The survey, run by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, is part of the city’s broader Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) — an effort to reduce racial disparities within city government.

The questionnaire is administered every year. However, the latest is focused on workplace harassment, a reaction to reports of mistreatment within city government. The full results of the survey are due to be released in the coming months, but a summary was made available as part of a recent training for legislative staff, the first part of which was open to the public.

Spurred on by the #MeToo movement, city employees began coming forward to Crosscut and other publications in late 2017 and early 2018 with complaints of a toxic, discriminatory and retaliatory workplace. The grievances were not limited to just one department, with employees from City Light and city departments for transportation, information technology and elsewhere saying they were made to feel uncomfortable at work. In late 2017, a group of city employees, calling itself the Seattle Silence Breakers, began meeting during lunch hours to share stories and advocate for changes to city policy.

In response, Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered a review of the city’s anti-harassment policies shortly after taking office and routed all sexual-harassment settlements through the city’s central HR department. She formed an inter-departmental team consisting of employees in the mayor’s office, City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, labor representatives and a representative from the Silence Breakers. That team was slated to issue recommendations in May.

According to Stephanie Formas, spokesperson with the Mayor’s Office, "The anti-harassment and anti-discrimination [inter-department team] have identified 35 total recommendations and 126 strategies, and the City is now finalizing its final report as well as the implementation plan, with the aim of releasing the survey findings and recommendations in the coming weeks."

As part of her review, Durkan also added a number of new questions related to workplace harassment to the city’s annual RSJI survey. The survey, which spanned nearly 60 questions, asked employees about a wide range of topics with regard to their workplace environment.

About 30 percent of the city’s staff answered the survey — totaling 4,231 employee responses. Thirty-six percent of respondents were people of color, roughly equal to the breakdown of the entire workforce. Forty-nine percent were women, which is higher than the city’s 38 percent total. Six percent are living with a disability. The survey was anonymous.

On management, the survey asked employees whether leadership took appropriate steps to respond to harassment complaints, gave fair and equal treatment to all employees, fostered an accepting workplace culture and several other similar questions.

The survey also asked employees to comment on whether they’ve heard inappropriate jokes, witnessed the sharing of inappropriate videos or photos, or experienced inappropriate touching, sexual advances, or quid-pro-quo deals involving sex and more.

Further, the survey asked if employees had experienced racism or sexism in different forms or whether management had created a toxic workplace.

The survey also asked employees to rate how well the city responded to complaints of any of the above.

The full results of the survey are still being prepared, according to Roberto Bonaccorso, spokesperson for the Office for Civil Rights. But at a retreat Tuesday, staff in the city’s Legislative Department were given a summary of the results of the survey.