DEI Consultant proposes training and additional staff for City of Lexington, hiring questioned
On Monday, November 14, the Lexington City Council was given a presentation by Keep Evolving Consulting. The representative expressed they were hired “to provide an evaluation of the City’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts to date as well as to provide external guidance to the City regarding recommendations for DEI priorities and initiatives going forward.”
The firm noted “the City has made significant progress in establishing and hosting several community facing initiatives. To date, there has been a focus on building relations within the community by hosting and attending community events. These activities have been rooted in people with events celebrating individuals and groups who have made a lasting impact in the community.” Events and initiatives mentioned include: formal city-wide celebration of MLK Day and Black History Month, including MLK Day video and Black History Month banners, formal city-wide celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, including video and banners, first city-wide Health Equity Conference and proclamations for National Day of Racial Healing, Human Relations Month, Cambodian Heritage and Juneteenth.
Keep Evolving recommends the “current DEI officer role be split into two functions: 1) DEI strategy; and 2) DEI-Community Engagement. The DEI-Community Engagement role and public relations function should be consolidated under the City’s existing Community Development.” Additionally, it was suggested the City hire a consultant, in the interim, to lead mandatory DEI training throughout the City and to implement workforce recruiting concepts. The council voted, unanimously, to proceed with hiring a consultant to begin implementation.
Davidson Local reached out to City Administration regarding the hiring of the consultant to evaluate the department. Our questions were: 1) When was Keep Evolving hired, 2) At what cost?, and 3) How long was their evaluation of the initiatives. City Manager Terra Greene shared the city council commissioned the report without her knowledge.
A public records request has been sent to the City regarding the consultant contract. At the time of publication, we haven’t received any additional information.
