(La Porte County, IN) - La Porte County government has formally set a goal of hiring more minorities to reflect the racial make-up of the population here.

 

The La Porte County Council Monday night unanimously adopted a resolution to actively seek more minority job applicants.

 

According to the resolution, 11.4-percent of La Porte County residents are African American while the percentage of African Americans working for county government is 8.5 percent. 7.4 percent of La Porte County’s population is Hispanic.  The percentage of Hispanics currently employed by county government is 1.9 percent,.

 

“This is a tool to start the process and get it going and, hopefully, it starts the dialogue and we get things moving forward and put this item behind us, because in 2023 we shouldn’t be having this conversation,” said Councilman Randy Novak.

 

Councilman Earl Cunningham said adding more Hispanics, for example, could help in situations when a translator is needed to communicate with a Hispanic constituent.

 

He also expressed a need to hire more minorities whose positions are more out in the public so more people notice how the make-up of county government reflects the local demographics.  Cunningham said most minority employees seem to work behind the scenes in places like the county jail, community corrections and juvenile services center.

 

“Most people would be shocked to realize as we went through the correspondence on the numbers that we’re as close as we are.   They’re just not in places that are highly visibly and we need to improve that considerably,” he said.

 

La Porte County government has been pressured by minorities in recent years to establish a workforce more reflective of the racial make-up here.