Kent’s growing diverse population will have a better way to connect and become more involved with city government under a plan adopted by the City Council.
Council members approved on Tuesday night the formation of a Cultural Communities Board composed of 18 city residents, including two youth members, to be appointed by April or May by the mayor and approved by the council. The board is expected to start meeting in May or June.
“I believe Kent is at a juncture where we can either embrace the diversity that has come to our community and be a role model for other cities or we can fall victim to the implicit bias, discrimination and cultural hatred that is sadly emerging in this country,” said City Councilmember Deborah Ranniger at the council’s Parks and Human Services Committee meeting last month.
Mayor Suzette Cooke proposed the new board in part to replace a diversity advisory board formed many years ago that later became part of her advisory team but then kind of faded away.
“The last six years there’s been so much energy in trying to understand our new residents and their needs with a mass of newness coming to Kent,” Cooke said at the human services meeting.
Cooke suggested the plan for one-year terms in an effort to get a board that will be ready to bring ideas to the council and mayor.
“This is much bigger and its mission is more strongly formatted – one-year terms – that’s to be certain people we appoint truly can bring suggestions and are willing to be part of a larger group and offer ideas for discussion and that they are representative of their culture,” Cooke said. “Sometimes we don’t know that until we are into it.”
Dinah Wilson, a coordinator with the city’s Housing and Human Services Department, said the board’s goals include increasing the diverse community’s access to city government, to become more engaged with city policy decisions and to serve as a liaison between the cultural communities and the city.
Wilson said people come here from countries where maybe the country was hostile and people are not allowed to engage with the government; English might not be their first language; they don’t understand the process of how to take an issue before the City Council; they don’t know how go about changing things; or even know how government works.
“We need to reach out to other people making sure we not only listen to those who know the city but those who are hesitant to come to the city to express themselves,” Wilson said.
Councilman Dennis Higgins looks forward to what the new board can accomplish.
“I love the diversity of our community – it’s one of the good things about Kent,” Higgins said. “But it’s also a challenge because we need to make sure we are engaging with the whole community. I’m happy to see this change being made.”
Residents will have a chance to apply for the board.
City staff plans to reach out to specific cultural communities as well as notifications through the city’s website and social media sites.
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