Breaking Down Equity Metrics: Insights from Kim Desmond

The quest for equity demands more than lofty aspirations; it necessitates concrete actions grounded in data-driven insights and targeted goals. Yet identifying, gathering, and analyzing data on inequities can be challenging; not limited to an increase in “research fatigue” among marginalized communities, problems with data quality and interoperability, and issues with “othering” certain populations by flattening racial/ethnic categories. Many cities are utilizing recently-formed equity offices to tackle these issues directly. This often includes unifying equity and data work in order to develop custom visualizations or indices. In the City of San Diego, Chief Race and Equity Officer Kim Desmond has a unique approach to this work that focuses on a continuous cycle of creating change with data-informed metrics through utilizing a newly developed Operationalizing Equity model.    

In this endeavor, Desmond, who has directed San Diego’s Department of Race and Equity since September 2021, is looking to disrupt the way equity scorecards have traditionally been created and used to measure how city departments identify and remove disparities to adequately serve all community members equally. While these previous models of scorecards have been helpful in showing snapshots or achieving a specific measurement, the version in the city of San Diego is based on a cyclical model of work. As Desmond aptly puts it, "equity is not a destination but a journey—a journey we must undertake with unwavering resolve and humility."

Methods and Measurements for Equity

Delving into the intricacies of equity measurements, Desmond sheds light on the methodologies and frameworks that underpin the individual Tactical Equity Plans (also known in the field as racial equity plans) for city departments. The city of San Diego is committed to creating key performance equity indicators for each of their 30 agencies that are uniquely tailored to their needs. Desmond and her colleague, Chief Innovation Officer and Director of Performance and Analytics Kirby Brady, have adopted a structured approach grounded in data driven practices, from learning and development and budget allocation to implementation and monitoring impact. It’s crucial for Desmond that these metrics are grounded in each department’s scope, as a city government “can't implement any of the strategies if it's outside of the context of local government assessment or authority.” For each department, Tactical Equity Plans serves as a compass, guiding departments in identifying and addressing disparities within their purview. 

This figure shows the Operationalizing Equity lifecycle of how equity measurements can create tangible change. This is the framework that Desmond is using to approach her work in the city of San Diego. Prior to this role, Desmond spent eight years working on equity initiatives in the City and County of Denver, where she saw how important it was to be concrete and data-driven in this work. “For me, this conversation is a fundamental understanding around what structure you are building for local government departments,” she said, “and the structure has to be such that departments understand that the number one is, how they define equity, how do they measure outcomes, and what is the nuance and difference in outcomes by department type?” 

Another important source of data is the community. Identifying the impact to community members and city employees lies at the heart of City of San Diego's equity initiatives, with inclusive processes designed to amplify marginalized voices and foster collaborative decision-making. By centering community input, San Diego endeavors to bridge the gap between policy formulation and lived realities, fostering a sense of ownership and trust.

Equity, as Desmond underscored, transcends mere rhetoric; it is a multifaceted concept intricately interwoven with societal structures and historical legacies. To distill equity into tangible metrics, one must first unravel its complexities within the organizational context. It isn’t enough to create lofty ten year goals that cannot be measured with data or properly funded. Desmond believes that equity is not an afterthought, it is the foundation of how city planning and ongoing operations should work. “You have to take these larger societal indicators and you have to map them in individual departments within their city,” in order to see real movement on the issues, according to Desmond.

Nevertheless, the pursuit of equity is rife with challenges, requiring sustained commitment and resource allocation. Desmond acknowledged the need for transparency and accountability in equity work, advocating for rigorous tracking of costs and outcomes to inform strategic decision-making. It’s also important to avoid an issue where reports are done and inequity is measured, without being grounded in those actionable items. “There's been so many assessments that have been done around disparities and indicators around health and other societal and economic measures,” Desmond said, “And if you don't understand that the departments can't act on them, then it's just a sad story to tell because identifying the root causes and systemic disparities alone, does not solve the problem.” 

Integrating Equity in Infrastructure

There are many examples of the city’s steadfast commitment to equity, from repurposing funds to addressing budget shortfalls to cultivating dedicated teams tasked with driving equity initiatives forward. One of the most impactful changes is how Desmond and her team ensured that infrastructure spending has been utilized in equitable ways. 

“We wanted to make sure that the infrastructure that is interacting with individuals differently in different neighborhoods is providing equitable and inclusive access,” she said, “Infrastructure is a very tangible way to quantify equity because it's very concrete — you can feel it, touch it, experience it.” The city of San Diego had $800 million in infrastructure funding in 2022, yet the Capital Improvement Program Policy 800-14 had last been updated in November 2013. While city leaders did have community surveys, most respondents were the same race and gender, and did not provide a large data size that encompassed statistical representation for all nine city districts. Desmond knew that the city couldn't use that information as it represented a limited perspective, and worked with the capital planning team to hold community listening and information sessions that grounded the infrastructure conversation in residents’ neighborhoods, attending district meetings and explaining exactly what the city means by “infrastructure,” i.e. local parks and pavement.

It was important for Desmond that this process changed to evaluate equity and include diverse community voices, in order to not replicate the unequal infrastructure builds of the past. “In a city that wasn't built equally in terms of infrastructure needs, we had to go back and integrate equity via the policy,” she said. In December 2022 Policy 800-14 was updated to include an equity factor as part of the score, which removes subjectivity from the investment decisions.  Factoring equity into the final score creates a universal standard that is not only clear for decision makers, but can also objectively show residents why certain projects are being prioritized. So if all streets should be at a minimum quality score of 70, and some streets score 65 while others score 30, the Transportation Department can easily direct funds to address that gap. “You have to set a standard to understand the disparity,” said Desmond, “you have to go through equality to identify the gap or disparity to address equity as a clear outcome.”

This policy was the first one that Desmond worked on in the city of San Diego, and it was a great opportunity as integrating equity into infrastructure prioritization allowed her team to redesign the city to better serve everyone and address structural neglect. The framework model for dismantling systemic racism, outlined above, is at its core about how equity work can be integrated into everything. “The model allows you to account for all the ways in which to approach equity,” Desmond stated “into all the different ways to serve people differently.”

Looking Ahead

Desmond is eager to shape the journey ahead, knowing that ongoing reflection, data-driven adaptation, and collective action will lead toward true equity for community members in the city of San Diego. Her work will certainly contain a strong thread of community engagement, which Desmond described as “an ongoing process” requiring meticulous attention. She will also continue to help residents expand their understanding of equity: “when people think about equity work, there's an assumption that you're taking something away from someone, but when you're doing equity work, it's not about taking something away from someone. It's about bringing them up to and giving them access to what they were not experiencing. It's about understanding that people live at the interaction of personal experience and historic structural neglect; therefore, it is our obligation to humanity to dismantle disparities to serve the collective equally.”