King County's Journey in Institutionalizing Equity and Social Justice

• Author: Matías Valenzuela
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12857
• Published date: 01 November 2017
• Date: 01 November 2017

818 Public Administration Review • November | December 2017

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 6, pp. 818–821. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12857.

Matías Valenzuela is director of the

Office of Equity and Social Justice in King

County, Washington. He has been with King

County for more than 16 years, working in

public health and equity. Early in his career,

he was a journalist in the United States and

Central America. He was also a Fulbright

professor in Nicaragua, and he is affiliate

assistant professor in the University of

Washington’s School of Public Health and

Community Medicine.

E-mail : matias.valenzuela@kingcounty.gov

Evidence in Public

Administration

T he United States has a history of programs

and movements that have contributed to

addressing poverty and well-being, including

access to quality jobs, housing, and education, such as

the New Deal and the civil rights movement. Despite

areas of improvements, deep and historically based

chasms by race and class persist today. Evidence of

this is the increasing levels of income inequality and

systemic racism and bias in government institutions,

manifested by the disproportionate number of people

of color who are incarcerated.

These trends come at a time when growing evidence

shows that robust, sustained economic growth

flourishes in places with the least inequality. Also,

there is increasing urgency to address inequities, as

the growing demographic shift puts the United States

on the road to being majority “minority” in less than

30 years.

What happens when local government decides that

a top priority is addressing issues of racial justice,

equity, and opportunity—especially when progress is

stalled at the national level? The story of King County,

Washington, offers one illustration.

King County provides local and regional services to

more than two million people across 39 cities and

unincorporated areas in transportation, criminal

justice, public health and human services, natural

resources, and more.

Building on Isett, Head, and VanLandingham ’ s

( 2016 ) work on how evidence can better inform

public administration, this article considers evidence

in several important ways. King County ’ s approach

to equity and social justice has been driven by both

data and values. Almost a decade of experience

within King County—as well as other jurisdictions

around the country with equity initiatives

1 —has

made addressing equity and racial justice increasingly

a discipline based on evidence and promising

practices.

In addition, this article lays out the evidence for

why governments should focus on equity and social

justice. King County ’ s theory of change—backed by

the evidence of working “upstream” and addressing

root causes—provides a how that is more effective

than many traditional government approaches

and interventions that focus “downstream” at the

individual level.

The King County experience acknowledges the

inherent tension between innovation and evidence-

based action. We know that past practices by

institutions and society have contributed to inequities,

so part of the task is to create new, better, and more

inclusive processes while dismantling the barriers to

opportunity. Innovation, by definition, demands new

approaches, interventions, and strategies and thus the

creation of new evidence. King County ’ s equity and

social justice work is built on careful engagement and

listening to both community and employees—using

their experience or evidence to create more effective

policies, programs, and interventions, as well as to

drive the necessary transformational cultural change.

King County ’ s Story

Although King County has overall better economic,

health, and quality of life conditions than the rest of

the country and the region benefits from world-class

businesses and institutions, these assets mask deep and

persistent inequities—sometimes more pronounced

than in the rest of the country. Comparing the 10 zip

codes with the highest average household incomes to

the 10 zip codes with the lowest household incomes,

there is a difference of more than $100,000 within

King County. In a similar comparison, life expectancy

also varies by race by up to 12 years.

Why are these differences important? These gaps by

race and place are a concern because they correspond

to significant differences in opportunity. Place and

race matter in King County, and they are predictors

of income and a wide set of outcomes, including life

expectancy and education (King County 2015 ).

Kimberley R. Isett, Brian W. Head, and Gary VanLandingham, Editors

Matías Valenzuela

Office of Equity and Social Justice , King County , Washington

King County ’ s Journey in Institutionalizing Equity and

Social Justice