Gordon, U grad measuring diversity

Starting this summer, 2nd Ward councilman Cam Gordon and a University of Minnesota graduate are preparing a “diversity audit” within the walls of Minneapolis City Hall.
A team out of Gordon’s office will be conducting the audit of Minneapolis’ boards and commissions. The goal is to get solid data on how diverse Minneapolis’ government is and if the population of Minneapolis is being properly represented, Gordon said.
The audit will be conducted through a survey that will look at the diversity of all of the city’s more than 50 boards and commissions.
“I have concerns based on what I’ve seen,” Gordon said. “We are probably more male, more middle-aged and more white than the city as a whole.”
However, Gordon said he could be wrong, and having the data provided by the diversity audit would give the city solid numbers.
Annie Welch, a recent graduate of the University’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, is currently interning in Gordon’s office and will be doing most of the legwork on the diversity audit. She has already designed the survey and plans to administer it to all the boards and commissions.
In many ways, Welch said she’s the perfect person to do the audit.
“Since I’m relatively new, I don’t know the composition of the city boards and commissions,” she said. “I have kind of a Martian eye in that sense.”
However, Welch is aware of a recent similar study of the level of diversity in the city’s departments, which she said showed that “in some areas they are doing very well, but in others, not so much.”
The city’s human resources department conducted the study last September as part of the Minneapolis Affirmative Action Plan, which strives to ensure equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees.
The study looked at the number and availability of qualified women and minorities out of the city’s then almost 4,000 employees.
The numbers were based on the group’s availability within the relevant labor market (RML), which is the number of available workers of certain minority groups in the employer’s workforce. The findings show that while minority groups’ representation in city departments remained above the RML, the rates of female employees dropped since 2002 in most departments, according to a draft of the study.
Gordon said he wants to translate this type of analysis onto the city’s boards and commissions. But while the city’s evaluation of departments looked at employment for women and minority groups, Gordon’s survey plans to go further and also delve into issues of age, income and sexual orientation.
“It’s clear that we don’t do a very good job as a city of getting participation of people under 30 on these boards and commissions,” Robin Garwood, policy aide for Gordon said. “One of the big projects we are working on is trying to figure out how to better connect to the [students] who are typically seen as ‘transient.’ ”
As a recent graduate, Welch said she thinks that students would benefit from proper representation in Minneapolis government.
“I think if the city were able to adequately represent the students and University community, we would be able to proactively prevent problems and issues of acting out,” she said.
Gordon said he would be surprised if they found any person under 25 serving on a board or commission except in the areas where they specifically set a seat aside for younger members.
After the audit is completed, which could be as soon as September, Gordon said he hopes to begin setting hiring goals and making changes at City Hall.
“When you have major segments of the population who aren’t represented … we are missing out on really good ideas,” Gordon said. “We need to get some solid data and work from there to improve representation.”