North Carolina’s Department of Administration recently appointed Carrboro mayor Lydia Lavelle to a new commission. She was one of 13 North Carolinians sworn into the Commission on Inclusion.

Governor Roy Cooper created the commission with an executive order last year, tasking his Department of Administration to appoint members. The goal is simple: to identify ways to foster diversity and address discrimination that Cooper’s administration can implement through policies.

Lavelle talked about the committee in an interview with WCHL’s Aaron Keck, and said it’s honing in on different areas of the state government.

“One of the aspects of the executive order asks us to look at state employment, state government services and programs, state contracts and grants and access to services,” said Lavelle. “We’ve broken up into a couple of different groups. I’m in the contract group, and we’re trying to look at ways we could have more inclusion in contracts within the bounds of the law.”

This commission does not have the power to influence all state government, however, which Lavelle said limits their role. Between the governor’s reach of power and certain state statutes, the group can only focus on specific departments for now.

“The governor really only has direct authority over certain cabinets and employees within the executive branch,” Lavelle said. “The governor has no authority over elected statewide positions like the secretary of agriculture or secretary of insurance. So we’re really looking directly at the departments in [Cooper’s] control.”

The commission has only met twice so far and Lavelle said they’re only beginning to scratch the surface of ways to examine inclusion measures. But she said the group has already looked at some introductory policies for departments and many more measures are on the way.

To learn more about the Commission on Inclusion, visit the North Carolina Department of Administration’s website.

 

Photo via Town of Carrboro.

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