►
Description
Briefing of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners on April 18, 2023. The briefing is a chance for Commissioners to review agenda items before the meeting. No motions will take place during the briefing.
C
A
All
right,
so
the
first
item
on
our
agenda
is
an
update
on
the
Strategic
plan,
educated
and
capable
community
and
Rachel
nygard's,
going
to
help
us
out
with
this
item.
D
D
D
In
this
conversation,
and
primarily
we
want
to
remind
the
commission
and
the
community
following
along
that
Buncombe
County
government,
while
we're
the
ones
with
a
stake
in
the
success
of
these
students,
along
with
all
of
our
other
community
members,
we
as
a
local
government,
don't
actually
own
this
data,
this
school
information,
we
rely
on
publicly
accessible
data
sources
like
North,
Carolina,
DPI,
the
Department
of
Public
Instruction,
as
well
as
our
Partnerships
with
the
K-12
school
systems,
and
we
have
this
indirect
access
to
data
which,
as
you'll,
see
as
we
go
through
each
of
those
five
questions
sometimes
make
it
easier,
and
sometimes
it
make
it
more
difficult
to
answer
the
questions
that
we
hope
to
answer
in
the
way
that
we
hope
to
answer
them.
D
D
Data
sets
with
10
or
fewer
students
in
a
certain
data
set,
can't
be
reported
out
or
if
it's
under
30
students,
it
doesn't
get
aggregated
and
calculated
into
the
school
of
Royal
school
performance,
and
there
are
additional
considerations
that
we
encountered
related
to
economically
disadvantaged
data
and
they're
listed
here.
There
are
a
couple
of
considerations
around
how
that
data
is
captured,
one
being
that
during
the
pandemic,
Universal
free
meals
were
offered,
and
often
it's
that
student
free
lunch.
That
is
a
determining
factor
to
to
identify
economically
disadvantaged
status.
D
In
addition,
there's
a
new
way
in
starting
in
2022
for
entire
schools
to
be
categorized
as
economically
disadvantaged.
Both
of
these
are
good
for
good
reasons
which
allow
more
services
to
students
in
those
schools,
and
they
have
consequences
unintended
consequences
related
to
making
the
data
more
complicated.
D
The
first
question
on
the
Education
data
follow-up
list
is:
is
there
race
and
ethnicity
breakdown,
information
for
economically
disadvantaged
students?
So
you'll?
Remember
that
when
we,
when
we
did
our
education
outcomes
review,
we
looked
at
all
of
the
different
attributes
by
race
and
ethnicity,
as
well
as
by
economic
status,
and
this
request
is
to
see
essentially
the
intersection
of
those
two
characteristics
and
household
income
is
very
sensitive
information
which
is
not
easily
accessible.
The
city,
schools
and
the
County
Schools.
Neither
one
have
this
data
as
requested,
so
what
that
means
is.
D
We
must
request
that
from
the
state
from
the
Department
of
Public
Instruction
and
that
request
has
been
made.
So
we
are
currently
waiting
for
a
response,
and
the
idea
is
that,
when
this
information
comes
back,
the
school
systems
then
are
able
to
release
the
data
to
Buncombe
County
through
the
data
sharing
partnership
that
we
have
and
then
were
able
to
re,
retain
that
individual
anonymity,
but
also
build
that
data
into
the
future
education
analysis.
D
We
don't
have
a
timeline
on
when
we
expect
to
receive
it
and
in
the
meantime,
we
hear
that
this
is
an
important
factor
for
consideration
to
make
sure
that
we're
appropriate
look
appropriately.
Looking
at
both
of
those
demographic
factors
for
students
and
student
populations
and
will
continue
to
seek
ways
to
incorporate
that.
D
D
I
will
get
to
some
questions
that
have
more
promising
responses,
but
this
is
the
second
one
that
that
is,
unfortunately,
what
we
found
is
that
GPA
is
not
comparable
between
school
districts,
so
our
data
Partners
at
Asheville,
City
schools
and
Buncombe
County
schools
had
seen
that
they
said
that
they
have
not
seen
anything.
That
is
a
Statewide
GPA.
The
reason
for
this
is
that
each
School
District
each
School
each
grade
and
each
classroom
teacher
have
the
ability
to
establish
their
own
grading
criteria,
and
so
it
is
not
compared
across
the
state.
