The Santa Monica City Council unanimously approved the city's first comprehensive citywide equity plan last week, establishing a five-year roadmap to address racial disparities and historical harms while investing in community-led initiatives.
The 7-0 vote caps a year-long community engagement process that included more than 60 listening sessions with residents across diverse neighborhoods. The plan, extending through 2030, represents the city's most ambitious effort to embed equity as a core value across all municipal departments.
"This is the first time where we've been able to go to all of our departments and say 'Hey we really really need everybody's to move this forward,'" said Lisa Parson, the city's Equity Inclusion Manager. "Three people cannot fully advance equity for a city."
The plan centers on five core goals: confronting and repairing historical harms through restorative action; deepening trust through inclusive community engagement; expanding pathways to opportunity for underserved communities; transforming government operations for equitable results; and building a culture where equity is understood and valued.
One immediate outcome will be the establishment of a $32,496 equity micro-grant program, funded through a budget amendment that transfers remaining earmarked funds from the transitioning "We Are Santa Monica" fund. The grants will empower residents to advance equity initiatives within their own neighborhoods.
"We have a lot of really strong passionate community members who want to do this work with us," Parson said. "We would love to be able to empower them to advance some of their own ideas for equity through these micro grants."
The plan emerges from extensive community feedback that revealed economic development opportunities as residents' top priority, followed closely by affordable housing. David Gardinier, Equity and Communications Coordinator, said the engagement process successfully reached "communities and folks that we normally don't hear from" by allowing residents to host their own listening sessions.
"Economic development opportunities to be able to do well for themselves and to be able to provide for their families and their communities" ranked as the number one request, Gardinier reported, with immigrant communities particularly emphasizing feeling "like an island" and isolated from city resources.
The plan addresses longstanding concerns about Santa Monica's approach to racial equity. According to city data, residents who identify as Black, Latinx, and Native American fare worse than white residents across nearly every quality-of-life indicator, with many inequalities worsening since 2020.
A key component involves the Landback and Reparations Task Force, which has been meeting monthly to catalog historical harms against marginalized communities. The group will present a comprehensive "harms report" to the council in December 2025, documenting incidents from the displacement caused by the 10 Freeway construction to lesser-known impacts on the Jewish community.
Several council members pressed for accelerated timelines and clearer accountability measures.
The plan acknowledges significant challenges, including the city's financial constraints and reduced staffing levels compared to pre-2020. The equity team described operating in an adversarial political environment at the federal level while focusing on manageable initiatives that work with our existing capacity and resources.
City staff emphasized the plan's evolution from viewing equity as "extra work" to integrating it into core city priorities. Examples include ensuring public works responses are equally distributed across neighborhoods and expanding economic pathways beyond street vending.
Parson articulated the long-term vision: "My dream is that cities don't need an equity team. My dream is that every department understands this and holds it so deeply that you don't need specialists."
The plan will function as both a roadmap and "living document," designed to evolve as community needs change and new insights emerge.