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The Park City Council Is Scheduled To Talk About Listening Tour At Thursday's Meeting

The Park City Council is scheduled to choose a convener to move their goal of social equity ahead at Thursday's meeting. The council will also iron out the details for their listening tour during a study session. KPCW’s Melissa Allison has more:

Social Equity was made a critical priority in March and as the  council works to better understand the needs of the community and what part the city should play in it, they wanted someone – other than the city -  to take the lead.

The city issued a request for proposals for a social equity community convener earlier this summer. Several proposals were received –and their selection will be announced at Thursday’s meeting.

The council will also discuss the listening tour which they kicked off last week. Council Members Lynn Ware Peek and Steve Joyce met with members of PC Unidos for about an hour to better understand how that group views social equity, the needs of their constituents and affordable housing.

Budget Operations Manager Jed Briggs said they also wanted to make sure the children didn’t slip through the cracks.

“Whether its before they get to school, so kind of a pre-K kind of initiative potentially," Briggs said. "And then like, after high school, like what are we doing for these kids once they graduate? I think we do a really good job until they’re 18 but its like, how do we kind of, keep the momentum going?”

Briggs said Thursday’s meeting will help city officials to better prepare for their future listening tour engagements.

“We’re planning to kind of have a discussion about the listening tour," Briggs said. "A little bit more in-depth about, what’s the framework for it? Who is this for? What are we trying to get out of it? That type of thing.”

Because this is more of a logistical type meeting, Briggs says Facilitator Kilo Zamora won’t be present but there still may be an opportunity for the public to comment.

The city isn’t required to announce the listening tours because only two council members are scheduled to meet with each group, but Briggs did say the public is welcome to join in. The council plans to have several meetings over the next two months.

Briggs said they’re learning social equity is more of a living document that will continue to evolve as understanding develops and the needs of the community change.

“Most of the people that talk to us about social equity, you know the advocates for it, they’ve really got these passions for different areas," Briggs said. "But it’s hard to know exactly where we should be, you know working on, and what areas. So that’s kind of been my take on this that it kind of evolved over time, this idea that its like, ‘there’s this problem, it’s a clear cut problem so here’s the solution’ cause it’s just not like that. Social equity isn’t problem/solution oriented. Its more, it’s a community conversation and the change happens slowly over time. I really look at it in terms of changing of perception and changing of mindset – similar to other kind of social causes that we’ve seen recently.”

The listening tour will include several nonprofits, businesses and those Briggs described as marginalized sectors of the community.

I’m Melissa Allison, KPCW News.

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