Racial Equity at Planning & Building

The Oakland Planning and Building Department (PBD) has formed a Race and Equity Team (RET) with the help of the Department of Race and Equity (DRE). Its charter was formally signed by department leadership in 2019. With guidance from DRE staff, the RET supports the Department in furthering its equity goals, both in the community and internally. The RET also collaborates with RETs in other departments throughout the City. You can learn more about the City of Oakland's Race and Equity Change Process here.

The Department of Planning and Building’s Racial Equity Team supports the mission of the City of Oakland to transform practices in City government to promote racial equity. The Team will develop the department’s Racial Equity Strategic Plan and promote application of a racial equity framework and tools across the department’s activities.

• Incorporating racial equity analysis into our planning and policy work in many different projects

• Requiring participation for all managers and supervisors in DRE's Advancing Racial Equity Academy to study everything from personal and implicit bias to structural and institutional racism and the tools to dismantle it

• Creating an "Inclusive Hiring Guide" and incorporating implicit bias training for interviewers in the hiring process to ensure our staff better represent the community we serve

• Educating our staff about the impact of our field on racial injustice, including holding a department-wide book club to read The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America and publishing newsletters for staff with many timely resources regarding racial justice.

• Working across departments and breaking down silos to develop policies, trainings and staff capacity to more inclusively engage the community in shaping the policy that affects them, including helping develop City Administrative Instruction 6802: Inclusive Community Engagement.

• Collaborating between staff and management to integrate racial equity goals into our department's budget priorities and key performance indicators

Today, our focus is on engaging all staff in creating a guiding document that identifies ways their daily work impacts racial disparities and how we can continue to change our approach toward leading to better results for the most impacted communities.