This is the second time, I believe, that NCR or the City Council has
done a survey of board and commission appointees to see how diverse
they are. They're less diverse than ever, it seems.
Again, only half the members of said boards and commissions
responded, so the survey data are squishy at best and invalid to most
scientific purposes. The city knows who all these people are,
regularly sends them information through mail or email, and can
easily badger them to give answers to simple demographic questions.
Obviously and curiously, though, these appointees have again chosen,
rather massively, to ignore the city's requests. For a self-selected
elite, that's pretty unimpressive, or impressive, depending on how
you see it.
Again, however, this whole survey does nothing for the city. It is
NCR and Minneapolis looking at its own bellybutton. An inside look at
inside people and processes, worried about who they are and how
they're chosen, with little to no reason for such self-survey but
Public Relations. The emphasis is on diversity for diversity's sake,
with no purposes beyond the circular reasoning of having
subpopulations engaged so they'll be engaged and learn how to engage
others like themselves. Engaged in what? That's not clear: to have
residents take part in civic affairs. You find that blurry? I do.
And, as Ron says, the city frequently ignores what these volunteers
offer anyway.
The survey ignores one important descriptor: Where do these board and
commission members live? Many of them, I repeat from last year, may
live outside Minneapolis, like the mayor's Main Man on the Vikings
stadium issue, a Targe VP who I suspect does not live in Minneapolis.
(Agreed: Target's headquarters is happily still downtown, but they
kind of own downtown--where's US Bank and the big downtown law firms
when you you need 'em?) The survey intentionally avoids PLACE, so
that who lives North, who South, who downtown, who on the East Side
or in Kenwood, who in Wayzata, is not asked. The sole emphasis is on
cultural groups.
Cultural groups, if we ignore economic status, are fairly easy to
include in a city-appointed set. You just list your cultural (read:
racial/ethnic) groups and find someone who belongs to that group who
is financially stable and has a flexible work schedule so they can
attend city meetings that tend to go on for hours, plus the
preparation reading and study for those meetings. We could find a
Latino, an Asian American, a Black American, a Native American, a
Somali immigrant, etc., for this or that board, especially if you
don't need to worry if they live in our city. Indeed, that's what the
city seems to be recommending for itself: go out and beat the bushes
for representatives of certain cultural groups that are financially
stable but not white, so NCR and the mayor can tout Minneapolis's
civic engagement diversity.
It's when Minneapolis tries to combine racial/ethnic characteristics
with economic and educational diversity that we hit bumps in the
process. This report is anxious about the lack of diversity on boards
and commissions, without any real understanding of what not being
fully employed and well-paid means for people's lives and their
ability to focus, as unpaid volunteers, on something else than
staying alive and well.
If someone works three jobs--badly paid, one or more of them
part-time with few benefits--to pay for a place to live, food,
clothing, and for a family to boot, they're not going to have much
time to go to city meetings on issues that do not directly affect
them. A crisis issue or emergency question close to their lives, yes.
But not a regular thing that has to do with ordinances or rules or
Public Works schedules out five years that deal with other folks'
issues. If you want an economically stressed demographic to
participate in civic issues through appointment to a board or
commission, you'd best make it worth their while, by reimbursing them
for their time. Consider them consultants, and pay them. You might
have more takers. Minneapolis must face this problem, or stop talking
about wanting to have economic diversity on all its appointed boards.
Then, too, I don't find it worrisome that the complex issues dealt
with on boards and commissions are studied and discussed by people
with at least a college education. It's logical. Healthy. I have
seen city committees that are made up of mostly well-educated,
well-paid urban professional white males who can hardly see their way
to paying attention to what a woman or a black person has to say.
Will they give a bad time to a high school dropout who's currently
unemployed, if he/she expresses an opinion on, say, which Minneapolis
infrastructure will get redone in 2016?
My hope is that, as it matures, NCR will get its feet more solidly on
the ground of people's real lives, and initiate some projects that go
beyond its own composition or that of other city boards and
commissions.
Connie Sullivan
Como, in East Minneapolis
At 9:06 AM +1200 7/25/12, Matt Perry wrote:
>The City's Neighborhood and Community Relations (NCR) Department's
>recent study of diversity across all dimensions on the city's boards
>and commissions shows significant work remains to be done. This is
>underscored by the report's findings that while the actions
>completed to date have significantly increased the applicant pool,
>there has been no "overall effective change in the diversity of
>people serving on the City's boards and commissions".
>
>Some of the actions recommended by the NCR department such as
>increasing city staff involvement in the appointment and recruitment
>process are worthy of further consideration, but will only take the
>city part way in having our city boards and commissions be
>reflective of the population of the city. As noted in the report,
>"These boards and commissions represent a key component of community
>engagement activities in regard to City actions and decision making."
>
>Supporting cultural community groups in developing capacity building
>programs for under-engaged and historically under-represented
>communities is a critical step needed to increasing community
>participation in the civic governance of the City.
>
>Link to report:
>http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@ncr/documents/webcontent/wcms1p-096020.pdf