Subject: Department of Race and Equity (DRE) 2023/25 Budget Submittal
From: Darlene Flynn, Director (and preparer), (510) 238-2904
Date: March 8, 2023
Mission: Per the City Council ordinance that created the Department, “The Department of Race and Equity the City of Oakland will intentionally integrate, on a citywide basis the principle of “fair and just” in all the City does to achieve equitable opportunities for all people and communities.”
Priorities: Accomplishment of the broad and comprehensive mission of the Department relies on a theory of change that includes the following best practices that are priorities:
• Increase awareness of racial inequity, it’s root causes and how it is perpetuated by institutions and systems.
• Mobilize advocates to organize support for furthering a shared vision of racial equity through institutional leadership, department equity teams and staff engagement in change efforts.
• Develop targeted strategic approaches and tools for analysis, and resources for advancing racial equity goals, including specific racial equity outcomes.
• Train staff to apply data driven pro-equity tools to change structures, policies, practices and procedures to further institutional transformation.
• Establish baseline disparity data, targets/benchmarks and processes to track and report outcomes.
• Collaborate with City leadership, the community and other institutions/partners to identify and address cumulative impacts of institutional and structural racism impacting Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in Oakland.
Budget Proposal Reductions:
#1 - Freeze 1 FTE – Data Analyst III (vacant)
This position will increase DRE’s ability to support data collection, analysis, and reporting to meet need across all departments for technical support to complete racial equity impact analysis and establish meaningful performance metrics.
#2 – Delete $60,000 consulting services to support collection and reporting capacity citywide.
Equity Impacts: Oakland Equity Indicator Report Equity Score – 33 out of 100. Twelve indicators of 72 scored 1, the lowest possible. All 72 indicators showed significant disparities in life outcomes for People of Color residents of Oakland.
https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/2018-Equity-Indicators-Full-Report.pdf
City departments have made significant strides in launching equity efforts across the City; however, staff are often slowed down or held back by lack of data and expertise to assist in overcoming this hurdle. This has a direct impact on the City’s ability to fulfill its equity commitment to imbed fair and just into all the City does on behalf of its residents.
Lack of capacity will delay positive impacts these items would have on behalf of Black, Indigenous, Latino/a, and disadvantaged Asian residents. Budget reduction will extend timeline for increasing City staff capacity to analyze policies, practices and procedures, to identify and remove barriers to access and improve support targeted strategies to reduce racial disparities impacting marginalized communities. Further, efforts to establish program level data driven, equity measurements will be hampered.
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Darlene Flynn
Race and Equity Dir.
Director
Program
Analyst III
Executive
Assistant
Program
Analyst III
Data Analyst III
(Vacant)
Department of
Race and Equity
Organization