D
D
D
D
The
majority
of
these
were
in
the
9th
through
12th
grade
in
looking
at
the
race
and
ethnicity
of
the
retentions.
We
see
that
almost
44
of
students
retained
in
Nashville
city
schools
were
black,
which
is
in
comparison
to
a
data
point.
We
gave
you
before
that
black
students
comprise
20
of
the
overall
population
within
Asheville,
City
Schools.
D
D
Setting
the
stage
for
a
follow-up
question
related
to
high
school
graduation,
all
public
high
school
students
in
North
Carolina
must
meet
minimum
State
graduation
requirements
in
order
to
earn
the
diploma
and
graduate,
and
these
come
from
the
State
Department
of
Public
Instruction
they're
considered
the
Future
Ready
course
of
study,
and
that
is
based
on
a
22.
A
minimum
of
22
credits
to
graduate
our
local
schools
have
a
requirement
of
28
credits
to
graduate.
D
D
You
may
recall
that
we
reported
an
overall
graduation
rate
in
our
community
of
90
percent
more
than
90
percent,
and
we
also
reported
that
roughly
half
of
kindergarten
through
eighth
graders
did
not
demonstrate
proficiency
in
math
and
reading
and
roughly
similar
rates
for
the
11th
graders
on
the
college.
Readiness
act
exam,
so
it
led
some
Commissioners
to
wonder
about
the
relationship
between
proficiency
and
graduation
standardized
tests
like
those
third
through
eighth
grade
reading
and
math
tests
in
act.
They
measure
their
proficiency,
but
graduation
is
based
on
more
than
only
standardized
tests.
D
B
D
D
D
There
they
use
the
end
of
grade
or
end,
of
course,
tests
as
a
standardized
metric
at
the
state.
The
North
Carolina
DPI
to
determine
student
growth
and
the
data
gets
aggregated
or
combined
for
groups
and
divide
it
into
the
categories
of
met,
did
not
meet
or
exceeded
expectations
for
growth
within
a
time
frame
and
there's
a
list
of
different
standardized
tests
that
are
looked
at.
D
D
D
D
E
Just
to
say
thank
you
to
you
and
other
staff
who
worked
hard
to
pull
this
data
and
that
it
feels
like
we're.
Having
kind
of
more
focused
and
precise
conversations
than
we've
been
able
to
have
in
the
past,
both
in
this
setting,
and
then
it's
also
happening
in
the
early
child
education
committee,
where
we
have
access
to
sort
of
a
different
level
and
depth
of
data
around
kindergarten,
Readiness
and
intersections
with
Equity.
E
So
just
want
to
appreciate
that
it
hasn't
happened
on
its
own
and
it
feels
like
it
equips
Us
in
new
ways,
as
we
think
about
policy
level
and
budgetary
kind
of
decision.
Decisions
ahead
of
us.
So
so
just
want
to
sort
of
take
a
moment
to
note
that
and
and.
B
D
A
C
C
B
My
name
is
Tommy
Lauder
Mrs
Fender
has
been
so
graciously
to
have.
Let
me
have
a
couple
of
minutes
of
your
time.
I'm,
very,
very
appreciative
of
each
of
you
allowing
me
to
be
here
I'm,
also
as
a
citizen,
very
appreciative
of
of
the
time
and
effort
of
your
commitment
to
the
constituents
of
Buncombe
County
and
everything
that
you
do
serving
on
boards
in
the
past.
I.
Just
can't.
B
You
know
compel
myself
to
to
believe
how
it
is
to
fill
your
shoes
and
how
much
time
is
involved,
especially
being
servants
for
Buncombe
County,
so
I'm,
so
appreciative,
Congressman,
Edwards
I've
been
blessed
to
be
a
field
representative
for
Congressman
Edwards
for
about
three
months,
and
one
of
my
counties
is
Buncombe
County,
and
this
is
part
of
my
process
of
coming
to
the
Commissioners
and
I
didn't
find
myself
and
thanking
each
of
you
for
allowing
me
to
serve
the
constituents
in
your
District
in
your
County
County
Manager
Bender
has
been
gracious
enough
with
with
Europe,
with
your
acceptance
to
allow
me
for
the
last
couple
of
months
to
meet
the
Human
Services
building
our
first
month.
