JACKSON, Wyo. — The Jackson Town Council appointed nine members to the Equity Task Force during their regular meeting on Feb. 22.
The Equity Task Force was initially brought forward during the January 2021 retreat by Councilor Jessica Sell Chambers.
The newly appointed nine-member task force includes Brandon Hernandez, Jade Krueger, Jason Fritts, Jean Day, Marcela Badillo, Miki Aristorenas, Pierre Bergman, Rosa Sanchez and Stacy Noland.
The council voted 4-1 to appoint the task force with Sell Chambers opposed.
Sell Chambers took issue with the selection process, calling it “too fast” and saying the applicants were not aware of how the selection process would work.
“I cannot even begin to thank the 37 applicants for putting their names in the hat,” she said. “It required a lot of faith in the system and our selection process. I regard that very seriously and with the utmost respect. It’s for that reason that I can not support moving forward with this motion and with the nine applicants.”
“That’s not to say these applicants aren’t qualified,” she continued. “I just don’t think that it’s fair to the 37 [other applicants] and to the other members of the community to not have this process of selection be completely open, non-anonymous. It is a public process as far as records go. But it is retroactive.”
The council interviewed the applicants on Feb. 14 and used the Delphi method to narrow down the applicant pool to nine.
The Delphi method uses a series of selection rounds until consensus is reached.
“This method provides anonymity, reducing the impact of dominant individuals, helps reduce pressure to conform, and allows opinions to be considered in a non-adversarial manner,” the staff report says.”Responses are weighted equally so no one person can shift the opinions of the group, and it provides controlled feedback on the group’s opinion, reducing noise and allowing participants to reconsider based on others’ ranking.”
Councilor Jonathan Schechter noted that the members of the task force selected were not all his first choices either but said, “A different process might have yielded a different mix of people, but would it have been better? I don’t think so, not likely.”
Vice Mayor Arne Jorgensen echoed a similar sentiment.
Councilor Jim Rooks said, “just when you start worrying about our community on some level you see the number of people who come forward and volunteer. I think it’s a very important moment in the history of this town.”
The task force will review policies and programs and inform decision-making. The goal is to create a more livable community and more equitable inclusive local government that better reflects the community’s demographics.
Mayor Morton Levinson said, “it’s exciting for me to see something come from last January to essentially this January. We’ve done a lot of work.”
“I look forward to seeing where this task force goes and adjusting it as we go,” Morton Levinson said.
