On Tuesday, September 1st, the City of San Luis Obispo City Council appointed 13 members of the community to the City’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Task Force.
The Task Force is part of an effort to help make the city an inclusive and safe community for everyone. The initial Task Force will be in place through January 2021. The specific charter of the Task Force is as follows:
- Focus on activities that support marginalized racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.
- Collect information and insight about advancing DE&I in San Luis Obispo.
- Develop a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) to support the DE&I work of proven organizations and best practices for change.
- Provide guidance and a foundation for creating a potential 2021-23 DE&I-focused Major City Goal.
- Strengthen the focus and role of the City’s Human Relations Commission (HRC) to support the City’s vision.
“The work of the Task Force will complement our continued efforts in San Luis Obispo to create and sustain an environment that promotes diversity and inclusion, prioritizes equity and fairness, and helps our community move forward,” said City Manager Derek Johnson. “I am confident these community members will bring fresh perspectives and new ideas to move San Luis Obispo to a place where everyone feels they can be their whole identity and have a true sense of belonging.”
In June, the City Council—in response to community input—appropriated $140,000 of new funding towards programs to support diversity, equity, and inclusion programs bringing the budget for 2020-21 to $160,000. In July, the City Council approved the creation of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force as part of a wider effort to help make the City an inclusive and safe community for everyone, and to promote belonging, free thought and speech, while condemning racism, hate speech, bigotry, violence, and prejudice.
More than 90 community members applied to serve on the task force. The Task Force includes nine San Luis Obispo residents, four from within the surrounding County communities, and every applicant showed a strong connection to the City. The Task Force is comprised of the following members:
Task Force Appointees
- Amman Fasil Asfaw: Leader Black Student Life and Engineering Graduate Student, Cal Poly
- Dusty Colyer-Worth: SLO Chamber of Commerce, GALA committee member
- Erica A. Stewart: Council representative
- Jenell Navarro: Chair of Ethnic Studies, Cal Poly
- Katherine Soule: GALA Board of Directors
- Michael Boyer: Founder, Diversity Coalition of SLO County
- M’Lynn Martin: Life-long county resident, Black youth leader, youth minister
- Matthew Melendrez: Executive Team Member, Lenses DE&I Institute
- Maxine Kozler Koven: Director of LDR Ventures, CP Center for Innovation Advisor
- Oscar Velasco-Vargas: Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented Student Success
- Noha Kolkailah: Teacher, SLO High School, Founder and President of the Peace
Academy
- Renoda Campbell: HRC representative
- Vanessa Parsons: Teacher and Equity Team Member, SLCUSD
The appointment of the Task Force is in addition to other actions taken by the City on diversity, equity, and inclusion, including the City Council’s statement on protests and policing, and adopting a resolution recommending public health officials declare racism a public health emergency. The first meeting of the Task Force is scheduled for September 10, 2020.
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