Audit Shows City Of Sacramento Departments Lack Ethnic Diversity

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Sacramento is among one of the country's most diverse cities, but a final audit shows many city departments don't reflect that.

The audit was under scrutiny by the city council on Tuesday, including by Mayor Kevin Johnson, who demanded the problem be fixed.

But, how can the city address lack of diversity in its employee population?

Mayor Johnson tells us he's not proud of the numbers and believes the findings give the city an opportunity to create some lasting changes.

The audit revealed that in the city's 17 departments, more than half of the managers are white.

When new recruits graduated from the Sacramento Police Academy last month, something stood out. Only five of the 27 new officers were women and sixty percent were white, even though whites make up only 35 percent of the overall city population. Statistics like these that are drawing scrutiny from community members.

"We need to work on it," said Richard Owen, a concerned Sacramento resident.

The audit revealed the race and gender of all 5,000 current city employees.

"Our goal was to provide useful information, objective information that the council could then use," said Jorge Osejuera, Sacramento city auditor.

Fifty-three percent of city workers are white, which is 18 percent higher than the overall population. Sixteen percent are Hispanic, which is 11 percent lower than the overall population.

Eleven percent are black, two percent less than the overall population. And nine percent are Asian, nine percent lower than the overall population.

"Something needs to change in the city of Sacramento. We defiantly need to diversify," said Evilyn Gipson, a Sacramento resident.

Members of Sacramento's African American community were at Tuesday's city council meeting speaking out about police matters including a lack of diversity on the force.

"We think having more minority officers in leadership and in the ranks of the police department will help change the culture," said Owen.

And Mayor Johnson is among those saying the lack of diversity is cause for concern.

"We're one of the most diverse citys in the country but we have a chance to be a leader in this space and right now we're not. We have a long way to go," he said.

So, what happens next? Council members want to create an ad hoc committee to monitor diversity numbers on a regular basis. That discussion will continue at its next city council meeting on August 9.
Meantime, the police department has already taken steps to increase outreach programs in minority communities.