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Colleagues,
With the changing of the seasons, I want to take a moment to check in on our Council-wide plans to address racial equity and equip staff as leaders in this important work. Over the past few months, we’ve heard from you and appreciate the feedback and insight you’ve provided, including those who submitted comments through the online anti-racism form. Thank you for your willingness to participate in this vital dialogue.
We all agree – we need to center people who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color in our work, including our customers, members of our community, and staff. We need greater transparency in the Met Council's work to include more voices and prioritize equitable outcomes. We are working on ways to better articulate these outcomes and related measures.
We have started to do this more directly in our budgeting processes – Council members have prioritized $3.9 million in the 2021 budget for equity initiatives. Discussions about which efforts we will support with those funds will continue over the next several months as we finalize the budget. (Preliminary budget, Budget page on MetroCouncil.org.) These efforts will advance equity in the region by focusing on the strategic goals for transit, housing, sustainability, and our workforce. I encourage you to follow these discussions as agenda items come up in committee – particularly in the Management Committee and Committee of the Whole meetings. If you have ideas for ways to use these funds to promote equity, please discuss them with your division director.
In addition, we are finalizing plans related to the Metro Transit police review and will soon be able to communicate how you and your neighbors can be involved.
This is a critical conversation that is long overdue. We committed to bold action, and we’re working to identify and prioritize outcomes that reflect the expectations you’ve identified. I am confident we will be bold, but in order to do this, we need your help and commitment to push past the status quo to achieve these outcomes. We will plan another townhall-style discussion soon to touch base with you and hear more from you.
My hope is to create a “cadence of accountability,” or a regular rhythm of information and progress reports toward these outcomes, and we expect mutual accountability for what we’ve said the Met Council needs to do.
Please continue these crucial conversations within your teams and continue to send ideas to the anti-racism feedback form – including ways we can gather staff together moving forward and provide additional resources for learning.
I’m looking forward to continuing this discussion. Thank you for your commitment and passion.
Charlie Zelle
Chair, Metropolitan Council
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