B
The
word
hasn't
gone.
It
hadn't
got
out
enough
and
we
only
had
three
constituents,
but
last
month,
I
rolled
in
at
15
minutes
after
nine
and
16
constituents
later
I
walked
right
out
and
it
was
a
wonderful
experience.
We
got
a
number
of
case
work.
We
got
a
number
of
different
attitudes
on
both
sides.
You
know-
and
that's
you
know
very
similar
to
a
small
degree-
is
the
reason
why
I'm
doing
what
I'm
doing,
because
each
of
you
have
a
obviously
have
a
commitment
to
try
to
help
make
this
country
better
help.
B
B
He
says
to
make
sure
that
that
you
know
that
lunch
is
coming
and
that
he
owes
you
that
immensely
and
also
on
a
side
note
I
something
that
I'll
finish
with
this,
something
that
each
of
you
already
know
you're
blessed
with,
if
not
the
best,
and
you
know
one
of
the
best
in
my
mind,
most
wonderful
County
managers
and
people
that
I'm
thankful
to
meet
in
only
three
months
she
has
been
accessible
to
me.
We
spent
time
having
lunch.
B
B
She
has
my
information
any
help
that
the
congressman
in
office
would
would
like
to
have
to
assist
you
with
any
kind
of
Grants,
any
any
kind
of
questions
with
any
kind
of
offices
or
a
Liaisons
most
certainly,
the
office
is
here
to
commit
committed
to
com
constituency
services
and
with
that
I
know,
you
have
so
much
to
do
tonight
and
I'll
I'll.
That's
all
I
got
to
say
and.
A
Thank
you
very
much
Hey.
Thank
you,
Tommy
thanks!
So
much
for
coming
and
introducing
yourself.
We
really
appreciate
it
and
we
appreciate
the
working
relationship.
So
thank
you
for
taking
time
and
for
anyway,
we
look
forward
to
working
with
you
on
many
different
issues
facing
Buncombe
County
and
Western
North,
Carolina
so
great
to
meet
you.
B
Thank
you.
That's
two
hours
worth
of
16
people.
You
know
that's
what
it
was
worth.
You
know
and
so
had
to
shirt
tail
untucked
by
11
30,
but
we
got
it.
Thank.
A
F
So
today
we're
going
to
talk
about
a
strategic
discussion
and
don't
worry.
This
is
the
last
one
for
a
little
while
you
won't
be
hearing
me
for
a
little
while,
because
I'm
about
to
go
and
take
some
parental
leave.
So
I'll
see
you
back
sometime
in
a
late
summer
and
we'll
be
back
with
another
strategic
discussion,
probably
in
July
or
August.
So
today's
foundational
and
the
way
the
Strategic
plan
works
is
foundational.
It's
really
like
one
Mega
Focus
area
with
multiple
Focus
areas
within
it.
So
you
actually
hear
three
percenters
today.
F
What
you'll
hear
is
Eric
rauer
I.T
director
will
speak
to
you
about
operational
excellence.
Sharon
Burke,
our
HR
Director,
will
speak
to
you
about
resources,
then
Dr,
Armstrong
or
Equity
officer
will
be
speaking
to
you
related
to
equity,
I.
Hope
you
read
this
to
not
mention
that
we
have
updated
our
strategic
plan
dashboard
on
bunkencounty.org.
So
it's
new.
It's
nicer!
Looking
it's
crisper!
So
if
you
want
to
see
our
overall
progress
on
the
Strategic
plan,
you
know
let's
go
to
bunkercounty.org
and
click
on
it's
your
teacher
plan.
G
Hi
Commissioners
nice
to
see
you
today,
I
will
be
talking
about
the
focused
area
of
operational
excellence,
while
I
am
giving
this
presentation
I
would
like
to
acknowledge
strategy
Innovations
work
of
leading
a
lot
of
this
effort
and
putting
this
presentation
together.
The
PowerPoint
but
I'm
also
going
to
be
speaking
today
on
behalf
of
many
departments:
strategy,
Innovation,
I.T,
HR,
Cape,
General,
Services,
Budget,
Finance,
internal
audit,
legal
equity
and
human
rights
right.
