By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

Los Alamos County Councilor Katrina Martin provided an update on discussions with community organizations regarding diversity, equity and inclusion along with initial recommendations for some next steps, during the Tuesday night council meeting held via zoom.

Recommendations include:

• Implement implicit bias training for County staff and elected officials—contract a trainer with complementary outside perspective;
• Review the Community Equity and Inclusion Survey (performed in the fall of 2020) to identify potential areas for future action;
• Direct the County Manager to discuss best practices for diversity and inclusion in recruitment and hiring with new human resources manager;
• Create a Council liaison/position to continue engagement with the Racial Justice Action Advisory Council, the Los Alamos Public Schools and their ongoing efforts, and state actions through Gov. Lujan Grisham’s Council for Racial Justice; and
• Directly engage political leadership/elected representatives from the local Pueblos and other neighboring communities to improve understanding and explore avenues for sustained cooperation.

Several members of the Racial Justice Action Advisory Council weighed in on these recommendations as well as members of the public.

Advisory Council member My-Linh Luong said she supported the recommendations and offered to provide the County with resources to address racial equity.

Loung made several of her own recommendations including that the County form a diversity equity inclusion task force, “which is an advisory board that would provide guidance and expertise to Council and County staff on diversity, equity….”

Michael Adams of the Racial Justice Action Advisory Council also offered a racial equity impact assessment guide as a resource for the County.

Adams touched on the community equity and inclusion survey, which the County recently conducted.

“I would be particularly interested to hear if there is a big disparity between how people of color perceive race in Los Alamos versus how the majority 75 percent of respondents who are Caucasian perceive race,” he said.

Councilor Martin provided an update on the efforts the County has taken regarding racial equity. She reported that she met with County Manager Harry Burgess to look at the County’s status on racial equity and what the County could do in the future. Martin said she also met with Police Chief Dino Sgambellone to understand what his department is doing, and she and Council Chair Sara Scott met with representatives from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

More specifically, Martin said they met with Human Resources, the lab diversity officer and members of SOUL or Securing Opportunities for Under-represented at LANL. The main points discussed were the potential barriers people of color people face when they come to Los Alamos, she said.

“They are very concerned … do they fit in, do their children feel safe going to the school and they really did emphasize that employees often felt distracted by fears of how their children might be treated at school in the community,” Martin said. “They shared some concerns with the police but not so much about police brutality but rather concern about whether or not if they would be supported by the police if they had a complaint or reporting a crime.”

When talking to Los Alamos Public Schools (LAPS) Healthy Schools Program Director Kristine Coblentz and LAPS School Board President Ellen Ben-Naim, Martin reported that the schools have a variety of ongoing initiatives. Martin added that the schools felt they have resources in place and do not need County assistance.

Finally, Martin said she met with the Racial Justice Action Advisory Council, which initially presented a petition to Council in September to act on racial equity.

In conversations with the County, Martin said work has been done. For instance, she said that  Burgess said the County’s hiring goals were reviewed and revised to increase minority and female representation. An employee survey was used to identify opportunities to improve. Additionally, a community equity and inclusion survey was recently conducted.

For the police, Martin said implicit bias training was initiated, and the department’s policies and procedures regarding response to resistance, choke holds, positional asphyxiation/excited delirium, crowd control, body-worn cameras and duty to intervene were reviewed and updated.

“He (Chief Sgambellone) really has been very proactive in wanting to listen to the community and really wanting to make sure our local police officers are doing what they can to be in the best position …” she said.

The discussion held Tuesday night was a follow-up to the Sept. 8 meeting in which Council passed a motion condemning the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others by police across the country, calling for a national change in how police interact with people of color, declaring Black lives matter and committing to anti-racist work moving forward.