The Portland City Council will meet on Monday night for its first workshop evaluating the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion work.

The meeting comes as the city is without a leader for its new racial equity department after Umaru Balde resigned in May.

Mayor Mark Dion said the focus of the workshop will be on internal hiring practices and how the city can create a more inclusive work environment for its staff.

“I want to make sure our house is functioning the way it’s supposed to before we offer opinions on how other organizations within the city should function,” said Dion.

Councilor Kate Sykes, however, said she has bigger goals when it comes to making Portland a more diverse and inclusive place. She said she hoped the meeting would not focus exclusively on internal hiring.

“I would like to have every piece of legislation that we pass have an equity component to it, to have (the DEI office) look at equity issues around any ordinance changes that we’re making,” said Sykes.

Both Dion and Sykes said they are expecting Masi Ngidi-Brown, who is the interim director of the racial equity department, to present data and an update on how the city is doing with DEI initiatives.

City staff declined to comment on the contents of that presentation ahead of the workshop, which begins at 5 p.m. in council chambers.

Portland’s DEI initiative began in earnest in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Around that time, former mayor Kate Snyder created a Racial Equity Steering Committee. The committee, chaired by Councilor Pious Ali, was charged with addressing systemic racism in public safety and recommending any necessary changes.

Ali said in an email Friday that the steering committee’s recommendations included periodic presentations to the Council to update them on the city’s DEI work. Though the committee completed its work and released its recommendations more than two years ago, this will be the first presentation to the Council, Ali confirmed.

Another recommendation the committee made was to create a department of racial equity, which members said should include a department head and support staff. Balde was hired as the department’s director in February 2023, but left his post with little explanation this spring after just over a year.

According to the agenda, the Council will also discuss the “next steps regarding hiring a director.”

Dion said he did not expect the city to discuss Balde’s abrupt departure on Monday. However, he highlighted that building a workplace where diverse staff are not only hired, but retained, is a central priority in the city’s DEI work.

“It’s really a self-assessment of an institution and how we can be better,” Dion said of the meeting. “Critics of DEI will say it’s all theatre, but it’s not.”