G
These
are
our
core
support
foundations,
and
these
are
the
the
Departments
that
provide
that
Foundation
that
all
of
our
programs
run
off
of.
So
here
we
go,
you
may
remember:
we
had
four
goals
and
we'll
kind
of
break
through
each
of
these
individually
and
I'm
going
to
talk
some
examples
here,
it's
a
little
more
narrative
again
I'm,
representing
a
lot
of
folks
here
so
I'm
doing
a
little
more
reading
today
than
I
would
probably
normally
if
it
was
a
it
presentation.
G
So
to
start
off,
you
may
remember:
we
have
a
goal
of
fostering
an
internal
business.
Culture
focused
on
continuous
Improvement
I
want
to
highlight
a
couple
of
these
programs.
The
first
one
is
this
mine
works
program.
This
is
a
program
that
strategy
innovation
has
put
together
it's
available
for
everyone
in
the
organization.
G
It
focuses
on
continuous
improvements
on
elimination
of
waste
and
building
an
organization
where
every
single
individual
knows
they
can
make
a
difference.
200
employees
to
date
have
attended
this
mine
works
program.
It's
presented
at
our
Neo
and
anyone
can
get
involved
very
early
in
their
career.
G
We've
had
lots
of
great
examples
of
this
one.
Recent
example
was
our
Public.
Health
nurses
worked
on
a
process
to
significantly
reduce
the
time
it
takes
for
public
health
to
get
diapers
into
babies
if
needs
another.
One
of
these
pillars
of
of
programmatic
support
around
this
initiative
is
the
bugging
County
University
BCU
BCU
is
a
exists
to
offer
opportunities
that
are
clear,
relevant
and
easy
accessible
to
all
Buncombe
County
Employees.
We
have
three
programs
that
have
been
developed
by
this
team.
G
The
first
one
is
the
BC
foundations
program
and
that's
available
to
all
employees
conduct
of
service,
and
what
does
it
mean
to
be
a
County
employee?
There's
another
program
called
BC
lead,
and
this
is
a
robust
leadership
program
for
both
current
supervisors,
as
well
as
those
who
wish
to
join
leadership
positions
and
then
BC
skill
up.
That's
a
skill
building
course,
with
job
specific
pathways.
G
G
G
Our
policy
process
begins
We,
Gather,
subject
matter
experts
and
experienced
Paula
Riders,
and
they
iterate
between
editing
and
drafting
the
policy.
That
policy
goes
to.
B
G
The
steering
committee
votes
it
out
of
review
and
then
the
policy
is
further
reviewed
by
County
leadership
and
directors,
we're
finding
finding
its
way
for
back
for
additional
edits
and
as
of
today,
51
policies
have
been
Rewritten
or
written
in
the
last,
since
the
Strategic
plan
started
another
really
important
area.
Our
goal
is
to
ensure
all
decisions
promote
the
County's,
Financial
Health
and
long-term
interests.
G
For
the
first
time
we
have
an
I.T
I'm.
Sorry,
we
have
a
enterprise-wide
technical
solution
around
budgeting.
We
have
a
budgeting
tool
that
all
departments
now
use
and,
furthermore,
that
budgeting
tool
we
align
all
budget
requests
to
various
strategic
initiatives.
This
applies
to
operating
budgets,
position,
requests,
itgc,
Capital,
Improvement
projects,
vehicle
requests
and,
more
and
speaking
of
you
know,
some
of
these
committees-
we've
been
developing
these
cross-departmental
committees
such
as
itgc
or
the
capital
Improvement
team,
and
they
evaluate
rather
technology
or
capital
and
the
vet
was
the
vehicle
evaluation
team.
G
G
The
last
goal
in
this
section
is
to
leverage
and
maximize
Technologies
plans
and
studies
to
enhance
the
safety
and
capabilities
of
the
infrastructure.
This
is
when
I
do
know
a
little
bit
about
the
cyber
security
Investments
right.
They
have
been
significant.
We've
taken
some
of
these
to
you
guys
for
approval.
G
It
is
a
Scary
World
out
there
of
increasing
cyber
security
risk.
We've
absolutely
focused
on
our
cyber
security
efforts.
