Here’s where Greeley City Council stands with that diversity training it agreed to in July

By Kelly Ragan

In July, Greeley city councilmembers agreed to look into diversity training. 

The agreement came in the wake of public outcry following a Facebook post made by city councilmember Kristin Zasada. In the post, Zasada criticized Black Lives Matter protests in Denver and commented on “black-on-black crime.”

This was at the height of protests calling for justice for George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died at the hands of police. 

So, what progress has city council made?

At a work session Tuesday, Assistant City Manager Becky Safarick presented the council with three training options. 

The optionsinclude how much it would cost to cover training for the seven council members and 17 executive team members. 

Option A 

• Speaker: Antoinette Allen, a faculty member of the Federal Executive Institute, associated with the University of Virginia 

• Topics covered: Diversity, equity and inclusion; authentic leadership; personal and organizational legacy 

• How it would go: Three sessions 

  • September: Half-day training, half day individual sessions for personal or small team coaching

  • October: 1.5-2-hour virtual webinar followed by a facilitated group session 

  • November: Half-day focused on alignment, accountability and organizational legacy

• Cost: $15,375 if virtual, $17,019 if in-person

Option B 

• Speaker: Tobias Guzman, chief diversity officer and associate vice president for student affairs at the University of Northern Colorado. 

• Topics covered: Understanding diversity, equity, inclusion paradigm; Building a stable and interconnected community; Understanding bias; Strategically improving climate 

• How it would go: Three sessions 

  • September: Half-day training

  • October: four hours of training plus an online assessment on individual and group bias

  • December: Two days, some time spent on training, some time spend on creating an action plan

• Cost: $17,000

Option C

• Speaker: Kimberly Miller of Kimberly A. Miller & Associates, LLC, Public Safety Consulting & Coaching Services in Fort Collins 

• Topics covered: Examining privilege, racial inequality and bias 

• How it would go: Miller pitched two options. The first would be an online class accompanied by discussions, followed by eight, two-hour large group discussions. The second was either a whole day or two half-day trainings followed by eight, two-hour group sessions. 

• Cost: Between $20,000-$27,528 depending on whether virtual or in-person 

After some discussion, councilmembers agreed option A sounded best, with option B a close second. Councilmembers agreed that outside perspective (meaning NOT someone who worked at UNC, who might be too close to the situation) would be valuable.  They also agreed that in light of COVID-19, virtual sessions would be safest.

The trainings could start as early as September, with sessions chunked out over several months before working on any policy change.