Update: The Religious and Cultural Calendar is on the Monday, August 1 Consent Calendar at the City Council Meeting.
The City Council Services, Safety and Parks Committee is reviewing a Religious and Cultural Calendar. The City would take this calendar into consideration when planning meeting dates and times, in addition to promoting diversity and inclusion.
This will be considered at the Tuesday, July 19 Committee meeting.
Background
As part of the City’s commitment to increase diversity and inclusion in our City, the newly created Equity Board was tasked with creating a list of cultural and religious holidays the City should take into consideration when scheduling public meetings. The Equity Board took this charge and proposed a comprehensive list that the community and staff can use to increase cultural awareness and promote diversity and inclusion, in addition to considering for the scheduling of meetings.
City Council was provided an overview of the project earlier this year and were in favor of considering implementation of the calendar and further exploration of policy options.
Religious & Cultural Calendar
The calendar has three components:
- Holidays that City Staff should make every effort to avoid when scheduling public meetings (15)
- Holidays that provide opportunities to increase awareness and promote the diversity of our communities and are meant to invite respect, understanding and individual and community reflection (80)
- Observed federal holidays (11)
Implementation Plans
Plans for implementation include:
- Posting the calendar on the City's website;
- Gathering feedback from community and religious groups;
- Working with the City Clerks Office to readjust public meeting calendars, whenever possible, for the next year, with consideration for certain religious dates that have work restrictions, may require fasting, or may have an utmost significance in one’s religion or culture; and
- Promoting the calendar internally to City staff with educational resources to help increase cultural awareness and competence.
Next Steps
The Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 19. You may attend in-person or virtually. They may recommend to:
- Return to a City Council regular meeting with a resolution establishing a policy to make every effort to avoid scheduling City Council meetings, Commissions, Boards and Task Force meetings on religious holidays that incorporate significant work restrictions that are highlighted in Cultural & Religious Calendar; or
- Proceed with implementing the calendar as a pilot project for 12 months, and return with a permanent policy proposal in 2023; or
- Direct the administration to consider a different approach.
Should the Services, Safety and Parks Committee support the implementation proposed, Administration would like to return to City Council for formal adoption by resolution in September 2022.
Materials
Click here to view the presentation and calendar.