We've
adopted
the
National
Institute
of
Science
and
Technology
cyber
security
risk
framework
through
that
policy
committee,
we've
actively
trained
users
in
phishing
Awareness
partner
with
service
providers,
provide
24,
7
monitoring
and
built
out
many
technical
management
and
operational
controls.
G
The
county
is
also
actively
investing
in
security
of
our
facilities,
programs
and
the
running
of
our
elections.
We
have
deployed
new
security
measures
in
our
facilities,
such
as
our
alerted
security
system.
We've
done,
tabletop
exercises
around
active
Shooters
as
well
as
election
security
and
we're
working
with
local
Partners
to
better
prepare
for
potential
incidents
in
our
facilities
and
within
the
community.
G
And
lastly,
in
conjunction
with
the
flexible
work
Arrangement
policy,
the
county
has
implemented
the
facility
study
over
the
last
few
years
to
assess
current
and
future
space
needs.
This
work
has
allowed
County
to
offload
several
aging
buildings
of
cost
savings
approaching
about
a
million
dollars
per
year.
The
also
the
flexible
work
Arrangement
resulted
significant
sustainability
gains
with
the
83
reduction
in
greenhouse
gas
emission
associated
with
employees
competing
to
work.
This
effort
has
earned
the
county
a
clean
air
award
from
our
regional
air
quality
agency
and
has
been
showcased
at
national
conferences.
G
In
addition
to
the
flexible
work.
Arrangement
policy
in
the
facility
study
have
provided
the
county
with
opportunity
to
consider
repurposing
County
facilities
for
affordable
housing.
So,
three
years
into
our
current
strategic
plan,
we
have
made
significant
progress
in
implementing
it.
We
do
provide
regular
updates
to
the
County
Commissioners
on
the
Progressive
plan.
We
do
budget
by
strategic
plans
and
we've
created
that
dashboard.
That
Rafael
is
talking
about
to
break
silos
and
increase
collaboration
throughout
the
county.
G
So
just
some
numbers
and
some
some
nice
pictures,
there's
Raphael
presenting
an
award
for
mine,
works
funny.
They
put
the
presentation
together,
it
gets
to
be
on
it
yeah
in
the
next
section,
I'll
turn
it
over
to
Sharon
Burke
to
talk
about
many
of
our
resources
here
at
Boston
County.
Thank
you.
H
All
righty,
so
the
three
goals
that
I'm
going
to
be
talking
about
today
is
to
ensure
that
Buncombe
County
is
an
employer
of
choice
in
our
region
to
optimize
our
funding
and
Partnerships
and
increase
public
engagement
opportunities
for
input
in
County
programs,
projects
and
initiatives.
H
So
our
first
goal
again
was
to
ensure
Buncombe
County's,
employer
of
choice
and
some
of
the
areas
that
we've
been
working
on
pretty
significantly
we're
in
to
increase
the
County's
Presence
at
diversity
and
Equity
sites
and
events
and
increase
our
diversity
of
County,
the
County
Workforce
and
some
of
the
examples
I
can
I
can
share
with
you
is
that
we've
been
doing
a
lot
of
Partnerships
with
the
local
Middle
High
School,
higher
education
institutions
within
not
just
Buncombe
County,
but
also
outside
our
County,
to
see
if
we
can
bring
folks
in
that
are
more
diverse.
H
H
We
also
enhanced
our
benefits
and
when
you
look
at
our
flexible
work,
the
work
from
home
program,
our
enhancing
benefit
package.
This
year
alone,
we
started
with
mental
health,
and
we
looked
at
increasing
our
EAP
to
10
visits
our
teledoc.
We
have
a
reduced
copay
for
our
teledoc.
On
top
of
that,
we
have
increased
our
life
insurance.
We
have
increased
our
ancillary
benefits,
our
dental
benefits.
H
You
know
whether
it's
for
Buncombe
County
or
any
other
employer,
you
know,
and
then
one
of
the
other
programs
that
I
think
is
really
important
to
mention,
because
it's
it's
a
way
to
keep
our
employees
healthy,
and
that
was
we
introduced
a
free,
PT
physical
therapy
program
and
what
that
means
is
is
yes,
it
helps
our
employees
by
allowing
them
to
go,
see
a
therapist,
but
what
we
realize
as
a
county
is,
you
know
when
we
actually
looked
into
starting
this
program.
