SB5105 creates a community advisory board and describes their duties.
The community advisory board will recommend to the governor three or more candidates for the director position. The governor must either select the new director from the list of three or more candidates, ask the community advisory board to add additional names to the list, or reject the entire list and ask the community advisory board to submit three or more additional candidates for consideration. The community advisory board must repeat this process until a director is selected.
Additionally, the office must include in its October 31, 2022, recommendations to reduce barriers for community participation on boards and commissions which may include, but are not limited to, potential changes to the application process and compensation for board and commission members.
Added to what the office may do is the ability to adopt rules as necessary to:
- Develop and submit agency diversity, equity, and inclusion plans
- Develop and maintain language access plans
- Collect data for the purposes of this chapter
- Establish performance measures
- Establish process for responding to the office of equity report on agency performance
- Establish a process to report noncompliance or lack of improvement
Further, the bill identifies that each exec branch agency will now be responsible for:
- The designation of an agency diversity, equity, and inclusion liaison
- The application of an equity lens to assess existing and proposed agency policies, services and service delivery, practices, programs, and budget decisions
- A diversity, equity, and inclusion plan
- The development of written language access policies and plans
- The establishment of performance measures
The governor’s interagency coordinating council on health disparities must reconvene the office of equity task force in July 2024 to evaluate the implementation of the office of equity and review. The membership of the task force is delineated and is directed to submit a report with recommended changes to the governor and legislature by October 31, 2025. This section will expire on July 1, 2026.
