Council Aims for More Minority Hires

The Chapel Hill Town Council will discuss increasing the number of minority supervisors working for the town at a planning retreat today.

At last year's planning retreat, the council set a goal of increasing the number of minorities employed by the town in a supervisor capacity.

As the first step toward meeting that goal, town staff compiled a report on the status of minority employment. The council will discuss that report today.

The report first was presented to the council last fall. It includes a breakdown of the number of minorities employed overall by the town as well as the number in supervisor positions and in each of the town's departments.

Though the town's largest agency, the Fire Department, has about the same percentage of black supervisors as black employees as a whole, some other town departments have a smaller number of black supervisors in proportion to black workers as a whole.

The biggest discrepancy exists in the town's Public Works Department, where blacks represent 65 percent of non-supervisory workers and only 31 percent of managers.

A similar, though smaller, gap exists in the Transportation Department, where 65 percent of non-supervisory workers are black but constitute only 56 percent of supervisors.

The only town agency with a higher percentage of black supervisors than non-supervisors is the Police Department. Though blacks make up only 18 percent of the non-supervisory section of the police force, they constitute 29 percent of supervisors.

Town Council member Dorothy Verkerk said the town has been trying to attract minorities for supervisor positions, but with mixed results. "I know that they really make an effort at recruitment," she said.

Verkerk said one of the problems might stem from the high housing costs in town. "We really don't pay enough for a living wage in Chapel Hill," she said. "And that's one of the things that we're looking into with affordable housing."

The fact that many town employees cannot afford to live in Orange County means the town must look to bordering counties for employees, places where the town cannot advertise open positions and actively recruit minorities as easily.

The town defines its employee recruitment area as Orange County and its four contiguous counties: Alamance, Chatham, Durham and Wake. For the five-county region, 74 percent of the population is white and 24 percent is black.

The town's percentage of black employees exceeds the percentage of blacks living in its recruitment area. Of the town's employees, whites constitute 58 percent and blacks 40 percent.

But of the town's 250 black employees, only 17 percent are supervisors. Though whites account for a smaller percentage of the work force relative to the white population, they constitute 29 percent of supervisors.

"I know this is something the town is very concerned about, Verkerk said.

The council will discuss the report further today and decide if action should be taken.

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.