City of Sacramento
Racial Equity Committee Report
915 I Street Sacramento, CA 95814
www.cityofsacramento.org
File ID: 2026-00375 1/20/2026
Update on Sacramento Centered on Racial Equity (SCORE) Initiative File ID: 2026-00375
Location: Citywide
Recommendation: Receive, comment, and provide direction.
Contact: Aimée Zenzele Barnes, Diversity & Equity Manager, (916) 808-1174, [email protected], Office of Diversity & Equity, Human Resources Department Presenter: Aimée Zenzele Barnes, Diversity & Equity Manager, (916) 808-1174, [email protected], Office of Diversity & Equity, Human Resources Department; Racial Equity Alliance (REA) Representative
Attachments:
1-Description/Analysis
2-Draft SCORE 2025 Strategy and Work Plan v. 7
Description/Analysis
Issue Detail: This presentation provides an update on the Sacramento Centered on Racial Equity (SCORE) Initiative and the work of the Racial Equity Alliance (REA). The REA submitted recommendations on the Draft SCORE 2025 Strategy and Work Plan presented at the July 1, 2025, Racial Equity Committee (REC) meeting to City staff in October 2025. The Office of Diversity & Equity (ODE) has provided ongoing consultation in response to recommendations. Recommended changes have been included for review in Attachment 2. There is continued discussion on updating the timeline for the Work Plan.
Policy Considerations: None.
Economic Impacts: Not applicable.
Environmental Considerations: Not applicable.
Sustainability: Not applicable.
File ID: 2026-00375 1/20/2026
Commission/Committee Action: None.
Rationale for Recommendation: The Draft SCORE 2025 Strategy and Work Plan is consistent implementation outlined in the SCORE Resolution. The SCORE 2025 Strategy and Work plan serves as is a guiding document that will serve to inform engagement and partnership with the Racial Equity Alliance (REA) in operationalizing and work planning in a collaborative and sustainable manner for the next two to five years.
Financial Considerations: Not applicable.
Local Business Enterprise (LBE): No goods or services are being purchased under this report.
Sacramento Centered on Racial Equity
(SCORE)
2025 Work Plan
(DRAFT)
Table of Contents
Introduction
Building Equity into City Systems
SCORE Strategy & Workplan Overview
Vision
Phase 1: 2025 Laying the Foundation
Phase 2: Beyond 2027 Institutionalizing Change
Phase 3: Beyond 2029 Scaling and Sustainability
Appendix A: SCORE Contract 2022
Appendix B: A Tool to Support Equitable Table Design 2024 Race Forward Appendix C: RGEAP (link or PDF)
Appendix D: REA/REC Workplan April 2024
Appendix E: REA/REC Community Partner Accountability Report Appendix F: SCORE Resolution 2024-0354
Appendix G: Mandatory DEIB/RE Training for Council, etc. Resolution 2023-0113 Introduction
Transforming Sacramento’s government culture is at the center of this work. Achieving racial equity requires more than adopting new plans or policies—it demands a deep cultural shift within the City itself. This shift calls for all departments, leaders, and careholders to move from compliance to commitment; from transactional engagement to transformational relationship; and from individual good intentions to collective accountability.
From 2022 onward, the SCORE Initiative has represented this evolving and transformative journey—an ongoing effort to build a government rooted in racial justice, belonging, and systems change. Guided by community leadership, iterative learning, and mutual accountability, the City’s careholders—including the Racial Equity Alliance (REA), Racial Equity Council (REC), Race Forward, the Office of Diversity & Equity (ODE), the Human Resources Department, the Racial Equity Committee, and the City Council—joined together to reimagine governance through deep engagement with communities of color. Rather than imposing a static framework, SCORE Workplan remains intentionally responsive, iterative, and learning from lived experience, adapting to emerging conditions, and centering the wisdom of those most impacted by racial inequities.
Launched in 2022, the SCORE Initiative helped establish the REA and REC as formal yet flexible careholder bodies, dedicated to shaping and advancing Sacramento’s racial equity agenda. At the same time, the City of Sacramento formalized the Racial Equity Committee as a standing committee to guide, monitor, and sustain this work. Internal capacity building also advanced with the launch of the Race & Gender Equity Action Plan (RGEAP). Recognizing that institutional change requires consistent attention and reflection, continual monitoring and review of racial equity progress are now standing agenda items at every Racial Equity Committee meeting.
Furthermore, the Office of Diversity & Equity provides annual updates at the first Racial Equity Committee meeting of each calendar year, ensuring transparency, accountability, and shared ownership across all departments.
