More than 30 City of Bloomington leaders began a nine-month anti-racism training course led by Portland-based Center for Equity and Inclusion, or CEI.
CEI was founded in 2015 and is BIPOC-owned. In total, it has worked with more than 100 organizations, including municipalities.
City administration, department heads and elected officials completed CEI’s three-day intensive session Dec. 1-3. Moving forward, local leaders will participate in eight monthly sessions.
Mayor John Hamilton and City Clerk Nicole Bolden first announced intentions for the training in July 2020.
“Our history, locally and in this country, is a story of struggle and vision to improve our diversity, equity and inclusion,” Hamilton said in a press release. “We have made progress but still have a long way to go. This training is meant to help accelerate that journey together.”
The city held two RFQ periods to accept training proposals in 2020, with seven organizations applying in total. The city announced a signed deal in May after interviewing all applicants.
READ MORE: City of Bloomington Contracts Portland-Based Center For Anti-Racism Training
The committee reviewing applications consisted of City Clerk Nicole Bolden, Community and Family Resources Director Beverly Calender-Anderson, Human Resources Director Caroline Shaw, and then-City Council President Steve Volan.
Black Lives Matter Bloomington offered its anti-racism policy training to elected officials during the first RFQ period. However, the city did not accept the proposal.
“They are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a out of state organization when local experts are here & charged a fraction of the costs,” the BLM Btown core council said. “Not to mention [we] would have completed this training over a year ago when the need desire and willingness to implement anti-racism training was at its highest.”
CEI responded to the second RFQ. In total, its training costs $158,460.
By comparison, the Monroe County Commissioners approved a $6,000, one-day training for county elected officials with BLM Btown in Oct. 2020.
Additionally, the Monroe County Council approved a diversity training with a locally-based group, The Guarden LLC, in Nov. 2020. This approved contract is not to exceed $325,000 and will train between 225-300 county employees.
This story has been updated.
