Template revised April 12, 2018.
COMMISSION
AGENDA MEMORANDUM
Item No.
11a
BRIEFING ITEM
Date of Meeting
February 14, 2023
DATE: February 14, 2023
TO: Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director
FROM: Bookda Gheisar, Senior Director, Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Tania Park, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion System Change Program Manager
SUBJECT: 2022 Annual Report for the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2019, the Port of Seattle created its first Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (OEDI),
charged with ensuring that equity goals are incorporated throughout Port operations and
providing strategic and policy direction on equity issues.
Since 2019, OEDI has been actively working to support the vision for building an anti-racist
organization. Several key policies have greatly advanced and accelerated our ability to
accomplish our goals.
Port of Seattle Commission’s Racial Bias and Equity Motion (2020-19), charged OEDI to
implement a comprehensive equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) assessment of the Port of
Seattle, specifically reviewing workplace culture; operations and processes; hiring, promotions,
compensations, and staff development; community engagement; and, contracting and women
or minority-owned business enterprises (WMBEs). Also, at the direction of the Equity Motion,
staff created and operated a Port-wide Change Team and have implemented and facilitated
racial equity training that all staff are required to complete.
The briefing on February 14, 2023 will provide a summary of key accomplishments of OEDI in
2022, implementation of key findings and recommendations from the EDI Assessment and
women of color assessment, an update on the work and progress of the Change Team, and a
snap shot of the key steps for OEDI in 2023.
BACKGROUND
Nearly four years ago, the Port of Seattle became the first port authority in the country to
establish an office of equity. In doing so, our organization committed time and resources to
embed equity, diversity, and inclusion into the fabric of the organization. Also, by creating
OEDI, the Port acknowledged that for too long it has benefited from white-dominant culture
and comfortably operated in an unjust, racist society. By failing to acknowledge these
inequities, the organization realized that it was playing a role in perpetuating them.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 11a Page 2 of 6
Meeting Date: February 14, 2023
Template revised September 22, 2016.
The OEDI plan is based on the following three key strategies:
STRATEGY 1
Transform Port of Seattle by infusing racial equity principles and practices into all aspects
of organizational structure, programs, policies, and processes.
STRATEGY 2
Support the Port of Seattle to continue to build on its expertise and grow its knowledge to
create meaningful engagement with near-Port communities and to Provide equitable and
tangible benefits to impacted communities of color and immigrant and refugee and low-
income communities.
STRATEGY 3
Build OEDI’s capacity and expertise to lead, partner, and collaborate on equity change work
with external peer agencies – locally and nationally.
The concept of Normalize, Organize, and Operationalize undergirds all of our work.
Normalizing racial equity for it to become an organizational norm and lead to results, such as
through modeling and tone setting by leadership, and employee dialogues and learning
events. Organizing for equity means building infrastructure and capacity to implement
equity practices, such as by creating policy; completing an equity planning process including
establishing definitions, vision, and values; and creating or increasing staff
capacity. Operationalizing includes all the elements that allow equity principles to be fully
integrated into day-to- day operations, including budgeting with an equity lens, creating
accountability mechanisms, and ensuring engagement by both Port staff and the public.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2022 Highlights
Key Accomplishments
Racial Equity Learning +
Development
• Facilitated 37 required racial equity trainings, with 850 employee
and 237 supervisor participants
• In addition to required racial equity training, OEDI offered several
optional workshops, including but not limited to EDI Lunch &
Learns, book clubs, and tool-specific training.
• The overarching goal of these trainings is to help employees
develop a racial equity analysis, which is a working understanding
of how racism operates, the skills to identify racism and racial
inequities, and the knowledge and creativity to find solutions to
address those inequities.
Equity in Budgeting
• Published a comprehensive “Equity in Budgeting Playbook” for
the 2022 budget planning season, which included context for the
effort, best practice guidelines, clear instructions for budget
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 11a Page 3 of 6
Meeting Date: February 14, 2023
Template revised September 22, 2016.
preparers, and examples to draw from.
Hiring + Recruitment
• In 2022, the Port began communicating expectations to support
consistent hiring and recruitment practices, and to get
engagement and ownership from hiring managers across the
Port.
