The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to declare “racism a public well being disaster,” passing insurance policies to fight racism regionally and create equitable response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chair Nathan Fletcher and Vice Chair Nora Vargas introduced the resolution to address systemic racism final week.
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“In declaring racism as a public well being disaster, we’re acknowledging that racism underpins the well being inequities all through the area,” stated Fletcher.
In keeping with the supervisors, as the general public well being company for the County of San Diego, there’s a duty to sort out the problem of racism and make substantive adjustments to county operations.
The board addressed the subject — Merchandise 8 on the agenda — simply after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, opening up the dialogue on racism to listen to from native callers.
Then got here the vote.
“Declaring racism a public well being disaster is a crucial step ahead that begins to maneuver our County in a brand new path,” Fletcher and Vargas stated in a joint assertion launched by the county. “This laws is greater than only a assertion of our values, we’re backing it up with substantive insurance policies designed to sort out systemic racism, and take away the limitations that forestall range, fairness and inclusion.”
The board additionally voted 5-0 to create a collaborative, data-driven response to COVID-19. The county plans to make use of equitable funding practices to help traditionally marginalized communities – the communities hit the toughest by the pandemic in San Diego County.
“Information, science and health-equity are very important to our COVID-19 restoration,” Fletcher and Vargas stated after the vote. “Nearly all of our board reaffirmed as we speak they imagine these fundamentals ought to form our response to the pandemic. We should additionally prioritize essentially the most susceptible communities and guarantee they’ve the sources they should be wholesome and secure to get again to their routines.”
The insurance policies handed by the board Tuesday are a part of Fletcher’s plan to construct more healthy and stronger communities. That plan known as the “Framework for the Way forward for San Diego County.”
Fletcher stated this plan fights for “racial justice, well being fairness, financial alternative, environmental safety, community-centered prison justice, and basic adjustments to county operations.”
Fletcher stated the framework would be the board’s guiding drive in relation to tackling points from homelessness and housing to unemployment, the coronavirus pandemic, and systemic racism within the county.
As for the resolution to declare racism a public health crisis, a letter to the board from Fletcher and Vargas outlined some suggestions to fight racism in San Diego County.
- Create a County Racial Fairness Motion Plan
- Require racial and fairness information for use to prioritize funding
- Create a course of for neighborhood enter on county insurance policies and practices that result in or perpetuate racial or ethnic disparity
- Revise the assertion of values, mission, imaginative and prescient, and strategic plan to characterize fairness and inclusion as core rules
- Require an Fairness Influence Assertion in all Board Letters (insurance policies)
- Enhance information assortment to establish racial disparities amongst applications and providers meant to enhance well being, social, financial, instructional, and prison justice circumstances
In keeping with the board letter, there isn’t any fiscal affect related to the decision to deal with systemic racism.
“Modifications in our institutional techniques should happen for the County of San Diego to be anti-racist and fight historic inequities,” a board letter stated.
“We should sort out this situation head-on and at its root,” Chair Nathan Fletcher stated. “We should name out the severity of racism so we might be intentional in the way in which that we strategy this situation and the way in which we guarantee the fundamental promise of equality of entry to the American Dream for all. Racism is a public well being disaster, and we must always strategy it as such.”
“The measure will guarantee we’re higher engaged in our communities,” Fletcher stated Tuesday. “What we’re making an attempt to get to is not only a spot the place we are saying ‘Black Lives Matter,’ or immigrants are appreciated, however we again that up with our insurance policies and our funding.”