Worcester considering investigation of chief diversity officer position after 3rd resignation
Photo | Worcester City Council
On Tuesday night, Councilor Thu Nguyen spoke about their request for an external review of the City's chief diversity officer position.
At Tuesday night’s Worcester City Council meeting, City Manager Edward Augustus said he was open to hiring an independent investigator to help understand the cause of high turnover within the chief diversity officer role in Worcester.
Council approved an order brought forth by Councilor requesting information about the feasibility of hiring an outside party to evaluate the City of Worcester’s problems maintaining a chief diversity officer. The order was submitted following the resignation of Stephanie Williams, Worcester’s third chief diversity officer since the role was created in 2016.
“The right thing to do is figure out why. It’s stated that 'the position has proven exhausting, particularly when organizations are not ready,’ which I think leads us to ask why we are not ready,” said Nguyen, quoting Williams’ statement about her resignation, released Thursday.
In their request, Nguyen asked an external report include a power analysis of the position, as well as assessing what resources the CDO position needs to be successful.
Nguyen, who is the first nonbinary councilor in Massachusetts and the first Southeast Asian councilor in Worcester, said the issue points to larger problems with the culture at City Hall.
“For me and for a lot of people, this is not about a person. This is about a structural, systemic pattern and a cultural issue,” they said, adding they had been misgendered by City staff, including a human resources employee.
Councilor Khrystian King submitted a request to the City Manager to provide a report about the CDO, including exit interviews with former diversity officers.
City Manager Edward Augustus responded saying he was open to an outside review of the diversity officer position. He likened the request to a previous independent investigation conducted at Worcester’s fire department, which resulted in a 250-page report highlighting problems within the department.
Nguyen’s order garnered public comment from a number of Worcester residents, including Fred Taylor, president of the NAACP Worcester Unit, who wrote a letter March 6 expressing concerns about the resignation.
Leigh Woodruff, chair of the Worcester Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee, spoke, explaining why the committee voted on Monday to suspend its work in light of Williams' resignation.
“I and my colleagues had started to feel complicit somehow. We felt that if we continued to go through the motions of showing up for our monthly meetings … that we were saying that everything was okay,” Woodruff said. “No matter how good a chief diversity officer is individually and no matter if we have a diversity, equity, and inclusion committee, those things are never going to make a difference. Ticking off those boxes for our city – unless there is full commitment from City leadership, involvement, communication, and really ongoing truth -telling about the situation in our city.”
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