Gov. Tim Walz wanted to send a clear message when he used his first executive order three months ago to create a council on diversity, inclusion and equity.
Those goals would permeate all his work at the Capitol, he said, making a commitment he and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan have repeated often in the months since. But members of his administration and equity advocates say Minnesota has a long way to go to make the state's workforce, boards and commissions and contractors reflect the overall population.
Inside the governor's office, 67% of his staff is made up of women and 23.4% are people of color.
But at the top level of state agencies, that picture changes.
The individual commissioners Walz appointed to lead the state's 23 agencies are a diverse group who come from across Minnesota. But counting deputy and assistant commissioners — a number of whom are holdovers from the Dayton era — just 14.3% of the people leading state agencies are members of a racial or ethnic minority.
To Sen. Jeff Hayden, D-Minneapolis, who has been involved in the new administration's diversity efforts, said that number is "disappointing."
James Burroughs, the state's first chief inclusion officer under former Gov. Mark Dayton, said he wishes minorities would make up 20% of those top executive ranks, mirroring a goal of the previous administration, albeit an unmet goal.
Dayton's ambitious aim for 2019 was to have 20% of the state's approximately 40,000 employees be people of color. When he left office, state government — the second largest employer in Minnesota — was falling far short of that, with minority members making up just 13.6% of the executive branch workforce.