As the City of Tacoma confronted a $40 million general fund shortfall in June and protesters marched in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, its council passed Resolution 40622, directing the city manager to use racial equity (“overcoming systemic racism and all other forms of oppression”) as the top priority in balancing the 2021–22 biennial budget.

While city council considered many ways to balance the budget and preserve services, in the final approved budget the Office of Equity and Human Rights retained a staff of 10 charged with making sure that a five-point equity and empowerment framework guides decision-making across all departments. Established in 2015, the work of the office, once groundbreaking, seems more essential than ever, says Policy and Program Manager Mia Navarro.

“These events were really traumatic, really charged,” Navarro explains. “The city has a deeper understanding of why this work is so important. It really put everything in a much clearer light for a lot of people who don’t live racism every day.”

Last summer, the City of Olympia found itself in a similar position, but without an office to take action. So in June, City Manager Jay Burney appointed Olivia Salazar de Breaux (formerly a program assistant to the city’s public works director) to serve as Olympia’s first equity and inclusion coordinator, charged with creating a community-driven Social Justice and Equity Commission to advise the council and providing internal training and guidance to city employees.

According to Human Resources Director Linnaea Jablonski, who oversees Salazar de Breaux in the position, this summer’s protests and general civic unrest pushed Olympia to act. “It was a catalyst to be like, ‘OK, we need to do this,’” she says. “‘And we need to do something now.’”

Months into the job, Salazar de Breaux quickly realized that she was devoting almost all of her time to building relationships and connections with the community, seeking input on what a Social Justice and Equity Commission could look like. Like Navarro, she would need additional staff support to develop an equity and inclusion framework for the city and implement the program internally.

“If we’re talking about helping the folks in our community and helping antiracism, that’s not something we can do by just pulling people in for feedback every now and then,” Salazar de Breaux says. “We have to have folks of color at the table from the very beginning, leading the work.”

At the start of 2021, despite a $1.3 million reduction in the city’s 2021 general fund budget, Jablonski received funding to hire another full-time equity and inclusion coordinator who would be dedicated to internal training and recruitment. As the hiring process continues, Salazar de Breaux is looking forward to having another city staffer to share both the workload and the emotional demands of the job.

“It can be very traumatizing to do this work within an organization where you’re trying to change the system from the inside,” says Navarro, who shares experiences and perspectives with her Olympia colleague. “It can be helpful to have peers who face similar challenges, and you have that safe space to be and not having to fight in every space you’re in.”

As Salazar de Breaux convenes a work group tasked with creating a permanent Social Justice and Equity Commission, one thing has already become clear.

“This work is not just the work of a chosen few,” she says. “Racial equity work is the work of everybody in the organization.”

—Laura Furr Mericas