Leadership project’s goal: More minority candidates

Dan Devine

Now that Massachusetts has elected its first African American governor, a new program intends to continue the job of developing leaders of color to enter public service in the greater Boston area.

Officially launched last Wednesday at a Suffolk University event featuring a keynote speech by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Initiative for Diversity in Civic Leadership is a three-year effort that will provide education and training related to seeking elected office, managing and running political campaigns, and serving in all levels of government.

“This initiative represents a long-term commitment to a diverse civic leadership for Greater Boston. We need to welcome new leaders into elected office, into appointed positions and into political campaigns,” said Commonwealth Legislative Seminar Executive Director Joel Barrera, who will serve as co-chair of the Initiative’s Advisory Committee.

To do that, the Initiative must overcome an opinion long held by many in Massachusetts politics: that such diversity will be difficult to establish due to a lack of competent and willing participants.

Unearthing and training those participants is a challenge that Initiative principals like Giovanna Negretti relish.

“Too many times, we have heard that people of color are not appointed to office, hired to work in campaigns or even [encouraged to] run for office because no one could find the folks with sufficient qualifications,” said Negretti, executive director of ¿Oíste?, the Massachusetts Latino political organization. “Well, now we’ll have a full slate of folks with qualifications, and then some.”

Management of the Initiative will be led by ¿Oíste?, in partnership with the local non-partisan voting rights organization MassVOTE and Suffolk University’s Department of Government.

With the landmark administration of Gov. Deval Patrick now underway, the timing for such a venture seems perfect. But MassVOTE Executive Director Avi Green is quick to point out that the entrance of an African American into the Corner Office is only the beginning of the fight for a broader spectrum of political and social leaders in the Commonwealth.

“As our state becomes more diverse, our leadership should, too. It’s not just about the governor — it’s about school committees and members of town committees and everything in between,” said Green.

The introduction of the Initiative coincided with the release of a new study conducted by the McCormack Graduate School’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The center’s survey of 10 Massachusetts cities and towns found that despite the greater Boston area’s increasingly diverse population, elected and appointed municipal positions are filled overwhelmingly by whites.

While people of color make up, on average, 41.3 percent of the total population of the 10 cities and towns surveyed, minorities hold just 9.1 percent of municipal elective positions and 15.5 percent of appointed posts in those communities. Four of the 10 — Everett, Lynn, Quincy and Somerville — have no elected officials of color, while Framingham, Malden and Randolph have just one each.

The report follows an earlier center study, released in December, which found that people of color held only 11 percent of top-level gubernatorial appointees during the administration of former governor and 2008 Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

“This should serve as a wake-up call to communities of color to pursue paths that will gain them representation on appointed boards and commissions, as well as position them to run for elective office, where their voices are sorely missed,” said Dr. Carol Hardy-Fanta, director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy and lead author of the study.

According to the report, Boston and Somerville have levels of appointed representation that are closest to the diversity of their populations. In Boston, 47.5 percent of the appointed officials are people of color compared to its population of 50.5 percent non-white, and in Somerville the percent of appointed officials of color (26.3 percent) is nearly the same as their share of the population (27.4 percent).

The study’s recommendations for reducing the disparities include reexamination by cities and towns of their appointment practices and election oversight; greater emphasis by community groups and educational institutions on programs supporting increased public service participation by people of color; and more open discussion on how to foster greater diversity among officials at both the state and local levels.

“Developing the next generation of leaders is a critical issue for the region,” said Paul S. Grogan, president and CEO of The Boston Foundation. “The power of this report is to make clear where we stand today — and to make us more aware of the need to build a diverse and inclusive leadership across Greater Boston.”

For their part, the Initiative’s directors are confident that their work will address that need.

“This program will identify leaders and give them the tools and connections to find their rightful place in our public life,” said Barrera.