DENVER — Denver's auditor found the Mayor's Office of Social Equity and Innovation (OSEI) needs a stronger foundation and more support from the top to have effective and lasting outcomes.
In a report released Thursday, Denver Auditor Timothy O'Brien said there are significant concerns about the future of social equity efforts after poor production of evidence throughout the audit process.
OSEI was created after Denver Mayor Michael Hancock signed an executive order in 2020 to increase social equity and minimize racism in city government.
O'Brien said his job is to provide transparency to city government. His latest criticism is getting pushback from Hancock.
“Our audit work is intended to examine how agencies could be more efficient and effective in their service of the public, not to list their accomplishments for them,” O’Brien said. “This audit was nothing beyond the norm for any assessment we might do, and no city agency is above independent assessment. I am disappointed office leadership and even the mayor have so thoroughly misunderstood how audits work and how they have misrepresented the integrity of our research and findings.”
The audit found the office lacked a detailed strategic plan for effective governance and the office didn't have a plan to ensure clear communication with other city agencies.
In a letter to O'Brien, Hancock said OSEI appreciates and accepts all recommendations in the audit, and they were planning to implement those actions regardless of the audit.
His letter, though, was very critical of the report, because he thought it had "glaring omissions."
Hancock said the report should have looked at the 207 days many OSEI staff members worked to support the city's response during the pandemic, such as staffing vaccination sites and expanding health education in underserved communities.
"Had a serious effort been undertaken to understand the changing nature of the equity mission as a consequence of the pandemic, at least a portion of this report would have been taken up with a review of the equity-in-action work led by OSEI and contributing to the recovery of our city," Hancock said in the letter.
Hancock also said the city's initiatives began years before the executive order, and leaving that out in the audit is a "disservice."
"This history is relevant context as it underscores the homegrown efforts initiated to develop an equity-based policy agenda," Hancock said.
O'Brien said the necessary building blocks to have a successful program were not there during the course of the audit, which began in September.
"There were attempts by the staff to not cooperate with the audit," he said. "There was information that was withheld from us that we asked for at the beginning of the audit and didn’t get until we had a draft."
The audit also found the executive order is vague about the office's authority. The office can't force agencies to create certain plans or participate in training, according to this report. Staff told the auditor's office some departments were stonewalling them as a result.
"This office needs strong leadership and clear support from the mayor’s team to get back on track after the loss of so much institutional knowledge,” O’Brien said. “Due to leadership turnover and a lack of clear direction, the office doesn’t have the resources it needs to support diversity, equity and inclusion citywide.”
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