Patricia Lafore, director of Human Rights and Accessibility in the City of Worcester’s Executive Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, updated commissioners that the office is expanding staff and nearing hires.

"We've pretty much concluded interviews. We have a new training, coordinator or director here who's gonna be working on both professional development management training and also DEI training both internally and externally through our department," Lafore said. She added the office is "waiting to hear, if offers were made for the human rights and accessibility's coordinator position," and that second interviews are being scheduled for a new investigator, which would bring the office to three investigators.

Lafore said the additional staff will allow the office to spread workload more evenly and increase capacity to respond to complaints and conduct outreach. Commissioners asked no substantive follow-up questions and accepted the update as informational; no vote or formal direction was recorded.