[BoulderCouncilHotline] An Equity Focus on Recent Personnel Decisions

[Brautigam, Jane]

Dear Hotline Followers,



Several community members have contacted the city council to ask how an equity focus was applied to the recent decision to furlough employees.  Since this is a value of our city organization and the community, I provided further background on these decisions to those community members and to city council members, who have asked that we also share this information with others in the community.



As you may know, in mid-March when the emergency order to close city buildings and stop non-essential services was issued, city employees who were not performing frontline services were asked to work from home.  A number of employees hold positions that, while valued, are non-essential and, because of the nature of their jobs, these employees were not able to work from home.  With equity in mind, the city implemented COVID-19 closure pay through April 19 for all employees, both those who were unable to work remotely and those who were, to ensure that all employees had income during the initial phase of the emergency.  This preserved jobs while the city worked to better understand the impact of the pandemic.



Understanding that it  was neither financially sustainable for the long term nor equitable to pay persons who were not performing services for the community, city leadership and the executive budget team considered many workforce related cost-saving measures including: a hiring freeze, not backfilling vacant roles due to natural attrition, salary cuts, furloughs and layoffs.



In late March, the city implemented a hiring freeze and also chose to hold future vacated, non-essential roles open through at least the balance of the year.  Financially, it soon became clear that further cost-saving measures were necessary and the city chose to furlough employees in non-essential roles - predominantly those who were unable to work from home (as mentioned above) and seasonal workers.  Many community members do not realize that the city hires hundreds of seasonal workers annually to meet the increased summer services provided to the community.  By April, many were hired into these seasonal roles, but their jobs had either just started or had not yet started because the seasonal work had not commenced or could not commence due to the pandemic.  These were largely the persons furloughed:  those who were not working or not able to work because of the emergency.



The city fully considered salary cuts but chose not to do so for reasons of equity.  First, the city did not want to reduce the pay of lower paid workers or front-line employees.  Second, some city employees are members of collective bargaining units and some contracts preclude pay-reductions.  Therefore, only non-union employees would have been subject to pay cuts.  This means that all non-union persons providing services to the residents of the city, many of whom are working extra hours because of the emergency, would have had to take a pay cut to support the jobs of people not working at all, while others in the organization would be receiving full pay due to their status as union members.  This was deemed to be an inequitable solution and furloughs commenced.



As the furloughs of non-workers were being decided, an examination of the racial balance was undertaken and there were no racial disparities between furloughed and working employees. Last week we were able to implement the city's first Rapid Response Racial Equity Assessment which is being applied to all budget decisions during this crisis in addition to being rolled out to departments through virtual "Just In Time Training." The assessment guides staff to apply a racial equity focus when making a budget, program, or policy decision through a short series of questions that focuses on who is most burdened or benefits most from a decision and what strategies can be implemented to minimize or eliminate that burden.



Advancing racial equity in our organization and community is  a top priority, particularly during these times as data is demonstrating how institutional racist practices are impacting communities of color most during this pandemic.



I hope this is helpful information.



Best regards,

Jane


Jane S. Brautigam
City Manager
ICMA - CM
(pronouns: she/her/hers) What's This?<https://www.mypronouns.org/what-and-why>

[CMO_lockup_COBlogo]
O: 303-441-3090
brautigamj at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:brautigamj at bouldercolorado.gov>

City Manager's Office
1777 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80302
Bouldercolorado.gov<http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/>

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