City Council Workshops

0:00 (upbeat music) - Good afternoon, welcome to Vancouver City Council. Today is Monday, July 27th, 2026. I'm Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor for the City of Vancouver, and you are in our workshop where we will be discussing the engagement and access update. And Joy Fowler is with us. But City Manager, do you have a quick update or lead-in? - Nothing to add, Mayor. - Thank you, Joy, you're on. - Alrighty, well, good afternoon, Mayor and Councilors. Always wonderful to be here. Joy Fowler, Engagement and Access Department. This is your quarterly update that I have promised you, and so we will just go ahead and get started. We'll do a little bit of an overview around boards and commissions, and just give you an update around the engagement that has occurred for this upcoming recruitment. We'll share a little bit about professional development

0:59 for Q2, which will be a culmination of Q1 and Q2. I'll update you all on the community forum, as well as my engagement throughout community, and then just a roadmap for what the remainder of the year looks like. So in relation to boards and commissions for the Spring '26 campaign, we wanted to share some analytics just to demonstrate the work that we've put in and how it has been going. So you will see that we've had a 55% increase in diverse applicants, and by diverse applicants, we do mean ethnic diversity, which is really lovely to see up from 20% in 2025 to 31% of our applicants were of varied ethnicities, which is wonderful because as a city, we wanna mirror the community that we are serving. Also, you will see there is an increase in the boards and commissions applications received, and of three of the 10 open boards and commissions

1:58 this spring, we saw an increase of an average of 185% from the 2025 applicants, which is really also a great notable progress. 75% of our applications that we received were from those between the ages of 20 and 30, which is really lovely. Also, that was up from 8% in 2025 to 14% in 2026. And then we also did a little bit of research around, okay, where are our referral sources coming from? And here you get to see that 35% of our applicants learned about boards and commissions, not only through word of mouth, but also the open house that we've been holding every time we have a recruitment. 25% of our applicants are from the city's newsletter, and then 24% of our applicants are from Instagram or Facebook, which thank you to the comms team for being so gracious

2:55 and to help us push a lot of the recruitment information out to community. So this is a great start as we look to improve our recruitment efforts, and then we also wanna make sure that in addition to increasing the number of applicants and the diversity of applicants, we then wanna start to see the transition of people getting appointed to boards and commissions that mirror that so that we can maintain the continued increase in recruitment. With that, I'll go ahead and move on to our professional development. Just so you all know, we have been looking at these things with the start of 2026. So starting with our Vancouver for All workshops, they have been in full swing starting in February, and they concluded in June. We just scheduled our makeup session for October for anyone who has missed the February through June workshops really fostering belonging within the city

3:55 and really helping people understand that we wanna make sure everyone in the city is aware of that we're wanting to eliminate barriers not only within the organization but also in the community that we're serving. We use a targeted universalism approach as we have been embarking on this series with our employees and really demonstrating how we apply that to not only internally but also externally. And then also making sure that when we share about targeted universalism that we are talking about having a broad goal for approaching things with targeted approaches for individuals that need specific things to help them be successful in meeting those goals. Also when we think about disability and language access, that's our next series. That is actually happening right now from July through September. And that is really, we have over 250 of our staff enrolled

4:55 which is really lovely. And they are not only hearing a recap around ADA but they're also hearing about our language access plan that is near completion along with tools that employees will have to kind of guide them through utilizing the language access process. And then we have True Colors which has been ongoing. Most of our employees have received training on True Colors and then every new employee gets that same level of training so that we actually have operationalized this really well within our organization. And then we're also able to support what the next evolution of True Colors looks like in 2027. So we're considering that as we move forward throughout the rest of the year. So combined with all that, we also have experiential learnings and impact talks and we do both of those for leaders with experiential learnings and impact talks for anyone who would like to join. And then of course everyone gets to have their own adventure

5:53 throughout our professional development adding a couple of hours as well. And so we're really excited about the success that we're having in 2026 which really helps us build off of what we did in 2025. And that leads me right into some metrics for you all related to professional development. So this is for Q2 and when I talk Q2, I'm talking Q1 and Q2 combined together because we're gonna have it build quarter over quarter. And so we trained 1,398 employees. 33% of our departments satisfied 100% of their goal for Q2 and 40% of our departments satisfied between meeting 80 to 92% of their goal for this second quarter. And as an organization, we're 76% to goal when we look at our training hours that we have completed related to professional development.

6:52 And then here it is disaggregated a little bit more for you and you'll see how managers performed, non-managers and part-time employees. And I just wanna give a little caveat because what you might say is oh my gosh, well why does it say they got 47% but you just mentioned that departments are at, some are at 100% of goal and some are at 80 to 92% of goal. And that is because when you take people out of each of those sections, they actually make up a department. And when that happens, then you have people achieving their goals a little bit differently than how you see it here. So we are right on track. I'm really proud of the hours that we have completed thus far with everyone being at least over 50%. Every director within the organization has actually received an email from me regarding their Q2 progress as well as some helpful hints for to help get employees that need some additional support on making and achieving that progress. They have that from me as well.

