City of Arvada moving forward with MGT Consulting for diversity, equity, inclusion work

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

About a year after ring their last diversity, equity and inclusion consultant, the City of Arvada is moving forward with a new one: MGT Consulting, a national rm headquartered in Florida with consultants based in Colorado.

e city signed a contract with MGT in December 2022. Over the course of the next year, the consulting rm will work with the Arvada city team to review best practices, complete an organizational as- sessment, engage in a community landscape analysis, present a summary report and nally lay out a DEI action plan.

MGT’s work will focus on internal work with the Arvada city team, but will also include engagement with community members and the creation of a community DEI taskforce.

Arvada began considering DEI work in 2020. A rm — We e People — was hired to complete work similar to what MGT is tasked with, but was red after a Jan. 10, 2022 city council meeting in which the consultants were chided by city councilmembers for mispronouncing “Arvada.”

In addition to working with municipalities across the country to help them become more inclusive, MGT is currently the client of Arapahoe and Pitkin Counties in Colorado.

“ We focus on DEI in general, but also really with a focus on organizational improvement,” MGT Vice President Lamont Brown said. “And so, improving culture, improving the work experience for sta members and having a sense of what is

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working for the communities that our clients serve.”

City Councilmember Lauren Simpson said she was happy MGT would be proposing concrete steps the city should take, rather than just completing analysis.

“I really appreciate the use of the term action plan,” Simpson said. “One of the things that drives me the most nuts is when and this happens a lot in academic circles, we identify an issue and then we talk it to death. But and we and we come

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