The City is committed to making Walnut Creek a place where everyone feels welcome and a sense of belonging. Enhancing the City's diversity, equity and inclusionary practices continues to be one of the City Council's five priorities.

With this as a backdrop, the City has created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force comprised of 13 residents who applied to serve on the panel for a period of up to two years. Councilmembers Matt Francois and Kevin Wilk are also part of the Task Force team. The ultimate goal of the Task Force was to present recommendations to the City Council that would further the desired sense of belonging and inclusion.  The Task Force made its recommendations on April 18, 2023.

You can view the written reports and the video of the meeting by visiting the City's Public Meeting Agendas and Videos webpage. 

The City Council has been kept informed of the Task Force's work during the quarterly Council priority updates.

Task Force members have used several key data points to develop and form their recommendations:

• the reports from consultant Jason Seals & Associates relating to a series of community listening sessions hosted by the City in 2020
• the results of a community survey, which were shared with the Task Force in late 2022
• the lived experiences of the Task Force members, who represent a wide range of Walnut Creek demographics

Members of the Task Force have also investigated a variety of initiatives the City could consider to sponsor or adopt going forward to further the sense of belonging. Those were shared with the Council when recommendations were presented on April 18, 2023.

The City Council will consider the recommendations from the Task Force as they continue to direct staff to work on the Council priority of diversity, equity and inclusion.

The decisions of the City Council on which recommendations and initiatives to pursue will be shared with the community, and will result in work plans to help achieve those goals.

For questions regarding the Task Force, contact Betsy Burkhart, Communications and Community Relations Manager, at burkhart@walnut-creek.org, or 925-943-5895.