7:50 And so I wanted to make sure that we shared a little bit about that for you all related to how we're doing. Next, we wanna look at our community forums and our Q2 forum was held in June of this year, which focused on environmental sustainability and climate action and really how it would relate to the climate action framework. We did have key questions that really placed emphasis on climate change concerns, future generations, community focus, and then really climate needs 15 years from today. And then the themes that we heard around all of that were Vancouver's nature and outdoor spaces, impact on natural systems, changes, environmental changes, people and policy and specific actions in which we should focus on. And then from a com standpoint, hopefully you will be very pleased about this.

8:47 Not only did we do a summary to each of you in a timely manner, but we also included it on our new council forum webpage via the city website. So that is now up and running and we'll continue to add council forums to the calendar and meeting summaries will be posted to this forum page as well as sent to all of the attendees, which will also include each of you. And so I wanted to make sure that you had that information because that is something that you asked for when we came to you last quarter. You wanted us to be able to give you, not only to give you all the information, but also share it with others as well. Alrighty, we will now move to just some my engagement. I think it really is important that you all see not only the things that my team is doing, whether internally or externally, but also how I'm engaging with community as well. So here's a list of a few events that I've gone to over the second quarter, a couple of activities,

9:46 as well as continue to engage with practitioners in my field because I think it really is important that we continue to meet, that we continue to talk about the things that are impacting not only community, but also us internally, and then share best practices to be able to really have some demonstrated success within not only internally, but also externally outside of the city. And then just wanting to share, lastly, our 2026 Engagement and Access Roadmap from this, well, the month is over, but August through December, just giving you a real depiction of what we will be focused on for the next few months. So first we'll continue our quarterly reporting and providing you all updates so the next time you see me will be sometime in December. If it's not December, it's very early January to give you an update on how we've done for the entire year

10:44 so you can have a good idea of where we were in 2025 and how we progressed throughout 2026. Professional development will continue throughout the month of October. And then what we do is we pause for November and December to plan for 2027 so that we can have a good outline and roadmap as the new year continues. And then related to boards and commissions, you'll see that we're doing our events and recruitment toward the end of the year, which again, you'll see William and myself come to you all to talk a little bit about what that is and what that looks like because we know we have a community forum coming up in September related to youth. And then we know we also have a fall recruitment for boards and commissions, which will be sometime around October, November. And then we have our language access plan that you heard me mention, which is in the final stages of review. So I want to make sure we come back to you and also share a little bit about that,

11:41 as well as building out our resource hub for employees. And then just any internal events that you see around employee engagement, which is our employee wellness fair, our employee resource groups, as we have two new that have joined the fold to the four that we have, as well as planning and preparing for the V awards, which will be coming in 2026, which is around employee recognition. So I wanted to make sure I shared all of that with you. And I will now pause for any questions that you all may have of me. Thank you. Counselors, comments or questions? Good job. Counselor Sobre? Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Joy. Good to see you. Let's talk about access in a different context. So we have two websites.

12:38 We have cityofvancouver.us, and we have Be Heard Vancouver. And while cityofvancouver.us is better than it used to be, it still is not the easiest to navigate. So you talked about community forums. And it took me a bit, but I did find it on the website. But I'm just wondering if that's the right venue for it. Or Be Heard Vancouver may be a better venue, because that elevates things. So no direction, just a question. OK. I will definitely check in on that for you. Thank you, Counselor. Counselor Perez? Thank you, Joy. Great update.

13:38 Thank you. I have four questions for you. One, just real quickly, any feedback on the boards and commission process from the applicants that you could share as far as how that's been going? I know there's been an increase, but I'm just wondering if you've got anything that stands out that you've heard from an applicant on the process. Same thing for any of the employees that have gone through the development training. Is there a quote or a statement or something that you could share with us that you've heard? Well, I can share that when we did our recruitment, one of the individuals that applied said that they were really excited, because we do a lot of outreach. Other than our open house that we do, we actually go to WSU Vancouver, Clark College. And we had a couple of the applicants had said that they were really glad that we came to their school to meet with them.

14:37 We have heard when we hold our open houses, like we held our last open house at Furstenberg, the people that were there really commented on how pleased they were that we were in community, not just doing something in one spot, but that we were moving around in community. Because we've been at the Fort Vancouver Library, we've been at Furstenberg, we've been at City Hall, and they really appreciated that. So those are the things that we've heard back from them. And then in relation to professional development, we were just doing an impact talk today and just the beautiful feedback that we get that they're still glad that we're still holding these conversations and we're really engaging with one another. People are really also very happy about the move to Vancouver for All, which is really nice to see. Because when you bring something to an organization, you're like, I don't know how this is going to go. But they really are embracing it and really thrilled that we are taking time to not only be thoughtful about how we're delivering the work, but that people are feeling a sense of belonging,

15:37 feeling valued, and feeling as though they're included. And that came from someone who was in a class that we did specifically for a department. They sit in and serve as support for them. And they heard that and shared it with myself and one of my employees. Thank you. I mean, great. Comments like that from our employees and our public, I love to hear. As far as the language access, you mentioned that it was in the final stages of review. Does that include a review from our local interest groups who are tied into an impact from a language access plan? Yes, it will include that. Right now, it's being reviewed by legal. And they're taking a look at it just to make sure we haven't violated anything or done anything we weren't supposed to, and that we're right in line with how a language access plan is supposed to be delivered. And then once that happens, it will go not only just to community, but we would want you all to see it.