H
It
cost
about
110
dollars
per
member
per
month,
and
that
was
about
53
dollars
above
the
industry
standard.
By
implementing
this
free
PT
program.
What
that
did
was
it
reduced
our
cost
to
about
86
dollars
per
member
per
month,
which
is
now
we?
It
has
gotten
us
down
to
about
14
above
industry.
So,
as
we
start
looking
at
just
the
costs,
that's
what
some
of
the
enhanced
benefits.
So
it's
it's
looking
at
how
we
can
offer
more
benefits
to
our
employees,
but
at
a
reduced
cost
to
the
county.
H
So
in
our
portfolio,
our
grants
portfolio,
we
have
over
a
hundred
million
dollars
that
is,
is
represented
in
this
this
area
and
more
specifically,
what
they
have
done
in
this
area
is
looking
at
enhancing
our
grants
management
and
for
the
very
first
time
we
had
have
stood
up
and
hired
a
grants
manager
to
actually
manage
this
whole
process,
which
is,
is
insanely,
large
and
I.
Think
it's.
It's
really
important
that
for
everyone
to
understand,
is
we
don't
work
in
a
silo
and
to
make
Buncombe
County
as
great
as
it
is?
H
It's
our
Partnerships,
our
Partnerships
with
our
community
members.
You
know
it's
it's
looking
at
our
fire
districts,
our
education,
Partners,
our
non-profits
and
so
many
other
organizations
that
just
came
right
up
shoulder
to
shoulder
and
helped
us
through
covid,
and
you
know
when
we
look
at
just
the
fire
departments
alone.
You
know
that
the
work
that
they
did
with
the
covid
you
know
helping
us
roll
out
covid.
You
know
vaccine
vaccines.
You
know
more
recently
the
911
assistance
that
they
have
provided
us
in
our
telecommunications
Center.
H
You
know
in
in
the
Hurricanes
that
have
hit
our
area
and
and
just
helping
our
residents
it's
it's.
It's
pretty
remarkable.
H
And
the
last
is
to
increase
public
engagement
opportunities
for
the
input
on
County
programs,
and
so
over
the
last
three
years
we
have
stood
up
a
community
in
edu
I'm,
sorry,
Communications
and
public
engagement,
Department,
which
is
really
focused
on
Public
Communication,
really
getting
our
County's
input,
and
so
looking
at
the
comprehensive
plan,
you
know
making
sure
that
that
our
residents
had
a
voice,
the
Covenant
covid-19
vaccine
program.
You
know
making
sure
that
all
our
residents
knew
about
what
was
offered
you
know
and
then
what
I
think
was
really
kind
of
fun.
F
So
before
Dr
Armstrong
comes
up
because
it's
a
little
bit
of
a
shift
right
from
kind
of
internal
services
to
equity.
I
just
want
to
give
you
all
an
opportunity,
while
you're
on
the
mindset
of
this,
you
all
have
any
questions
or
follow-up
that
you
would
like
related
to
what
Eric
and
Sharon
presented.
I
Good
afternoon
see
all
right
so
equity,
so
first
I'd,
just
like
to
say
I'm
excited
to
be
here,
excited
to
be
a
part
of
this
team
being
a
part
of
equity
and
inclusion
is
very
important
to
me.
I
truly
believe
that
equity
and
inclusion,
Fosters
Innovation,
and
it's
key
to
my
goal,
to
help
the
county
have
equity
for
all,
and
so
the
Strategic
Vision
systems,
policies
and
practices
that
support
equity
for
all
people.
I
So
what
is
equity
and
why
lead
with
race,
as
you
can
see,
it's
defined
as
a
state
of
being
just
impartial
and
fair.
Our
Equity
inclusion
work
Group,
which
was
started
long
before
I
got
here
and
they've
done.
Some
really
great
work
focused
on
building
a
sustainable
culture
of
equity,
diversity
and
inclusion,
and
they
have
been
instrumental
with
leading
with
race.
