Equity and Justice are the vogue terms for the social justice warrior sector. The Anchorage Assembly will on Tuesday take up an ordinance establishing the Office of Equity and Justice in the Office of the Mayor of Anchorage.
The move would also create a “chief equity officer,” who would be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Assembly, and who would be responsible for developing, supporting, and implementing the municipality’s equity agenda.
The chief equity officer would be paid at a range of 23E. A Range 23 in the State of Alaska is a deputy director level salary, and an E step is generally a six-year employee.
Chief Equity Officer’s responsibilities, as described by the ordinance will include these deliverables:
- Co-lead Welcoming Anchorage initiative and ensure ongoing updates and implementations;
- Develop leadership opportunities for municipal staff and residents designed to provide career advancement pathways for communities of color, the disability community, immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ+ residents, including continued hosting of an annual Civic Engagement Academy;
- Provide leadership, guidance, training, and support to internal and external partners in the development and delivery of equity programs and tools;
- Recruit and manage municipal boards and commissions to ensure community representation;
- Actively monitor equity:
- Establish baseline equity data targets/benchmarks in collaboration with partners and establish goals and initiatives to make progress and processes to track outcomes;
- Develop methods to determine how disparate impacts will be documented and evaluated;
- Collect, evaluate, and analyze indicators and progress benchmarks related to addressing systemic disparities.
- Direct, evaluate, and coordinate analyses and recommendations regarding race and equity policy issues and long-range plans to address department and community needs and services;
- Develop and coordinate reports and supporting materials to be presented to the Mayor and Assembly for information or action;
- Ensure municipal compliance with Language Access laws;
- Work closely with the Office of Equal Opportunity, the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, the Ombudsman Office, and the Resilience Subcabinet
- Represent equity concerns throughout municipal efforts on housing equity, food security, equitable climate action, legal rights and justice issues, and economic equity
- Develop and deepen relationships with community members and non- profits committed to racial equity work; and participates in community equity collaborations on behalf of the Municipality to identify and address cumulative impacts of institutional and structural inequities in the Municipality.