16:35 We would want our leaders to see it as well. And so that will be the plan. OK. And then a final question on that. Does that incorporate and include how we would deal or address language access at the safe stays or at safe parks? Because we do have members of our homeless community that do have issues with language. So not only verbally or linguistically, but other areas. So just asking if that's something that you have thought about. Most certainly it would. If we have our employees there working, they would follow the same aspects of the language access plan as if we were in this very building. And so if someone is in need of any type of interpretation skills, whether it's ASL or something else, they would go through the same steps that they would

17:35 if they were in one of our other physical buildings. OK. And so then that translates then to training our folks that we contract with or that we have an agreement with that would be supplying services or providing services to the public. So-- That's a really good question. Yeah, I will definitely look into that piece because when you're talking about contractors, I don't know, I would have to find out how that works to ensure that, A, we're able to do that. Do they do something on their own? Do they already have their own language access plan? And ours would be considered supplemental to what they do. So that this way we're all providing service to those that are in need. All right. Thank you. Yeah, I'll definitely get back to you on that. OK. Councilor Fox. Yes, so I only have one question. And it's been a joy to see you moving forward with all of this progress with our boards and commissions because this has been something that was one of the earliest things that I was concerned about when I joined council.

18:34 And it was at the time, it seemed as if we had maybe 10% of our boards and commissions were composed of any type of diversity at all. And so wondering now, you had indicated that we had a higher rate of diverse applicants. Do you have a sense of what our appointees look like? Yeah, so we just started toward the end of 2025. And so we believe that we have two that have been appointed. And then the goal is that, OK, great, we have two, which is a very small number. And now as we continue to maintain our recruitment processes, that we work to help everyone understand what does that mean to actually get others recruited onto and what does that look like? Because it's similar to when you recruit in an organization as well. How do you diversify? You can diversify the applicant pool,

19:32 but then how do you actually get people employed? And so it's a very similar concept. So I will be working on a plan for that because we know that it is needed, that we need some type of a strategy to help people understand, OK, if I'm new to a board-- for example, we have a youth that has the opportunity to roll off-- like their term is up. But he's been the youth on that board and commission for a very long time. And so now it's time, OK, how would he roll or they roll into another board or commission? And what does that look like so that we can maintain some type of a flow through from where they started, which is the one spot where there is a youth on a board, which is transportation and mobility. So how do we get them to other things? So we definitely need a strategy for that. And that's something that I will be working on. Well, just for the public to know too in this conversation, only a few seats on each board and commission are open each year or maybe every other year.

20:30 So it's not as if we have a clean slate of a board and commission every single year to make appointments to. So it is a slower process of change. But I am curious how-- I mean, I would say proudly, we've been working on this for a while over the last few years, particularly with our Transportation and Mobility Commission, but other commissions where we've had more chance to be more deliberate about our application processes. So I am curious what progress we've been making overall. Yeah, and so I would say the progress has been small, especially when you have two-- one is about to roll off. That was on the youth commission, and now they're a youth on a commission. And then now we had one that got appointed, so that's our two. But it is better than having where we were at none before, except for that one youth commission. And so now it's like, OK, well, what do we do to help ensure that not only-- because they are

21:29 applying, and what does that look like when they apply? How do we help support getting them on-- what type of education do they need? What type of-- what do they need to know? How do they need to show up for the interview? What are the things that help get them to that next step? And so that is-- I would like to be able to do some surveying of the applicants, just to understand what that looks like. Also some surveying of our actual boards and commissions as well, to know a little bit more detail. So we are scheduled to do boards and commissions reviews on a regular basis. And so that is something that we really want to get started doing as well, because that will inform us a lot more. And also, I'd say from the council standpoint, to share that we hope folks are not discouraged. Back to Diana's comments about them not being discouraged by their first attempt.

22:27 And we have a lot of folks that have applied, so it is usually pretty competitive. So to encourage them to continue to apply and look for opportunities versus one and done. Right. All right, thank you. And that's why it's important to have a strategy. So OK, if we have this-- now we've seen the recruitment, we've seen the numbers. OK, now what do we do as we are getting ready to go into a fall recruitment once this one is done? And what does that look like? And now what do we do with the information that we have? Yeah, OK, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Councilor Harless. You got me thinking about retention and exit interview strategies. I know tracking the data is new, so going ahead and starting to think proactively about retention and exit interviews when folks are leaving. Thank you for that. OK. I think that's it. All righty, thank you all very much.

23:26 Have a great day. Counselors, we'll take our dinner break. We'll be back at 6.30 for a regular council meeting. Thank you.