Arlington Unity Council names new chief equity officer
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – The City of Arlington created a Unity Council in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis to gather community input on building greater equality in the city. The top recommendation – create a chief equity officer.
Dr. Jason Shelton took the lead on the Unity Council along with more than two dozen other residents on how to move the city forward.
Their biggest recommendation hiring Troy Williams has now been on the job for more than four months.
Williams comes to Arlington from Baltimore, where he served in a similar role.
The policies in which Williams will look at span from housing to justice reform to health care.
"Help city council and the city manager's office implement those recommendations across a wide different range of areas in our city, he's going to include more people," said Shelton who points out Williams is already making a difference to bridge relationships in the city.
"He's going to help bring more people into the circle and sphere of influence in the city and get more people at the table to be able to speak to the difference experiences and disparities and inequalities in our city and more importantly the polices and solutions to closing those gaps," added Shelton.
That's important because it can bring to light issues city leaders have not thought of before.
"His experience has brought forth some issues that we hadn't looked at," said Cyndi Golden, who is a member of the Arlington Unity Council, "Some people in Arlington just sort of live in their own little bubble but they don't realize there's a whole world of citizen out there that are facing these needs."
Williams told CBS 11 over the phone, that right now he's learning the landscape of the city and is in the assessment phase to build strategies on how to create equity-based initiatives.
Both Dallas and Fort Worth have similar officers in its cities.
To learn more about Williams, click here.