I was encouraged to see the recent coverage in the AJC bring to light a growing, and troubling, trend in Fulton County government: The current workforce does not accurately reflect the diversity of its citizenry. I feel strongly about this issue, and I believe that it requires more attention to ensure that careful, responsible steps can be taken to reach a resolution.
This disparity of representation was wrong several decades ago, when every one of Fulton’s elected officials, along with a majority of government employees, was white. The disparity today — when Fulton’s black population makes up 44.5 percent of the county’s citizenry, yet 83 percent of its workforce — is equally wrong.
I have been vocal in my criticism of this disparity, sharing my concerns directly with others in county government as well as with my constituency. My concern goes beyond having members of our community feel under- or unrepresented, although this is bad enough. When individuals refrain from applying for Fulton jobs — or companies refrain from competing for contracts — because they view it as “a waste of time,” I believe it’s time for the county to take action.
But proper action requires a proper diagnosis of the problem. When calling attention to this issue, some will inject politics into the discussion, making this inequity of representation, and race relations in general, a hot-button issue to push their own agenda. When I brought this disparity to light nearly a year ago in a newsletter, my call for diversity was used by some — particularly in the blogosphere — to fit their own argument. Specifically, my plea for more diversity was twisted into “the need to hire more whites.”
This issue, in my mind, is broader than black versus white, or any race/ethnicity versus another. The real issue is about fair representation. Our county’s workforce needs to be representative of the entire diverse constituency that comprises it: all backgrounds and all ethnicities, and regardless of age, gender or sexual orientation.
We are a diverse community. It’s something that we have celebrated for many years, something that has set us apart from others in the region, and something that has helped Atlanta become a world-class city. A key step in Atlanta’s path to greatness involved the concerted effort by city and county leadership to ensure our governments accurately represented the people they served.
It’s hard to say when or how the recent shift took place, but it has become too pronounced to ignore. Blaming and finger-pointing won’t resolve the issue. Fulton needs to do the right thing and strive to create a workforce representative of the entire county.
The solution starts with publicly acknowledging the problem and publicly reaching out to every member of our community to ensure them that they have an equal opportunity to represent — and be represented by — Fulton County.
Our diversity affords us a wealth of exceptional talent representing all walks of life. We can — and must — do a better job at attracting this diverse talent.
Robb Pitts is an at-large Fulton County commissioner.
