On the heels of the City Council’s public safety meeting addressing gun violence in mid-May, a former Councilwoman called upon the city of Federal Way’s Diversity Commission to examine how their work can help unite the city once again.

Mary Gates was a guest speaker at the commission’s annual retreat May 13. She was a council member in 1993-1994 when the commission was chartered and created.

“She spoke of the whys and what the city atmosphere was like back in 1993-1994, when the City Council realized that they needed to do something to bring the city together,” said Diversity Commission Chair Greg Baruso. “Back then, the crime was on the rise just like it is today.”

Baruso said the commission has the opportunity to do this through their new Community Listening Forums plan, which is detailed in their 2016-2017 work plan. The work plan is expected to be voted on at the Diversity Commission’s next meeting in July.

In the plan, members outlined a series of six forums to take place over the next two years. The target audience each forum is geared toward includes the elderly, disabled veterans, non-English speakers, people in poverty or those who are homeless, and people who work odd hours.

“What we would like to gain is to be able to give the citizens of Federal Way another outlet in which they can speak about what they feel is important to the city and how they see issues can be solved,” Baruso said. “They mayor’s forums are on certain days and really only touch a percentage of the citizens. We plan on targeting groups, such as the elderly, younger generations, disabled, minority, LGBT, faith-based, etc., to come up with data and information to hopefully move forward in a direction that would show positive movement and then partnering with the city to come up with solutions to prioritize issues that have been brought forward.”

Baruso said he’s meeting with Mayor Jim Ferrell next week to discuss how the commission can help the city disseminate information on Federal Way’s crime problem.

The work plan also calls for the city or partner organization to contract with a consultant to help create the framework of the listening forums, a survey to be distributed throughout the forums, work teams to deliver the plan for the forums, arrange locations for the forums, a local facilitator to manage the meetings and the compiling of comments and issues raised during the meetings.

In 2017, the Diversity Commission will issue a report on the forums’ findings so it can identify strategies and actions going forward.

“They will bring in a more diverse plan on how to solve issues to the mayor and City Council by prioritizing the issues and bringing timely resolve to these issues,” Baruso said. “They will also show the citizens that they have a voice in what happens to the city and give them ownership in help solving what problems and issues that face the city today.”

The Diversity Commission’s 2016-2017 draft work plan can be found here.