Fair and square?

Spurred by data obtained by Virginia Organizing (VO) through a Freedom of Information Act request, community members have urged City Council to review the city’s hiring practices, and have voiced concerns about the perceived under-representation of minority supervisors and managers in city jobs.

“There are a lot of minority groups leaving the city and working in other states or counties because there aren’t adequate jobs here,” said Jona Noelle Baily. “We want them to stay here, and City Council needs to create an incentive for them to stay here.”

Backed by VO, Baily and other community organizers urged City Council to make this issue a high priority and conduct an anonymous survey to ask city employees about barriers that prevent them from becoming supervisors or managers. The campaign also called for the establishment of set goals to measure progress and hold departments accountable. Council pledged to organize a work session to explore the issue and find solutions.

According to documents provided to VO, 35 percent of Charlottesville’s 291 public works employees are African-American, but only 16 percent are supervisors or managers. In the Social Services department, African-Americans account for 24 percent of the total employees, but only one of the 17 supervisors is black. The only Hispanic supervisor works in the Community Attention department. Overall, only 1.1 percent of the city’s employees are Hispanic.

Councilor Kristin Szakos, whose husband is executive director of Virginia Organizing, said that the educational levels of those who haven’t been able to move up might be one area to study.

“Are there policies for moving up the ranks that might hinder newer employees, or employees with young families?” asked Szakos. “There may not be, but something is and we’re really trying to figure [it] out instead of just randomly throwing programs at it.”

Galloway Beck, director of human resources for the city, said there is work to be done on the issue. However, he disagrees “with the conclusions that Virginia Organizing reached in terms of…inherent racism in the city’s hiring practices.”

There are processes in place to help employees move up within the organization, said Beck. Mentors, for example, are a critical component in identifying and working with employees to advance within city departments. However, Beck acknowledges that it is also vital for employees to learn that the process is not immediate and may take time.

“If you look in terms of the people and how we recruit… I think you walk away with a different conclusion,” said Beck.

Szakos said she does not believe racial discrepancies in supervisor roles are intentional. “And yet whether or not it’s intentional is almost irrelevant, because if the effect is the same, we need to fix it.” Although a date has not been set, the City Council work session may happen sometime in November.