Tigard does not
have/is not doing [blank] which impacts the community/specific unserved community by [blank].
Idea of continuous monitoring is essential—how to identify where those gaps are? Representation
matters from a racial or ethnic perspective. People with less privilege might be intimidated by a certain
situation [where they need assistance or need a question answered]. The role of the Ombudsman got at
this. People who are Indigenous who have access issues, people disability issues...not knowing what we
don’t know, which gives rise to more gaps. Employees are well-intentioned and will be responsive to
problems, but our problem is that we don’t have an easy generic person to go to or set of combined
responses for outreach. Leads to populations that may be struggling that we don’t know to reach out to.
Seniors have different needs than the wider population. Series of structured listening sessions and
sharing between Tigard employees?
Is this [the prompt] question premature? How do we identify the problem? What would someone in this
role do and how do we use them to fill these gaps? Can’t speak to the lived or qualitative experience of
others necessarily. Eg., someone who is a first-generation immigrant has different challenges than
someone whose family has been here for generations.
Are we seeing more applicants of color? If not, why not? How do you do recruitment? Are we utilizing
communities we are connected to? What efforts are we using to identify gaps? What are employees
saying they are seeing?
Recent immigrants will have a very different experience than someone who has been here for a long
time. Under-reporting of crime potentially an issue for recent immigrants. Different perspectives for
folks of differing backgrounds, including within one particular ethnic or racial community.
City of Tigard 13125 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard, OR 97223 | 503 -639-4171 | www.tigard-or.gov | Page 1 of 1
How ARE employees informing these efforts? How do we assure that the city team has a more diverse
representation. Start with data. Changes the city has made: Public Works – changed min. qualifications,
for example. Also having a good reputation regionally. We don’t want people to self-select to not apply.
Selection process as well, like changing the interview process. Other things to look at: reducing the
number of interviews/shortening the process and using e xit interviews.
Community members often don’t know what the city does, where to go to complain about a slow traffic
light, for example. City needs process internally to identify gaps while also asking the community, which
will give us a better picture of what we need to do. How does the City of Tigard currently identify gaps –
from an internal team perspective and also from the broader community? Who is driving internal
processes? Does the DEI Manager have input when it comes to refining these?
The DEIB Manager did do an internal assessment when he was first hired. The Racial Equity Action Plan
started with teammates (before DEIB Manager came on). There’s also Equity Mapping, other projects.
Much of DEIB Manager’s work is internal-facing.
The perception is that the city does not have an established structure and process for identifying and
measuring gaps in service for unserved community members. There's also a lack of process for
continuous monitoring and improvement. Need to evaluate – are the things we are doing working? Eg:
Google Translate on city website. Does that translate effectively into all languages? Accessibility audit?
Evaluation on effectiveness? What is needed is data from the community. Might the DEIB Manager have
thoughts on this?
How things in the city impact people who are aging is important to look at as well—intersections in
identity. Issue with elders, youth, families with young children. Discussions will continue to evolve as
Tigard grows and changes. Is there a group inside of the city that looks at city’s processes and
performance measurements – takes a systems approach on how the city does business and looking at
how to improve?
What about roads, hiring, IT? Is there value in having a process connected with city employees and
potentially involving community members?
Right now in the city we’re doing process improvement in switching over to Tyler Technologies software ,
which includes external pieces like utility billing and permitting. We will be able to collect better data as
well as serve people better, so change management is a big piece of it. Also looking at how to better
meet the needs of the community from transportation, environmental, parks & recreation, and planning
perspectives. We do have a team of communicators that connect weekly to share what they’re doin g
related to DEI. The National Community Survey is a way we obtain data from the community as well.
Best practice sharing is a more internally-focused piece, but based on how the Community Navigator
recommendation came to be originally, this [Community Navigator Ad Hoc Committee]
recommendation should keep with external focus.
End time: 5:58pm