Pro-Equity Anti-Racism (PEAR)

Agency Commitment

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission’s mission is to protect the people of Washington by ensuring investor-owned utility and transportation services are safe, equitable, reliable, and fairly priced. 

To fully meet our mission, the UTC commits to:

1. Promote equitable access to opportunities and resources to reduce disparities and improve outcomes statewide across state government consistent with RCW 43.06D.020;
2. Be a pro-equity, anti-racist government organization;
3. Partner with our employees and the communities served by regulated companies to develop a comprehensive equity strategic action plan to bridge opportunity gaps and reduce disparities, and establish outcome measures to determine the effectiveness of the UTC’s efforts;
4. Regularly publish and report outcome measures to share the effectiveness of our efforts to reduce disparities and describe how we are using input from the communities served by those programs.

PEAR Priorities

• Leadership, operations, and services
• Workforce equity
• Community partnerships and engagement

Where We Are At

• In February 2025, our internal PEAR team completed the agency’s Equity Impact Assessment.
• We continue to work on the goals we committed to in 2023.
• We will open our PEAR team to external partners in the fall of 2025. Let us know if you are interested in participating!

Past Events

• Feb. 15, 2023, at 1-2:30 p.m. - PEAR External Advisory Group Meeting
  The UTC hosted our first virtual PEAR External Advisory Group meeting to review the agency's PEAR plan, learn about agency PEAR metrics, and discuss group norms and roles.
   
• Nov. 2, 2022, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. - PEAR Advisory Group Informational Meetings
  The UTC hosted two virtual information meetings to discuss the agency’s PEAR Advisory Group. The meetings included an overview of the UTC, the state and commission’s Pro-Equity Anti-Racism efforts, and the role of the Advisory Group. You can watch the meeting on TVW.

Executive Order 22-04

In March 2022, Gov. Jay Inslee signed Executive Order 22-04, requiring all Washington State agencies to implement a pro-equity anti-racism strategy called the PEAR Plan & Playbook under the guidance of the Office of Equity.

This strategy requires the UTC to:

• Develop a PEAR Strategic Action Plan to identify equity gaps at the UTC and prioritize how to address those gaps.
• Establish an agency PEAR team with staff from all levels and areas of the commission, to help create and implement the strategic action plan.
• Establish an external PEAR Advisory Working Group to include the public and impacted communities in evaluating and improving UTC processes.
• Submit an annual PEAR performance report to the Office of Equity.

Subscribe

Stay up-to-date on the UTC’s PEAR work by subscribing to our mailing list.