Throughout 2024, several pivotal actions deepened this foundation. The REA and REC, in collaboration with multiple City departments, hosted a series of community listening sessions, creating spaces for residents to articulate needs, critique existing systems, and co-design solutions. These collective insights directly shaped the City’s Racial Equity Resolution, adopted by City Council on December 3, 2024, establishing a formal commitment to embedding racial justice into decision-making. Shortly before that, on November 20, 2024, representatives from the REA, REC, and City attended the Place-Based Learning Lab on Collaborative Governance at Race Forward’s Facing Race Conference, where they learned to apply the Tool for Equitable Table Design to strengthen shared governance practices.
In January 2025, the REA authored the Community Partner & Accountability Strategy Report, offering strategies and recommendations for sustained action. This workplan reinforces that true accountability must be continuously nurtured, reviewed, and rebuilt over time. As we move forward, the City’s racial equity infrastructure must remain flexible enough to evolve while remaining grounded in the principle that, while we are equals in purpose and dignity, our roles and positionalities differ in how we operationalize equity. Together, this workplan becomes our roadmap for cultural transformation and achieving the goals set out in Resolution 2024-0354.
Racial Equity is:
Closing the gaps in outcomes so that race does not predict one’s success ~ From Resolution 2024-0354 to Operationalize Racial Equity in the City of Sacramento Government
The adoption of Resolution 2024-0354 to operationalize racial equity citywide was a pivotal step, but it is not the final destination. Resolutions alone do not create equity, only continuous investment, organizing, and iteration can do that. The lessons of 2024 made one thing clear:
Sacramento’s racial equity efforts need to evolve in response to changing conditions, shifting power dynamics, and new community insights. The commitment forged in this early phase becomes what we imagine to be a multi-year-long process of learning, adapting, and deepening racial justice efforts.
This strategy and workplan is intended to reflect the iterative and ongoing journey we will approach not as a fixed plan, but as a living, breathing effort to transform the City’s relationship
with all communities. It is to serve as a record of progress, challenges, and most importantly, a collective willingness to embrace the discomfort of change in pursuit of a truly equitable Sacramento.
Building Equity into City Systems
In addition to the SCORE strategy and workplan, City departments’ equity initiatives will be integrated into the Citywide Racial Equity Action Plan called for in the Resolution 2024-0354.
Currently, beginning development, this Citywide Racial Equity Action Plan will serve as the greater Sacramento area’s blueprint for managing and reducing inequality impacts in the region beyond 2030.
The chart below illustrates the various levels in society at which inequities occur. It also depicts which action and related equity-centered initiatives address that level of inequity. Note that all plans and equity-centered initiatives are intended to address institutional level inequities within the City of Sacramento.
Levels at Which Inequities
Occur
Plan and/or Initiative to Address
Structural (also called
systemic): A history and current
reality of institutional and
structural exclusion across
institutions, combining to
create a system that negatively
impacts communities of color.
SCORE, Black Wealth Blueprint, Sacramento Equity
Explorer Design GIS Tool
Institutional: Policies,
practices, and procedures that
other, exclude, or act as a
barrier.
All plans/equity initiatives - RGEAP , SCORE, Citywide
Racial Equity Study, REPAIR Landscape Analysis,
Black Wealth Blueprint, SEED GIS Tool, Citywide
Equity Repository, Community Partner
Accountability Report, Language Access Plan
Interpersonal: Occurs between
individuals. Once we bring our
private beliefs into our
interaction with others, racism,
exclusion, and othering is now
in the interpersonal realm.
RGEAP , SCORE, Developing Equity Leadership
Through Action, mandatory training for Elected,
Council Staff, and Appointed Officers
Individual: Pre-judgement, bias,
or discrimination based on
race, gender, and other identity
dimensions.
RGEAP , SCORE, DELTA
Vision: This plan is to continue ongoing work and to advance the development of a Racial Equity Action Plan with a goal to have a draft Citywide Racial Equity Action Plan presented to the Council by the end of 2027.
Phase 1: Laying the Foundation
Timeline Goals
Jun 2026 – Sep 2026 Establish government-community partnership structure and accountability mechanisms by applying the Tool to Support Equitable Table Design (provided during the Peer Based/Co- Governance Lab at Facing Race Conference in St. Louis,
November 2024). See Appendix B. Integrate community
careholder engagement practices into partnership structures to ensure voices guide decision-making, not just inform it.
