12/19/2023 - Minutes
City of Tigard 13125 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard, OR 97223 | 503 -639-4171 | www.tigard-or.gov
Community Navigator Ad Hoc Committee
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, December 19, 2023 | 4:30-6PM | Virtual-Microsoft Teams
Start time: 4:32pm
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
Last meeting: we talked about gaps, drafted recommendation to hire consultant to do an equity audit.
Prompt: thoughts about recommendation since last week or initial thoughts about what that contract or
RFP could look like going forward?
Thinking about recommendation statement, talked about engagement and outreach, focusing on
external community rather than internal. Should be focused on that. Adjust the statement – to audit
Tigard’s community engagement and outreach process for increasing equity. SOW – info interviews with
Tigard staff who work with marginalized community members. Gap analysis – providing
recommendations for improvement for more inclusive participation and access to city services and
resources. Spanish interpreter to help provide testimony opportunity, for example.
Agreed, external focus is very important. Help Tigard develop systems that are sustainable and res ilient.
How do we keep it going beyond audit process. Dynamics will change. Engage with community in a
positive way as Tigard demographics change. Firm qualifications – important that it is a BIPOC-led
organization for credibility. Laying groundwork for something important. Creation of pathways – help
members of the community interact with the government – linguistic and attitudinal barriers.
Struggling with the idea of allocating money to a process of something we are already doing in the city.
Fiscal demands and how many want our tax dollars spent . DEIB Manager and work has only been in a
place for a year or two. Adding additional players that have a financial incentive to find things wrong can
create chaos. Smaller town, limited budget.
It’s necessary for a municipal organization to do equity work—external group looking into city and how
the city works to be inclusive of the issues the communit y has. Consultants who have been doing this
work and who should be the lead. Someone who has a connection to the communities that we’re talking
about, be collaborative in approach. Push the envelope to say we think this is a necessary part to how
we continue to work going forward; elevate voices of the community into the narrative of the city.
Utilize public money plan-fully but not under a huge amount of scrutiny. How would you engage these
City of Tigard 13125 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard, OR 97223 | 503 -639-4171 | www.tigard-or.gov
communities – methodology. How would you measure your own success, what would city need to
provide?
Work that the city folks are doing are fantastic – very motivated and well-intentioned—missing
additional data points though. Consultant can step in and help—what are the things that we don’t
know? Here are ways for us to move forward in an equitable way. Not in lieu of city’s current equity
work but to supplement it.
Can team do this work? There is confidence on team that they can. Could be disheartening to a team
that is doing a good work, deflating to bring in a third party. Having an external audit is a good idea –
later? Let’s give this team the time and opportunity to do it first. Or if team feels like they need external
assistance, could bring that opportunity.
Fundamentally it’s about priorities—limited budget but about how do we want to implement equity.
Currently, the team is doing a good job on equity internal data-wise— but we need extra focus on
equitable external engagement and outreach to bring in those who are not involved.
Municipal governments often say they want community voices until they don’t, then go back to business
as usual. PSAB recommended a Community Navigator and that didn’t happen. Need to do this now and
not wait—important piece for the community. If prevailing minds want this to happen, it will happen. A
discussion on how to bring voices to the table that historically have not been brought, unless there is a
crisis. Voices will be heard with a consultant.
Much of this relates to the Community Promise, otherwise known as the “5 E’s.” The Racial Equity
Declaration continues it, the Racial Equity Action Plan gets more granular, and this consultant’s work will
support that. A long-term goal is to create an equitable engagement guidebook, and we want to do
more around language access. We’re, for example, doing a good job connecting with Hispanic
community – but there could be holes. Work could be complementary. Moving from concept to action .
Feed into city values. Lived experiences are different and hearing more from those experiences is really
valuable. We need to take a step back and listen better.
Facilitator: suggest a path forward – we have four voting members and three agree with the
recommendation. Consensus is 75%, idea is to move this proposal forward in the current fiscal year. So,
we are moving forward with developing the recommendation.
<worked on whiteboard>
Asking folks submitting for the FRP to be creative in their approaches. Forward-thinking organizations
will plan for growth which is forecasted. The Tigard of 1962 doesn’t really exist anymore. Where can the
City continue to go as it grows? This is really important work. None of this is easy.
What happens next? Summary report coming out of this – present to the Budget Committee on January
23. Will be brought forward then – Valerie and Jimmy will attend and be there to tell story if possible.
Bring a recommendation to the Committee, and will suggest they watch previous videos.
End time: 5:52pm