Division Equity Team

The Common Council approved a citywide Equity Action Plan in 2024. The Plan included citywide actions and Division actions. The Division Equity Team helps coordinate the work that is outlined in the Equity Action Plan. 

The Planning Division established three specific actions. The actions are intended to address inequitable policies, procedures, and programs. This year, there was a focus on making the Division's materials more accessible to the public by:

• Increasing the number of documents that use plain language, including the art grants applications.
• Creating an accessible version of the Plan Commission submittal and meeting schedule.
• Starting a Division-wide translation policy that identifies priority materials for translation into another language.

The Division's Equity Action Plan also includes three citywide actions:

• Make sure staff attend City-required Prohibited Harassment & Discrimination Policy training.
• Make sure people with disabilities, and people whose preferred language is not English, have meaningful access to City programs. 
• Support equity training and learning.

Staff also support other City initiatives. This year, staff assessed the Division's facilities, programs, and services for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This information was incorporated into the City's ADA Transition Plan. The ADA Transition Plan identifies barriers to access and the City's plan to remove the barriers. The barriers need to be removed to comply with the ADA. To ensure compliance, staff attended three training courses this year.