Largo's relatively new human resources director, Susan Sinz, appears to understand just how much effort it is going to take to change the culture that has led to harassment, discrimination and a lousy minority hiring record in city government. She has the right toolbox, and it looks as if she is prepared to use every tool in it.
It isn't that Largo has done nothing over the years to address those problems. Diversity and sensitivity training was provided to employees, usually in response to publicized incidents of harassment or discrimination against women or minorities. The city sent personnel officers to job fairs and advertised in publications that might reach minorities looking for employment.
However, continued problems provided the proof that those efforts were insufficient.
In a report released earlier this month, Sinz analyzed the city's efforts to date and gave credit where it was due. Then she turned to a long list of initiatives she is recommending to improve recruitment and retention of a diverse employee population. They are the kinds of initiatives routinely found in the private workplace at companies with an understanding of the value of a diverse work force.
She recommends the city develop a formal business objective and mission statement that make clear the city's intent to build and maintain a diverse work force. She suggests the general employee population should strive to match the city's 2000 census figures for minorities - 2.7 percent African-American, 4.2 percent Hispanic, 3 percent American Indian, for example - and that departments that have employees in the field seek to match the higher Pinellas County census figures for some minorities.
Sinz suggests that the mission statement be developed by a new committee of the city's top executives, with her as the chairwoman, and that the committee also be the group that develops initiatives that would address citywide employee relations issues. Each department of the city also would have its own Employee Relations Committee to implement initiatives of the executive committee, which would help to make employees throughout city government understand they have a role to play in changing Largo's workplace culture.
Sinz offers a number of other good recommendations, including:
Develop a mentoring program to help new employees become acclimated, something that would help with employee retention.
Give new employees a four-hour training session on the city's commitment to diversity and its determination to maintain an appropriate workplace environment.
Consider sponsoring a Diversity Week that would include opportunities for city employees to attend events spotlighting different cultures.
Sinz also advises that the Fire Department offer a scholarship to a worthy young Fire Explorer to attend EMT school and the Fire Academy.
And she suggests that the Police Department advertise in ethnic newspapers, attend job fairs at minority colleges, and work on retaining probationary employees. Those recommendations would be good to implement in all city departments.
The city still has issues to address, such as improving its hiring of women, who make up significantly more of the population than are represented in city offices, and improving its promotion of women and minorities into management ranks.
But Sinz's recommendations are a solid start that the City Commission should approve.
