All right, good evening.

This is um meeting of the college meeting of the personnel committee of the board of representatives to order on Monday, June 15th at 701 p.m.

Uh tonight we have Director Paul Russell with us, and one item on the agenda is uh P32.009.

Um, for approval of the employment contract for diversity equity inclusion officer.

Um Janine Freeman.

Sorry.

Yes.

Uh shall we ask um uh she disappeared to call wrong?

Yeah, it's gonna do that.

Um next.

Uh who do we have to make this tonight?

Angie, are you?

And you are you uh Christina, hi Christina.

Okay, great.

Christina, can you take the role for you take the role for us, please?

Sure.

Okay.

Um I saw the note that Representative Cruz would be excused tonight.

So representative growth, present.

Okay, representative Hill.

Present Vice Chair Pavia.

Representative Pollack present representative Salas, present, and Chair Weinberg, present and uh vice chair uh Pavia will be chairing tonight's meeting.

Okay, thank you.

All right, as I said, um voting for approval of an employment contract for diversity equity and inclusion officer, Janine Freeman.

Um, we have with us, Director of Human Resources.

Uh Paula Russell.

Dr.

Russell, do you want to take us away?

Sure.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Um, good evening, board.

So to go over the summary.

Oh, before I get started, I do want to note that Chief of Staff Bridget Fox is here.

She's underneath um the attendees uh list, just so you know.

Um so for the contract.

Uh so yes, this is for DEI officer Janine Freeman for the positions and duties.

Um, she will serve as the diversity equity and inclusion officer for the city of Stanford under the general direction of the mayor with reporting responsibilities to the director of legal affairs.

In regards to the term and termination, the term of this appointment is well, has commenced May 4th, 2026 and is set to expire November 30th, 2029.

I do note that this is also in um conjunction with the current tenure of the current mayor.

Um, it does say in the contract, though, that in the sole discretion of the city, the agreement may be extended for consecutive periods of one year up to two one-year contract extensions, provided that the total duration of the agreement does not exceed five years.

In terms of compensation, the annual salary is 179,741,000.

That is consistent with the pay plan salary grade seven step three, and that was approved by the personnel commission.

Um, in regards to benefits, this employee will be eligible for leave health, life insurance related benefits consistent with sections 4736 through 4746 of the Stanford Charter and the Code of Ordinances.

Um for retirement, this particip um this incumbent will be able to participate in the city's retirement plan for non-union and appointed employees, and that's also pursuant to section set 47-1 of the Stanford Charter and Code of Ordinances, the work and um work schedule and expectations.

It is a full-time exempt position, um requiring flexibility to work evenings and weekends as necessary.

And um, in terms of outside activities, the employee in writing and in signing this contract does agree to remain exclusively employed by the city during the term of the agreement, however, limited outside activities such as teaching, consulting, or writing may be permitted only with prior written approval from the mayor or director of legal affairs.

In regards to additional um benefits and protections, that's always subject to the budgetary appropriation and prior approval, but the city does reimburse for reasonable work-related traveling, lodging, and training expenses in according with city travel um policies.

And that's basically it, as a summary for the contract.

Thank you, Dr.

Russell.

Um Chief Fox, do you have anything you'd like to add to that?

No, I'm just here to support and answer any additional questions you all may have.

But Paula did an excellent job laying out the whole contract, and just to reiterate that the Board of Finance did pass this contract at their last meeting.

Thank you very much.

Um I'll take some questions on representative growth.

Thank you.

Um yeah, so uh it was mentioned that like the term of for the DEI officer has already begun in May, but we haven't yet approved the contract.

And so I'm just wondering how that sort of works, and like you know, what would happen if the contract were rejected for whatever reason?

The employee becomes an at-will employee, so they still continue to be employees, just that they're not working with the contract.

And I'll just add to that that this is uh an she's in the position in a provisional capacity, so that does happen frequently that we wait until the boards approve, but we start the terms of the contract sooner.

So this is not out of the realm of how we've operated with cabinet members and other positions in the city contract employees.

I can speak from experience.

I was hired November 6th of 2023, but my contract did not get approved until like the latter part of December.

So um I was I was in that provisional state for quite some time.

Okay, yeah, that does make sense.

Are they sort of like accruing benefits without the contract or no?

Yes, they will accrue benefits.

Okay, um, and then just a question.

Forgive me if it's a little novice, but uh in the sort of uh bit about the pension in the uh contract.

I'm sort of wondering if you could just explain briefly what like this whole like whether the pensions vested for the first sort of four years, like the 25% to the 50%.

If you could sort of explain that bit, I think it's on page um page 21 of the packet that I have.

Under what uh sorry, exhibit Cessions A.

Where and then subsection E where the pay plan employees shall invest in the city match pursuant to the following schedule and terms.

