The county Board of Supervisors met for over three hours on race and equity this month, addressing a recent report that found that Marin has the greatest racial disparities in California.
County employees across departments presented on current initiatives to address the issue, including shifting internal hiring practices and providing equity training for staff.
But community members were critical of the county for not taking stronger measures, revealing a gap between their aspirations and what the county has accomplished.
Many who attended the meeting on May 1 criticized supervisors for continuing to collect data rather than taking actions to reverse inequity. Some called attention to the structure of the meeting itself, which was held during the morning hours of a weekday, was not translated, and did not come with a detailed agenda in advance.
“You have monopolized the time of dozens of people who do this work without giving us a clear sense of the purpose of meeting, when we would be given a chance to speak, what kinds of information you were ready to hear from us—what kinds of commitments you were ready to take,” Laura Eberly, a community organizer from the Y.W.C.A. San Francisco and Marin, said to loud applause.
Some commenters were critical of the absence of representative from the Sheriff’s Office, though an under-sheriff later stood up and commented that he had “eagerly been listening to comments” from the back row.
Representatives from other groups, including the county’s Office of Education, the Marin Economic Forum, Systems Thinking Marin and United Marin Rising, emphasized their hopes of future collaboration with the county.
Race Counts, an extensive online data analysis published last December, used census and government information to illustrate racial disparity in the state. Angela Nicholson, the assistant administrator for the county, presented a number of statistics that came largely from its pages.
The report found that Marin had “high disparity” in all categories—these included economic opportunity, health care access, education, healthy built environment and housing. The only exception was democracy, with high voter turnout and census participation across all backgrounds in Marin.
Ms. Nicholson said that, as far as median household income, whites are earning an average of $102,000 a year, compared to $52,000 earned by blacks and $50,000 earned by Latinos. Less than 25 percent of black youth meet the high school requirements necessary to apply to University of California schools, compared with the more than 75 percent of white youth who do. As far as health care access, she emphasized that just 5 percent of whites are uninsured, in contrast to nearly 25 percent of Latinos and around 15 percent of blacks.
The county argued that it has sought to address these stark differences in recent years. Supervisors passed a racial equity action plan last April that primarily focused on internal practices such as hiring and training. Roger Crawford, Marin County’s equal employment director, told supervisors that between 2012 and 2017, the county increased its representation of people of color by 7.8 percent, to 34 percent. Much of the increase comes from growth in the number of employed Latinos, from 5 percent to 17.6 percent during that five-year period. Blacks saw no increase during that period, with 6.2 percent representation in 2017.
The racial equity action plan included a number of other department-specific actions that were highlighted at the meeting, including mentor programs to bring in wider applicant pools for jobs.
A representative from Health and Human Services emphasized efforts to improve access to low-income programs such as CalFresh, a state nutrition initiative, by collaborating with health agencies across the county. The Community Development Agency has led a steering committee since 2017 to address segregation, disproportionate housing needs and publicly supported housing.
As far as next steps agency-wide, Ms. Nicholson said the county intends to hire a full-time equity director to help proceed with the racial equity plan. The county also plans to convene a larger group of equity partners for a facilitated conversation to identify a few new priorities, though she did not offer a timeline. A report to the board on equity progress will be made semi-annually.
A few commenters made more personal pleas to the supervisors. One Sausalito resident posed three questions: “What have you done as an elected official to promote or address racial equity? Please identify one or more things you are committed to doing to advance racial equity—can we hold you accountable to it by asking for periodic updates on your progress? And, what do you need from white, privileged people to help you achieve your goal to advance racial equity?”
In his closing comments, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni addressed the public speakers, many of whom had called for action beyond the equity plan.
“Thank you for reminding us that as individuals we still have a lot to do, as supervisors we have plenty to do and as a county we have a lot to do,” he said.
He added that although the equity plan was important, there may be “some things we could do almost immediately,” such as changing the structure of county meetings, their location and timing, and providing translation.