Lacey HR director tells Equity Commission internship, hiring reforms and survey show progress but room to improve

Leilani Sue, the City of Lacey's human resources director, told the Equity Commission on June 22 that the city has expanded training, mentoring and internship programs and made hiring-process changes intended to attract a larger, more diverse applicant pool.

Sue said the city has rolled out CliftonStrengths team-building and is formalizing mentoring and leadership-development opportunities, while changing policies to make interim/acting pay more accessible. The city continues a tuition-reimbursement program that covers up to $2,000 per employee per calendar year, she said.

"In 2024 our metrics showed 27 applicants on average per job," Sue said. "And now in 2026, our average is 43. So, we are reaching larger, bigger pools." She credited outreach at job fairs, LinkedIn posts and partnerships with organizations such as the Pacific Mountain Workforce Development Council and ICMA fellowship programs.

Why this matters: commissioners flagged internships and entry-level hiring as key pathways into city careers. Sue described several internship types — short summer roles and longer engineering internships that can run up to two years to accommodate complex training — and said paid internship wages now range from about $19 to $24 per hour depending on the step.

On applicant screening, Sue said the city has removed resume and cover-letter requirements for many frontline positions, adopted blind initial review by hiring managers for interviews, and introduced scoring and skill assessments to reduce presentation bias on panels.

Employee survey: staff presented results of the city's first organization-wide engagement survey (March 2025), which was run by an outside consultant and had a 63% participation rate (216 responses). The survey covered roughly 76 questions across categories including resources, engagement, leadership effectiveness and equity and inclusion.

Overall, staff reported an average of 63% positive responses. Resources scored 76% positive and engagement scored 72%. The equity and inclusion category scored lowest: 50% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with pro-equity/anti-racism statements, and 47% were neutral on those items. Staff stressed that demographic disclosure on the voluntary survey was incomplete and that the sample size for some subgroups is small.

In response to survey feedback, the city has already taken several steps: it replaced a single annual recognition lunch with an Employee Recognition Week (multiple events and staggered times to reach people on different shifts); launched an intranet to centralize internal communications and resources; increased optional all-staff town-hall presentations from departments; and published an ergonomics resource page and point of contact.

Commissioners asked for more granular demographic data and for evidence that outreach strategies are reaching underrepresented communities. Staff said they will bring a 2025 report update to the commission in coming months and plan to repeat the survey every two years (staff mentioned a target of March 2027 for the next full survey).

The commission also received operational metrics: the city reported an average time-to-hire of 56 days (July 2025'June 2026) compared with 68 days for peer agencies using the same platform, and staff noted variability across job types (engineering roles produce smaller applicant pools; customer-service roles attract larger pools).

What happens next: staff asked commissioners to send suggestions for outreach partners to expand recruitment lists; they also offered to sign commissioners up for the Lacey Weekly newsletter and to circulate QR links to the city's jobs page. Commissioners expressed interest in receiving additional demographic breakdowns (to the extent staff can provide them while preserving anonymity) and follow-up metrics on internship diversity and conversion to full-time roles.

The meeting recorded a motion earlier to approve the agenda and minutes; that procedural motion passed by voice vote.