Latino Underrepresentation and NYC Mayor de Blasio's Diversity Record
The NiLP Network on Latino Issues (April 9, 2014)
Despite the more diverse appointments by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio to his Administration compared with the past Mayor, Latinos continue to be the most underrepresented group in the city government's work force. It is clear that the city's Latino leadership needs to give this problem serious attention and find ways t engage the de Blasio Administration, not only on its Latino appointments, but also on this community's underrepresentation in the general municipal work force. This is a critical issue facing the Latino community that gets overlooked with general discussions of "diversity" and "minorities."
These were the messages presented to a group of Latino leaders in a citywide briefing held last night in Manhattan by the National Institute for Latino Policy (NILP) as the de Blasio Administration approached its first 100 days in office. Those in attendance represented a broad cross-section of Latinos in the private, public and nonprofit sectors.
A detailed analysis of the state of Latino appointments made by Mayor de Blasio and of Latino representation in the general city government work force under the previous Administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg was presented by Angelo Falcón, President of the National Institute for Latino Policy. Falcón presented the latest findings from his 6-month monitoring the de Blasio appointments process that began with the organization of his Transition Team last year.
On the same day as this briefing, Mayor de Blasio made four appointments, two of which were of Dominicans to commissionerships: Dr. Fenlosky Peña Mora as Commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction, and Lisette Camilo as Commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Contract Services. Of the 109 appointments the Institute has identified, this brought the percentage of Latino appointments to date to 16 percent, compared to 52 percent of Whites, 21 percent of Blacks and 11 percent of Asians. Compared to their percentage of the city's population and labor force, this makes Latinos the most underrepresented group among the de Blasio appointments.
Falcón pointed out that while in January, the high profile Latino appointments of Carmen Fariña as Schools Chancellor, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli as Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, and Gladys Carrion as Commissioner of the Administration for Children's Services, gave the impression that Mayor de Blasio would be seriously addressing the persistent problem of Latino underrepresentation at the policymaking level, as the appointments process proceeded this problem resurfaced. The January appointments resulted in about 23 percent being Latino, but by yesterday that percentage dropped to 16 percent. Falcón expressed the concern that unless the Latino community forcefully engages the de Blasio Administration on this issue, Latino representation could decline even further as his appointments process comes to an end.
Citing the latest Siena College-NY1 News-New York Times Poll, Falcón noted the greater support that Mayor de Blasio appears to have at the moment from Latino and Black voters, in contrast to Whites. He pointed out that the purpose of this citywide community briefing was not so much to criticize Mayor de Blasio on his Latino appointments record to date but to mobilize the Latino community leadership to more actively engage the Administration on the issue of representation and policy directions than has been the case until now.
Falcón discussed the need to urge the de Blasio Administration to reassess the role and effectiveness of the city's diversity programs involving the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Fair Employment Practices Commission and the Human Rights Commission in promoting the increased employment of Latinos. One important starting point would be making the city's equal employment opportunity data breaking down the racial-ethnic and gender make-up of the city's work force by city agency publicly accessible at least annually on its website. He discussed the 2013 NYC Government Work Force Profile Report of the Bloomberg Administration that contains important EEO information, which was released on the very last day of the Administration and not made available to the public (which was done instead by an independent government agency, the Independent Budget Office, and not the Mayor's Office).
Falcón also presented data that revealed that employment in the city's agencies is racially segregated. He found that while, of the 40 agencies for which he had data, 23 had predominantly White workers, 17 had predominantly Black workers, and none had predominantly Latino or Asian employees. He also found a high negative correlation between the concentration of Latino and Black employees and the median annual salary of the agencies, while the relationship was positive for Whites and Asians. So that besides the general levels of representation of Latinos in the city government work force, where those Latinos were concentrated within that work force was also important to understand. This level of racial-ethnic segregation raises questions about the meaning of "diversity" within municipal employment.
Suggesting part of a strategy to address the problem of Latino underrepresentation, Falcón singled out the ten city agencies with the worse records of Latino hiring as agencies that Latino leaders needs to focus on. These are:
Following Falcón's presentation, NiLP's Board Chair, José R. Sánchez, a Professor of Political Science at Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus, led a discussion of strategies that the Latino community needs to consider to address this problem. These ranged from meeting with the Mayor and his top advisors to having meeting with individual city agency heads to using the media to raise the issue publicly. As a result of this discussion, an independent working group was established to develop an agenda for change. This working group includes Hector Cotto, Louis Hernandez, Aurea A. Mangual, Julio Muñoz, Jeannette Rodriguez, Onias Pacheco, John Rojas, José R. Sánchez, Sylvia Quiñones and Fatima Velasquez.
Other participants at the briefing included, among others: Tom Acosta, Grace Asenjo, Heriberto Barbot, Vilma Belan, Joe Bello, Vick Bello, Marlene Brito, Adrian Cabreja, Elbert Garcia, Marta Garcia, Wendy Garcia, Lucelys Gonzalez, Horacio Gutierrez, Joanna Hernandez, Carlos Manzano, Miguel Maldonado, Sammy Naranjo, Javier A. Nieves, Saul Nieves, Nicholas Pelzer, Leonides Reyes, Vanessa Ramos, Margarita Rosa, John Rojas, Diana Roman, Christina Rosado, Andy Torres, Emmanuel Torres, and Juan Vides
Falcón's PowerPoint presentation made at the briefing is available on NiLP's website, www.latinopolicy.org, on its home page. Individuals are encouraged to share it widely and use it for presentations to their colleagues and institutions.
NiLP gave special thanks to David Jones and the Community Service Society (CSS) for making their conference room available for this citywide briefing. This meeting was made possible by individual contributions by The Friends of NiLP.
The NiLP Network on Latino Issues is an online information service provided by the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP). For further information, visit our website at www.latinopolic.org or write to info@atinopolicy.org