I was wondering if you could explain that section.

Yes, so um basically here is after one year participation.

Um it's gonna they receive 25% of the city match, and then it progresses depending on the length of the employment as the length of the employment progresses, so does the um city's match of the percentage also does increase.

So for one year it's 25, there's a 25% match for two years it's 50% match, and then uh three years it's 75%, and then after four years, it becomes a hundred percent match.

So only after four years is when they get the sort of full match into their pension fund.

Yes.

I see.

And now is this pension fund?

Is this for is this for all pay plan employees, or is it yes?

So it's unclassified and pay plan employees, but ironically, we do um also uh MAA union follows this um pension participates in this pension plan as well, which are this the primarily the supervisors um of the employee population.

So it's MAA and then also pay plan and unclassified employees.

Got it.

Is there like a management board for this pension?

Yes, we just had a quarterly meeting last week um with fiduciary, yes.

So we have representatives from the city from NAA that's also sit on the board, and um, fund is very healthy, fully vested.

It's well funded.

And the employees do participate, they're they're very active participants in the fund as well.

Got it.

I'll yield to chair wondering.

That sounds really much.

I just thought it might be helpful uh for the benefit of the committee uh to explain what a 457 plan is, how it's a DC, and how it and um you know, and to the extent that it's self-directed and so forth.

Oh, um, so I have to defer to the administrator to go into that full amount of detail.

I can give you what's posted on underneath exhibit C.

I can give you the the rough summary that way.

You would like to just asking for like a one-on-one on what a yeah.

Yeah, that it's a um well, that it's a defined contribution plan, not a different not a defined benefit plan that most of the unions, many of the unions have, um, and the employer contribution is based as a match, so it's based on the amount of the contribution, the the amount that the uh that the employee defers.

Yeah, um and the vesting, at least my experience with 457 points.

This is a very typical vesting schedule, uh, so that employees who have who don't stay very long, only receive a very modest match, right?

But longer tenure employees, you know, they missed a much more significant match.

That makes sense.

Okay, look at it.

Um I have a question uh for either uh director Russell or or um G Fox.

Just because uh DEI is sort of a controversial thing under the skirt of an administration.

I'd like you to please um just give us a brief explanation because there's a lot of um assumptions on what it is.

Can you describe what this job uh entails with what the DEI officer does?

Sure, I can take that answer first.

I'll reiterate uh on behalf of the mayor that she is fully committed to this position, does not see it as controversial in a city as large as ours.

Reverend Hill was here when the clergy had approached the previous mayor to ensure that this position was enshrined in city government.

And as you all may know, we had our first DEI officer who was with us through the first term.

She did an excellent job of both conducting internal trainings across public safety departments, across new orientations.

So any time a new employee comes to the city of Stanford, they receive a DEI training.

She worked closely with HR to continue to promote best practices and provide guidance in that area.

From that, she, in listening to the community, she launched the veterans resource center, which was a priority of the mayor's.

She created an ADA council, which is a group that meets monthly and coordinates communication between representatives from the disability community with our key city staff to ensure that ADA compliance is to the extent that we can constantly being um paid attention to in each of our departments.

So this position is both external and internal.

So it's the view of the position the way it was written in the ordinary original ordinance to ensure that a focus on equity and inclusion was included in everything internal and and external that the city is doing.

So I can uh continue to provide more more clarity on that, but we feel very confident that this is in a community as large as Stanford, as diverse as Stanford, and with a workforce as large as the workforce we have, having this person whose job it is to ensure that all of us are held accountable in this in the areas of diversity and equity is uh a huge value add.

Mrs.

Fox, I don't I don't think any of us think it's controversial.

I'll speak for myself.

I'm saying the overall dialogue in the country under the Trump administration just to clarify.

Yes, understood, understood.

And uh also I was just asking for if you could just clarify, uh just so we dispel any of that.

Um what is an average like problem that would come to the officer of diversity equity inclusion?

So I know that on areas of issues around uh accommodations with disability employees with disabilities.

That's an area that this position works closely with HR on as an example.

Okay, that's all.

Yeah, yeah.

One of the things that uh this position has done uh in our city of uh great diversity, we discovered that people lived as silos who would not talk with each other.

So uh just last week we had a unity breakfast with over 200 citizens in there who uh appreciated the opportunity to share with one another.

Uh we've also had uh other events where we just uh came together and talked about our differences and how we see the political frames and everything else in this in society.

So we this is one of the unique places where people who don't always agree with each other can at least sit around a comment table.

And the DEI officer has done a lot to move us in that direction.

Yeah.

That's that thank you for saying that, Brendan.

Um I guess not a lot of people have that question, so I'm just trying to get it on the record.

So that's a great example of something.

Oh, it oversees like ADA and the Alpha Plus and what else?

