Council asks about racial diversity of applicants; recruiter describes outreach

A councilmember asked whether any of the city attorney applicants were African American. "Is any of these attorneys African American?" the councilmember asked during question time.

Renee Norlock responded that the search firm recruits for diversity and reaches out to minority legal organizations including the National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA). "What we do as recruiters is we recruit for diversity," she said, adding that she did not know the precise racial makeup of all applicants and that some candidates' availability and timing affected who ultimately applied.

The council did not obtain a confirmed demographic breakdown during the meeting; Norlock said she would continue outreach and provided context on the steps her firm takes to diversify candidate pools.