• Six specific expectations were outlined and reinforced through
new manager orientations, Manager Roundtable discussions, and
OEDI Town Halls
• The practices and expectations the Port have established include:
− All members of a hiring panel will participate in countering
bias training and discussion prior to serving on an interview
panel.
− Hiring Managers will work with HR to review the minimum
qualifications of positions before posting, to the extent
possible. The goal is to remove any unnecessary barriers
regarding years of experience, specific maritime/aviation
experience, and education requirements that would prevent
people from expressing interest in our positions.
− Hiring Managers will include diverse perspectives on
interview panels, with regard to race, gender, hierarchy, and
roles/departments. HR will support these efforts and offer
recommendations to Hiring Managers, as needed.
− Every interview process will include at least one EDI question
from the sample options linked below or a customized
question based on consultation with Human Resources.
Please talk to your HR recruiter or the Office of Equity,
Diversity, and Inclusion with any questions.
− HR will continue to track applicant and candidate
demographics throughout all recruitment processes to gauge
whether we are reflecting the diversity of our region across all
levels of the Port.
− HR will continue to conduct intentional outreach to broaden
exposure to Port employment opportunities.
Inclusive
Communication +
Engagement
• Based on the 2021 Equity Assessment Recommendations and in-
depth feedback from represented and shift workers at the Port,
the Change Team helped develop best practice guidance to
increase support for and inclusion of represented and shift
workers.
• The guidance includes the following principles, along with further
explanation as well as examples to consider:
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 11a Page 4 of 6
Meeting Date: February 14, 2023
Template revised September 22, 2016.
− Normalize conversations about equity, diversity, and
inclusion.
− Set EDI goals and expectations.
− Remove budgetary and technology barriers.
− Remove logistical barriers.
−
Center EDI in your team’s work.
Departmental EDI Goals
• One of the Equity Assessment recommendations was for the Port
to extend accountability through departmental EDI goals. We
embarked on a process to establish departmental EDI goals
throughout 2022, for implementation in 2023.
• We initiated an equity SWOT to support intentional thinking and
goal development around equity and anti-racism.
• In order for us to demonstrate accountability and transparency
with our department-level goals, the Change Team developed a
tracking and reporting system that will help us monitor our
progress.
• We gathered nearly 40 sets of departmental EDI goals and 2
distinct divisional EDI goals, which we will track and report on.
Equity Handbook
• In service of the Equity Assessment that was conducted in 2021,
the Change Team developed eight committees that worked
throughout 2022 to develop best practice guidance to support
Port-wide implementation and application of many of the Equity
Assessment and Women of Color Assessment recommendations.
This was a large undertaking that has resulted in a handbook
entitled: Values in Action: Advancing Equity in Our Work.
• This handbook will be shared Port-wide and OEDI and the Change
Team will provide training on how to apply handbook guidance
throughout 2023.
• In addition, this handbook will be shared with other jurisdictions
as a resource, in support of OEDI’s 3
rd
strategy, which is to serve
as a national leader and model in pursing and advancing anti-
racist, equity work.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
None.
ATTACHMENTS TO THIS BRIEFING
(1) OEDI’s 2022 Annual Report - Full Report
(2) OEDI’s 2022 Annual Report - Executive Summary
(3) 2022 Supervisor 101 Workshops- Full Evaluation Summary
(4) 2022 Supervisor 102 Workshops- Full Evaluation Summary
(5) Racial Equity 101- Summary Report
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 11a Page 5 of 6
Meeting Date: February 14, 2023
Template revised September 22, 2016.
(6) Equity Handbook - Values in Action: Advancing Equity in Our Work
(7) Department EDI Goals 2023- Summary (full goals workbook emailed under separate
cover)
(8) Presentation PowerPoint slides
PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS [For information and examples, follow this link.]
September 13, 2022 – The Commission was requested to authorize the Executive Director
to execute contracts for the 2022/2023 South King County Community Impact Fund
(SKCCIF) not to exceed $3.25m.