I
The
ex
the
racial
Equity
training
modules
have
been
completed
and
ongoing
trainings
are
offered,
and
one
of
the
reasons
why
we
started
with
race
is
because
we
know
that
it's
the
largest
disparity
across
all
sectors
and
focusing
on
racial
Equity
helps
us
to
get
our
systems
instructors
in
place
in
order
to
improve
all
types
of
equity.
So,
as
we
are
getting
race
and
leading
with
race
and
getting
equity
and
inclusive
procedures
in
place,
then
we
can
move
on
with
the
next
set
of
procedures.
Talking
about
differing
abilities,
lgbtqia
sexual
orientation
and
the
like.
I
So
some
of
our
goals
ensure
that
policies
and
practices
eliminate
barriers
to
allow
for
Equitable
opportunities
and
ensure
representative
and
inclusive
practices
are
reflected
in
decision
making.
So
we
are
really
working
to
weave
equity
and
inclusion
into
the
fabric
of
the
County's
work.
We're
getting
out
into
the
community,
we're
having
various
events,
we're
encouraging
community
members
to
attend
various
meetings.
I
Community
engagement,
Justice,
Services
and
safety
Justice
challenge,
so
these
programs
were
developed
with
the
idea
to
reduce
barriers
and
to
learn
the.
Why
and
the
how
of
Justice
involved
individuals
and
to
collect
valuable
data
on
how
well
initiatives
are
working.
So
one
of
those
last
ones
there
on
the
slide,
the
court
notification
system
has
been
implemented
and
now
we're
waiting
to
receive
feedback
of
all
the
people
that
it
was
introduced
to
when
they
came
to
court.
I
85
percent
of
people
selected
to
be
signed
up
for
the
coordination
notification
system,
and
so
our
hope
is
that
we're
going
to
see
that
this
helps
in
the
reduction
of
failure
to
appear,
because
we
know
that
failure
to
appear
is
the
second
largest
reason
why
African-American
males
end
up
back
in
Buncombe
County
jails,.
I
I
So
Echo
employee,
Equity
training,
2022
at
a
glance,
facilitated
72
hours
of
equity
and
inclusion
courses
via
four
modules
presented
nine
times.
Each
worked
with
258
County
employees
and
had
a
total
of
915
people
attend
the
36
modules
and,
as
of
yesterday,
we
did
modules
one
through
four
all-day
training
and
we
have
30
people
in
attendance
there
as
well.
And
finally,
we
are
working
on
the
lgbtqia
training
models
and
hope
to
get
those
out
during
the
summer.
I
Increasing
use
of
equity
and
data,
so
the
disaggregation
and
Analysis
of
data
by
Race
Across
departments,
mostly
that
is
talking
about
that
more
departments
are
getting
used
to
narrowing
the
focus
of,
or
maybe
I
should
say,
widening
the
focus
of
the
data
that
they
collect
and
so
making
sure
to
start
breaking
down
the
data
by
demographics.
I
So
we
can
have
a
more
informed
information
about
who's,
taking
our
surveys,
who's
attending
who's
being
supported,
and
maybe
some
areas
of
where
we
could
have
growth
and
Improvement
index
map
commonly
now
referred
to
as
the
community
index
map.
After
some
feedback
from
the
equity
and
inclusion
work
group
is
a
community
index
map
where
Buncombe
County
is
broken
out
into
census
blocks
and
it
was
created
based
on
nine
data
points
from
the
American
Community
survey.
I
So
those
nine
points
are
socioeconomic,
median
household
income,
socioeconomic
percentage
of
households
below
poverty,
socioeconomic
percentage
of
21
or
21
and
older
without
high
school
diploma
or
equivalent
socioeconomic.
The
percentage
of
households
in
that
are
receiving
food
stamps
or
snap
Health
Care.
I
The
percentage
of
the
population
who
receive
Medicaid
are
uninsured
housing,
the
gross
rent
as
a
percentage
of
income
housing,
the
mortgage
percent
of
income
of
30
or
greater
demographics,
the
percentage
of
the
population
that
are
less
than
18
years
old
and
demographics,
the
percentage
of
the
populations
that
are
greater
than
65.,
and
so
this
is
a
new
tool
that
has
been
implemented
and
I've
been
working
closely
since
being
brought
on
to
learn
more
about
the
tool.
I
Oops.