Sep 2026 – Dec 2026 Workshop for Council, Staff, and Careholders on the SCORE Initiative1. Host interactive workshops for Council, staff, and careholders on SCORE and community-centered governance
practices. Include reflection on Council decision-making barriers (e.g., “minds made up” dynamic) and explore process changes that allow meaningful community input before
decisions.
Jun 2027 – Aug 2027 Conduct a Citywide Equity Study to establish a racial equity policy to inform resource allocation, City infrastructure, and the SCORE initiative. Ensure community-led forums are part of the study process, so lived experiences shape findings—not just data.
Jun 2027 – Aug 2027 Develop an evaluative framework and principles applying the learnings from the GARE JELE Work Plan to Develop the Equity Evaluation Framework.
2 Identify strategies that recognize
current City equity work and break down departmental silos and prioritize holistic service delivery.
Aug 2027 – Dec 2027 Begin updating SEED GIS Tool datasets to align with equity indicators identified through community engagement.
Use this data to visualize inequities and track progress transparently.
1 This is the suggested workshop activity suggested by CM Jennings at the March 18, 2025, Racial Equity Committee Meeting.
2 Best and emerging practices will be from the GARE JELE Learning Cohort that the Office of Diversity & Equity is currently participating in from October 2024 – October 2025. This will ensure alignment with current City equity efforts namely the Race & Gender Equity Action Plan (RGEAP) currently focused on workforce equity.
Jun 2026 – Dec 2027 Draft the Citywide Racial Equity Action Plan, ensuring community careholders co-author key sections and validate priorities3.
Actions:
• Establish a Citywide Racial Equity Implementation Team (CREIT) with City department representatives and community careholders of the REA, embedding community engagement practices as standard operating procedure. • Integrate recommendations where applicable and possible from the 2025 Sacramento Community Partnership Strategy Report, focusing on:
o Breaking down silos by designing human-centered structures. o Creating decision-making processes that allow community input before Council votes.
• Issue a Request for Proposals to conduct a Citywide Racial Equity Study (CRES), outlining Sacramento’s history and outcomes regarding race to inform future resource and infrastructure allocation, investments and policies. The study will require community listening sessions and forums as part of methodology. o Make recommendations on the structure, positionality, and capacities needed for the greatest impact in advancing the City's stated goals and commitment toward racial equity.
o Develop annual progress report that includes community narrative alongside quantitative metrics.
Phase 2 Beyond 2027: Institutionalizing Change
Timeline Goals
Jan 2027 – Dec 2028 Embed racial equity considerations into city policies, programs, and services, expand the current RGEAP to the Citywide Race Equity Action Plan (that includes workforce equity, budget, procurement, contracting, and grantmaking, etc.).
Jan 2027- Dec 2027 Conduct citywide racial equity training and capacity-building initiatives for City department staff and careholders
Jan 2027 – Mar 2027 Annual Progress Report on Citywide Racial Equity Action Plan.
3 Examples of top overarching priorities in a citywide racial equity action plan can be drawn from City of Portland and City of Chicago.
Jan 2028 – Dec 2028 Develop and begin implementation on department-specific equity plans that support the Citywide Race Equity Action Plan.
Sep 2027 – Dec 2027 Launch dashboard on data collection, benchmarking and reporting mechanism established from the Citywide Racial Equity Study.
Jan 2028 – Mar 2028 Annual Progress Report of Citywide Racial Equity Action Plan.
Actions:
• Require all city departments to develop and submit equity action plans. • Develop implementation and training plan department by department to expand the use of equity impact tools.
• Develop communication and monitoring strategy for departments’ equity initiatives. • Make recommendations on the structure, positionality, and capacities needed for the greatest impact in advancing the City's stated goals and commitment toward racial equity (part of Annual progress report).
Phase 3 Beyond 2029: Scaling and Sustainability
Timeline Goals
Jan 29 – Dec 29 Codify racial equity practices into city policies.
Jun 29 – Aug 2026 Ensure sustainability through continued investment, staff capacity, and accountability mechanisms.
Jun 25 – Dec 26 Three-year impact assessment from Citywide Racial Equity Study and refine strategies based on findings.
Actions:
• Institutionalize racial equity analysis for all City funded projects, grants, and contracts.
• Expand racial equity initiatives to include workforce development and economic empowerment programs.
• Make recommendations on the structure, positionality, and capacities needed for the greatest impact in advancing the City's stated goals and commitment toward racial equity (part of Annual progress report).