June 28, 2022 – The Commission was requested to (1) determine that a competitive process
was not appropriate or cost-effective and exempts the contract from a competitive
process consistent with RCW 53.19.020; and (2) the Executive Director executed a
contract amendment with Equity Matters to provide expert services for EDI training for
supervisors for an increase of $65,000 for a new contract total of $264,400; and (3) the
Commission authorized the Executive Director to execute a competitive indefinite
delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, not to exceed $750,000 during a five year
period, to implement a long-term training strategy.
January 4, 2022 – The Commission was briefed with a summary of key findings and
recommendations from the EDI assessment, an update on the work and progress of the
Change Team, and an update on the progress of the required racial equity trainings.
September 14, 2021 – The Commission was briefed on the Equity Index, which was created
with the initial intent to equitably guide funding decisions for the South King County
Fund, serving as a component of the criteria for applications. Beyond the South King
County Fund, the Index will be used to visualize variations in exposure to pollution,
access to economic opportunity, and health outcomes to direct resources towards the
areas of greatest need.
September 14, 2021 – The Commission was briefed on the Port Policing Assessment Final
Report, with a summary of key findings and recommendations for potential Commission
or Executive action, as well as proposed plan for implementation over the coming year.
July 27, 2021 – The Commission was requested to authorize the Executive Director to
execute contract agreements and implement the 2021 South King County Fund program
in an amount not-to-exceed $2million.
May 11, 2021 – The Commission was briefed on the South King County Fund
Recommendations. The successful first cycle of South King County Fund (SKCF) was
launched in the summer of 2020 with $250,000 in support for WMBE small business
development and $1million for Economic Recovery Grants and then followed shortly
hereafter with $250,000 for Environmental Grants. After the success of awarding
twenty-seven contracts totaling $1.4million between External Relations, Economic
Development Division, and Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, this briefing is to
share recommendations and insights to carry into the next cycle.
April 27, 2021 – The Commission was briefed on the Port Policing Assessment Progress
Report. At the Commission’s November 17 public meeting, staff presented a progress
report of initial findings. The briefing on April 27 provided further status updates,
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 11a Page 6 of 6
Meeting Date: February 14, 2023
Template revised September 22, 2016.
additional recommendations for potential Commission or Executive action, and an
updated timeline for completion of assessment. The presentation also includes an
update on the Port’s engagement during the 2021 Washington State Legislative Session
on various legislative proposals related to policing.
December 9, 2020 – The Commission was requested to authorize the Executive Director to
execute up to ten (10) contracts through the South King County Economic Recovery
Fund, for a combined total not-to-exceed $981,881.
November 17, 2020 – The Commission was briefed on progress-to-date, initial findings, and
potential next steps from 21CP Solutions, the Port’s policing assessment consultant, as
well as key stakeholders. In response to the Port of Seattle Commission’s July 14 motion
creating a Task Force on Port Policing and Civil Rights, staff have been actively working
to implement a comprehensive assessment of the Port Police Department’s policies,
protocols and procedures impacting issues of diversity, equity, and civil rights. With the
help of a wide range of external stakeholders and a consulting team, Port staff have
been able to make a significant initial progress in a relatively short amount of time.
February 11, 2020 – The Commission was briefed on the 2020 OEDI Strategic Plan. As one of
the first activities of OEDI, in the summer and fall of 2019, OEDI leadership develop a
strategic plan to guide the office’s work on equity. The purpose of this memo is to
present and update on the new strategic plan for the Office of Equity, Diversity, and
Inclusion and related work to date.
January 7, 2020 – The Commission was requested to (1) determine a competitive process is
not appropriate or cost-effective and exempt this contract from a competitive process
consistent with RCW 53.19.020; and (2) for the Executive Director to execute a contract
amendment with Tu Consulting for strategy development planning services for the
Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion extending the contract period through October
2020 and increase the amount by $75,000 for a new total of $98,625.
September 16, 2021 – The Commission’s Equity and Workforce Development Committee
was updated on the progress of the EDI Assessment, including the Equity Survey and EDI
Assessment Listening Sessions.
October 13, 2020 – The Commission approved the Racial Bias and Equity Motion.
