About

Local government information for San Diego leaders in under-represented communities to advance social justice policy agendas.

By the Activating Knowledge and Networks subcommittee (AKAN) of San Diego Leaders, a coalition nonprofits in San Diego County building democracy by all people, for all people.

In November 2018, conversations at the annual San Diego Leaders retreat identified a number of opportunities to pool resources, knowledge, and networking opportunities in various structured data collection and publishing projects. From these conversations, the Activating Knowledge and Networks subcommittee formed, with initially 8 members, to pursue these projects in 2019.

By January 2019, a key data set was identified upon which many tools and applications could be developed and distributed, inspired by Center on Policy Initiative’s 2013 report San Diego's Leadership Development Infrastructure, a resource developed in partnership with San Diego Leaders. The identified dataset was entirely comprised of formal leadership positions in San Diego County, including elected and appointed public offices, boards, commissions, neighborhood planning groups, advisory groups, town councils and more.

By March 2019, due to the estimated 200 agencies, AKAN proposed hiring a Data Assistant to focus on collecting information. By Summer 2019, the Data Assistant had helped identify many more agencies than first estimated, and AKAN collectively developed a prioritization of seat attributes to collect, presenting an “alpha” search tool for internal San Diego Leaders network use to see the latest information collected on all (at the time) 750 agencies. By Fall 2019, even more agencies had been identified, and so AKAN surveyed San Diego Leaders partner groups to prioritize agency types (categories) and individual strategic agencies to fully collect information on first. Beginning Winter 2018-2019, we began to design the features and functionality of a public search tool, expected to be released in Q2 2020, before the 2020 General Presidential Election filing period in San Diego County.

Key Learnings

Due to historic and systemic unequal distribution of representation, influence, and power, communities of color, women, and LGBT populations have been and continue to be underrepresented in elective office and appointed positions. AKAN identified several key concerns that can pose barriers in certain agencies against increasing representation:

1. Undocumented and new/non-citizen residents

   Numerous agencies exclude undocumented and new/non-citizen residents from leadership by requiring citizenship directly or indirectly of candidate seat-holders. A direct example is requiring a Social Security Number in an application form. An indirect example is requiring applicants to affirm they are a registered voter (which requires citizenship) on an application form.

2. Returning residents and Felon friendliness

   Numerous agencies exclude residents returning from detention or residents who have been convicted of a felony from leadership by direct or indirect means. A direct example is requiring applicants to affirm they have never been convicted of a felony on their application form. An indirect example is requiring a background check or credit check, which community members with law enforcement exposure are unlikely to pass.

3. Language and other access needs

   Virtually no agencies provided information or applications in a language other than English. Additionally, virtually no agencies provide transportation, food, childcare, translation or monetary compensation for the labor expected of seat-holders. Additionally, many agencies require seat-holders to attend in-person meetings during standard working hours (9-5, Monday through Friday). These all pose particular hardships to many historically-excluded community members.

These key concerns were developed in our conversations around prioritization of agency attributes to collect. For example, “Are applicants required to undergo a background check?” and “Are applicants required to be US citizens?” were identified, among others, as key questions to answer, made available here.