HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-06-02-LHRC-min (Racial Disparities Subcommittee)
TOWN OF LEXINGTON HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE
RACIAL DISPARITIES SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
Thursday, June 02, 2022, Special Meeting
Conducted by Remote Participation
LHRC MEMBERS PRESENT Mona D. Roy (MDR), Christina Lin (CL); Attending in audience, Lexington
Chief Diversity Officer - Martha Duffield (MD), Robert Pressman (RP)
The minutes were taken by Christina Lin, LHRC Clerk
• Meeting Called to order and welcome on 12:04PM, Quorum was present
• Logistics of Data Collection - Discussed access to Town data. (MD) explained that
the Town's Human Resources Director is able to either participate on the
subcommittee or attend future meetings. The Human Resources Director is who MD
works with to look at hiring data. The subcommittee also discussed areas of focus
and landed on understanding factors that impact racial disparities in hiring in the
Town of Lexington. Within hiring, members were interested in understanding the
landscape of the racial diversity of Town employ ees, hiring trends, employee retention
and employee advancement/promotion. Further conversation to explore ways to collect
this data and whether a survey could be created to advance data collection. Issues around
voluntary self-reporting, confidentiality of personal hiring data and anonymity with insufficient
cohort size were considered as possible issues for the ability to collect meaningful data. The
municipal side of Town has 332 employees which is a small number. We talked about building
data over time to be able to look at trends rather than focus on the yearly data point only. Some
data may not be sufficient to interpret without seeing a trendline across years.
• Also talked about understanding racialized experiences among the Lexington citizenry. MD
mentioned that she set up a group SEAT (Strategic Equity Advisory Team) with representatives
from various cultural groups and many of our town appointed subcommittees to enable feedback
from stakeholders.
• An audience member, (P) wanted to understand the racial make up of final pools of applicants
for any given town position. The committee felt this suggestion was useful and would like to
find a way to incorporate it into it's data collection.
• The committee reiterated its desire to explore data around housing as well.
• While most of the discussion was focused on the municipal side of Town government, the
committee also agreed that they would reach out to the Lexington Public School District to try
and develop a parallel track of data.
• Meeting adjourned at 1:39PM.
1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420