They do a they do they do a prayer breakfast three or four times a year for religious leaders of different faiths, uh, where we come together and um uh listen, first of all, the mayor has been gracious enough to greet us, and then we talk about how we can be a part of making Stanford a for uh community and more respectful community and a community that really works for all the people.

Well, we definitely need that.

Yeah, and I'll also mention that the ceremonies that take place, those of you all know because you're in and out of government centers so often, but the wide array of groups, advocacy groups across the city, that work goes through the DEI officer to ensure that each community in Stanford is celebrated and that the mayor gives a bully pulpit to the work that each of these advocacy groups are supporting, whether it's Pride Month or I mean, just in the last month alone, we had Pride Month, we had, I can't even keep track, but we have groups that come, whether you're representing your nationality and a group of citizens and residents in Stanford who are very prideful of their home country.

We have made celebrating that rich culture that represents all communities across Stanford a priority of the mayor's administration and the role of the DEI officer.

So serving as a liaison between the mayor's office and the community to ensure that all feel welcomed and backgrounds are appreciated.

So as Reverend Hill mentioned, coordinating meetings with clergy representing different religious groups across the community is another area where the DEI officer plays a key role.

Of course, thank you because I don't think if people weren't the reason why I asked this question is like um if people weren't listening to this meeting, I don't know if everybody would know that.

So that's a great thing to get out there.

I don't know if the questions are.

Can I sorry, can I add just from a little bit more of the HR side of things to you, though?

Can you hear me?

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

I just wanted to kind of um expand a little bit more on like how the DEI officer interacts with HR.

Um, when it comes to DEI, I know a lot of people may tend to just focus on the diversity, diversifying either race, gender, or sexual orientation.

But there's also what we look for, especially among our employee population, the diversity of thought and perspectives, professional backgrounds and disciplines, educational experiences, socioonomic um economic backgrounds.

So even in our job descriptions, what we'll do and what we have done in the past with working with the DI officer is ensuring that our minimum qualifications speak to all types of backgrounds.

So if we have something where we're saying, oh, we're only looking for someone with a bachelor's in this or a master's in this, we may need to take into account the generation that maybe did not have the opportunity to go back to school and said they were working as stay at home person.

So we want to take into account maybe um years of experience as opposed to saying, oh, we just want to see a bachelor's or a master's, but we'll take into account a certain amount of years of experience and associate's degree or certification in something.

So the DI officer helps us out with those types of things in our job descriptions just to make sure we're responsive to like the evolving needs of the current population, not only the employee population, but the population that we're trying to recruit from and attract and retain within um the workforce.

I just want to add that piece there.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Pavia.

I mean, the idea that the fact that in that in some communities in this country that inclusion has a has a negative connotation, suggests Stanford's opportunity to lead to help to lead this country out of the morass that we're currently in.

So I I I very much appreciate uh Director Russell and Chief Fox and Reverend Hill.

Demonstrating the value that this position has added in, and we expect under with the new incumbent, we'll can will continue to continue to add.

I did notice on the position description that the position was revised uh last month.

Um I'm just curious what were uh were these changes um just minor wordsmithing, etc.

Uh or were there were there substantive changes, and if so, what what were they?

Yeah, truly no substantive changes.

There were adjustments made after we reflected on the first four years of the position and adjusted the position description to better reflect the day-to-day work of the role.

Okay.

Well, I'm glad as a you know, as a retired member of the personnel commission, uh I'm glad that um I'm glad that you guys are taking a fresh look at these positions as a you know, the incumbents turn over.

I think that's a really smart thing to do.

Uh without a you and I'm not sure.

I don't think I'm I think since I'm still chair of the committee, I don't think I can make a motion to um, um, I guess one more question.

Yes.

Representative groups, um, yeah, repweiner's might have questions reminded me.

Uh I guess so would this be the second in person that we've had serve as a DEI officer with the city?

And if so, I guess like is the is the first DEI officer are they just they're simply moving on, or is there not an interest in reviewing them?

So yes, this will be the second um DEI officer, the first one resigned.

Um so that that's that's why the vacancy has occurred or did occur.

Yes, she took a job in the private sector.

Got it.

Okay.

Um okay um okay thanks.

Yeah, I just wanted that context.

Thank you.

I'll move that we uh uh that we I move that we approve uh this position in the first one.

Second second all right, we have a motion and a second um i think it's by voice vote all in favor of approving ps 32.009 say aye aye any opposed any abstentions with that the uh motion is approved and uh and it's not even 7 30 yet what happens when you have a person running the beta thank you all very much thank you all have a nice night good night you need a motion to rejoice oh yeah do i have a motion to adjourn i moved that good okay this meeting adjourns at 7 24 25 pm thank you all good night well done you did a great job thank you so good it's it's so funny