One
more
go
back
so
policy
impacting
equity,
so
increased
flexibility,
the
flexible
workplace
policy
and
leave
policies.
These
are
all
been
some
of
those
things
that
fall
under
the
ability
to
recruit,
reduce
barriers
and
create
space
for
employees
to
be
themselves.
I
The
equity
office
is
being
really
intentional
on
making
sure
we
are
serving
on
these
committees
and
in
these
meetings,
where
policy
is
being
developed
to
ensure
that
Equity
lens
is
being
used
in
that
process
and,
lastly,
equity
in
action.
So
in
my
short
time
of
being
here,
just
want
to
share
a
few
things
that
we
have
coming
down
the
pipeline.
So
our
racial
Equity
action
plan,
Community
engagement
plan,
is
in
the
works.
I
We
are
scheduling,
dates
and
meeting
times
to
have
lunch
and
learns.
They
have
community
events
and
to
hopefully
have
a
large
conference
on
racial
Equity
around
mid-fall.
We
have
the
reap
dashboard
that
has
gone
live.
It
is
open
to
the
public.
We
excited
about
that.
The
public
can
go
on
and
see
our
results
for
fiscal
year
23.
I
and
we
are
currently
in
the
process
of
reviewing
the
equity
impact
analysis
tool.
How
well
it
worked
for
our
departments,
receiving
feedback
from
them
and
figuring
out
what
edits
we
need
to
do
so
that
this
tool
can
be
used
consistently
moving
forward.
We
have
a
lunch
and
learn
or
I,
have
a
lunch
and
learn
actually
scheduled
with
faith
leaders
coming
up
later
this
month
and
we
are
working
on
rolling
out
the
racial
Equity
conference.
C
The
environment
and
Energy
Group
resident
well-being,
as
well
as
environment,
economy,
and
today
it
was
the
foundational
Focus
areas,
so
tell
us
the
process.
If
there's
anything
in
there
that
you
want
to
see
differently
as
we
bring
them
start
the
next
year,
we
will
go
back
and
focus
on
each
one
individually,
bring
you
decisions,
bring
you
the
data
that
we've
collected
and
if
you
have
questions
well,
that's
the
process
we've
developed.
If
there's
any
changes
you
want
to
that
process,
let
us
know-
and
also
this
is
2025-
we're
almost
two
years
out.
C
E
Thank
you
all,
as
we
head
into
the
next
cycle
of
reporting
out,
I'd
I'd
be
interested
in
staff's
thoughts
on
whether
there's
ways
to
kind
of
identify
any
areas
that
that
we're
working
on,
regardless
of
which
of
the
four
pillars
it's
under,
where
the
kind
of
light's
flashing
that
makes
sense,
either
for
good
reasons,
we're
making
significant
progress
and
there's
good
news
to
report
or
concerning
reasons
a
metric
that
we're
trying
to
move
in
One
Direction
is
moving
at
a
sharp
level
in
the
other
direction
and
that's
sort
of
taking
across
it's
sort
of
monitoring
the
dashboard
simultaneously,
but
I
think
I
relevant,
at
least
to
some
of
the
conversations
we're
having.
E
It
feels
like
it's
always
helpful
to
understand
like
okay,
what
strategies
are
proving
to
be
very
impactful
and
there's
and
there's
real
momentum
around
them,
and
then,
and
then,
where
are
some
of
the
alarms
going
off
that
we
should
be
cognizant
of
as
we
think
about,
but
as
we
think
about
our
work
in
the
coming
year,.
J
And
I
have
room
I'd
like
to
command
you
and
the
staff,
because
for
40
years
in
banking
we
did
a
strategic
plan
every
year,
every
five
years
and
every
five
years,
one
month
after
we
did
it.
It
was
gone
until
five,
the
next
four
and
a
half
years.
But
what
you
have
done
has
made
it
become
what
it
should
be:
a
living
document,
something
that
we're
a
road
map
for
us
and
that
you're
open
to
change.
And
this
is
what
we
need
to
be
successful
in
this
Century.
J
A
Okay,
great,
thank
you
so
much.
That's
everything
that
was
on
our
agenda
for
the
briefing
meeting,
so
we're
adjourned
and
we'll
reconvene
at
five
o'clock.