Minutes - Council Work Session - 05/18/2021 - Special

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Councilmember Howell stated that idea sharing is a good concept. She stated that she sometimes has residents reach out to her late in the day prior to the meeting which requires a case to be pulled from consent. Deputy City Administrator Gladhill stated that during the pandemic staff got used to completing meetings virtually. He stated that there is an idea to have additional events to strengthen relationships with staff and the Council, using the example of cookies with the Council. He confirmed agreement to add that action item. Mayor Kuzma stated that in the past when they were able to hold that event it was always a great event. Deputy City Administrator Gladhill reviewed the strategy to strive to reflect demographics in the community and confirmed agreement to add that item to the culture section of the plan. He reviewed a comment related to unconscious bias and asked for clarity on the intention and whether it should be added as an action item. Councilmember Woestehoff: “That was me again if you couldn’t tell, thanks for laughing Riley. I think it is important and I don’t mean any disrespect by this at all, because I fully understand the case and your comments were not meant to be derogatory by any means, that wasn’t anything to do with it. I hope you realize that. But I feel like in my past 5 years, I’ve gone through a handful of unconscious bias training and other things that really helped me as person reflect on the way that I speak and the tones that I use and the listening that I have participated in, and using that as a methodology, because one, there wasn’t really a reason for all that conversation around you to happen related to the Japanese American conversation. I don’t know that that needed to happen, if, not saying that it was preventable, but at the same token there are potential opportunities for us to just open our eyes up a little bit and that was just one example, and again I mean no disrespect by saying that, I think it just is an opportunity maybe we all can spend a little time understanding that because Asian Americans are a big small chunk of this community and many others, and I wouldn’t want the things that have been said to be taken out of context or inappropriately. So, that’s kind of where this came from and feel free to yell at me.” Councilmember Howell: “So, can you explain what unconscious bias means.” Councilmember Woestehoff: “Yes, so for me a lot of the things that I’ve been trying to focus on, are really around the fact that as a middle age, middle income, white dude, I have a certain perspective on what the world is, and that’s not always the case, and it has allowed me to at least take a step back and realize that in talking to you, you may have a very different perspective of that world. It’s not necessary a conscious effort when I may say something inappropriately by any means, but it is just the unconscious state of my historic life, being who I am, the experiences that I have, I have specific biases toward certain things or what not, around, you know, I used to talk over women quite a bit, and that was a bad thing, I have worked really hard on that, and that was part of the last 5 years of my life has really been focusing on not doing those things and listening. To me, that’s an opportunity for us, perhaps not an action item, perhaps it’s just a conversation, not necessary needing to outline in the strategic plan, more a conversation point that I feel is valid for us all.” City Council Special Work Session / May 18, 2021 Page 14 of 19