The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 3 : Executive

Chapter 068 : Office of Racial Equity

Subchapter 001 : EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RACIAL EQUITY

• § 5003. Duties of Executive Director of Racial Equity

  (a) The Executive Director of Racial Equity (Director) shall work with the agencies and departments to implement a program of continuing coordination and improvement of activities in State government in order to combat systemic racial disparities and measure progress toward fair and impartial governance, including:

  (1) overseeing a comprehensive organizational review to identify systemic racism in each of the three branches of State government and inventory systems in place that engender racial disparities;

  (2) managing and overseeing the statewide collection of race-based data to determine the nature and scope of racial discrimination within all systems of State government;

  (3) developing a model fairness and diversity policy and reviewing and making recommendations regarding the fairness and diversity policies held by all State government systems; and

  (4) temporarily overseeing the establishment of the Health Equity Advisory Commission established pursuant to 18 V.S.A. § 252 until the Office of Health Equity is established.

  (b) Pursuant to section 2102 of this title, the Director shall work collaboratively with State agencies and departments to gather relevant existing data and records necessary to carry out the purpose of this chapter and to develop best practices for remediating systemic racial disparities throughout State government.

  (c) The Director shall work with the agencies and departments and with the Chief Performance Officer to develop performance targets and performance measures for the General Assembly, the Judiciary, and the agencies and departments to evaluate respective results in improving systems. These performance measures shall be included in the agency’s or department’s quarterly reports to the Director, and the Director shall include each agency’s or department’s performance targets and performance measures in his or her annual reports to the General Assembly.

  (d) The Director shall, in consultation with the Department of Human Resources and the agencies and departments, develop and conduct trainings for agencies and departments regarding the nature and scope of systemic racism and the institutionalized nature of race-based bias. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to discharge the existing duty of the Department of Human Resources to conduct trainings.

  (e) The Executive Director of Racial Equity shall oversee the Division of Racial Justice Statistics (Division) established in subchapter 2 of this chapter.

  (1) The Director shall have general charge of the Division.

  (2) The Director may apply for grant funding, if available, to advance or support any responsibility within the Division’s jurisdiction.

  (f) The Director shall periodically report to the Racial Equity Advisory Panel and the Racial Disparities in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems Advisory Panel on the progress toward carrying out the duties as established by this section.

  (g) On or before January 15, 2020, and annually thereafter, the Director shall report to the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs and the Senate Committee on Government Operations demonstrating the State’s progress in identifying and remediating systemic racial bias within State government. (Added 2018, No. 9 (Sp. Sess.), § 3, eff. June 28, 2018; amended 2021, No. 33, § 4; 2021, No. 142 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. July 1, 2022.)