Signs supporting Estacada's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee lean against a wall at city hall on Feb. 24, 2025. City officials agreed to dissolve its DEI committee, echoing national rhetoric.
Troy Brynelson / OPB
After some tense exchanges at Estacada City Council Monday night, city officials voted to disband a committee on diversity, equity and inclusion that was formed unanimously nearly five years ago.
Councilors voted 5 to 2 in favor of disbanding the advisory committee. Critics echoed national conservative talking points that have blamed DEI for everything from helicopter crashes to inflation in the wake of President Donald Trump’s reelection.
For much of the evening, supporters unsuccessfully asked critics to disentangle the local committee from national politics. Roughly 30 people sat in the audience for the two-and-a-half-hour discussion, about half of whom vocally supported the advisory committee.
Councilor Jonathan Metcalf said he believed the advisory committee had “pure intentions.” Yet he said he couldn’t shake that DEI is “evil in its intent.”
“It’s divisive in its core,” Metcalf said.
Councilors Heidi Prokop and Jerry Tenbush voted against dissolving the committee.
“Removing it is shortsighted, it disrespects hardworking volunteers and weakens our community engagement,” Prokop said.
Observers attend Estacada City Council on Feb. 24, 2025, as it discusses its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.
Troy Brynelson / OPB
Estacada City Council unanimously created the committee in 2020 following demonstrations against racism and a listening session about racial justice that summer.
“This wasn’t some radical idea that came out of left field,” Kimberlee Ables, a committee member, told councilors Monday night. “It was literally a direct response to what people in this community asked for. Not everyone, but some, and they asked for it.”
Ables and other committee members pleaded that their efforts focused solely on the community. The group’s function was to advise the council on equity issues, such as whether a diverse range of community members had been participating in discussions about local housing needs.
Committee members repeatedly said they could change the committee’s name to distance it from any negative connotations of “DEI.”
Still, most of the evening’s discussions could not break free from the popular criticisms of DEI programs, often among conservatives. For example, Trump blamed diversity requirements without evidence for a midair collision between an Army helicopter and a passenger jet in January.
“We don’t need to hire helicopter pilots by their diversity — their color or sexual preference, any of those kind of things,” Dan Tooze, vice chair of the Clackamas County Republican Party, told councilors. Tooze was also a member of the Proud Boys as recently as 2021.
Supporters loudly reacted to many of the critics’ inflammatory claims. After one critic from Oregon City said trans issues were a “mental illness,” a supporter stormed outside with a megaphone and began loudly speaking over public comment. That supporter later apologized.
After the vote, some councilors who’d voted to dissolve the committee tried to placate people in the crowd who supported it. They said they would be willing to form a less official version sometime in the future. They did not set a timetable.
