Deschutes County dissolved its DEIA committee without hearing public opinions. Officials got an earful anyway

Deschutes County residents continued to email and call in the weeks after county commissioners voted to terminate a staff-led, internal work group focused on promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and access. Board Chair Tony DeBone didn’t allow public comment or staff input on the item during the Feb. 5 meeting.

“We did nothing to support this committee besides let them exist. And then we didn’t even let them exist anymore,” Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang said in an interview.

Chang voted to keep the committee, but was outmaneuvered in a 2-1 decision by Commissioners Patti Adair and DeBone. Recently, the Estacada City Council voted to dismantle its DEI committee.

Adair and DeBone said they were following the presidential executive order that demanded an end to federal funding for DEI programs. Last month a federal judge temporarily blocked that executive order.

Public records show the Deschutes DEIA committee had clearly defined goals, including addressing the county’s inability to retain women of color on staff.

Chang said his fellow commissioners were caught up in the zeitgeist of national politics and misunderstood what diversity, equity, inclusion and access work means for county services.

DeBone said he was following federal directives to roll back DEI initiatives. When asked if he thought the decision reflected the culture of Deschutes County staff, he replied, “I am the culture. I’m the elected official who makes these statements upfront.”

DeBone said he also didn’t understand the purpose of DEI work.

“Federal government is asking to dial back DEI,” DeBone said, ”I’m an elected official. I’m here to love all and serve all."

Over 200 people emailed the county in the days leading up to and the weeks after the vote.

People raised concerns about hiring practices and costs, and some expressed shame and disappointment with DeBone and Adair.

County worker Kim Bohme’s was among the first wave of letters received.

“I have been the proud beneficiary of DEI work in our community,” Bohme said.

She wrote about overcoming multiple barriers in life to achieve successes like owning a home and completing college.

“I am a black woman, part of the LGBTQIA community and autistic. Nothing in my life has been easy,” she said.

Despite her qualifications, she wrote, she still has to “work twice as hard as men in my field to prove my value and worth and am still underpaid just due to my gender.”

Last March, Deschutes County published an audit of wage equity for staff jobs. It found that wage disparities existed across gender and race, and non-white women earned the least.

According to the report, 55% of non-white women left their county jobs within two years of starting, more than double the rate at which white employees turned over.

OPB asked DeBone how he would like to see the county address retaining non-white women on county staff.

“The audit says women of color, I would start with qualified people,” DeBone said.

He theorized that the cost of housing was a considerable factor.

Addressing the retention of non-white women was one of the areas the DEIA committee was set up to address. Ashton Varner, former committee chair who is also the diversity equity and inclusion strategist for the health services department, said the group was “just getting started”.

Commissioner Chang said he voted to preserve the committee to provide access to county services for everyone. He cited the success of separate initiatives under the DEI banner, like bilingual health communications that were essential during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Long before the pandemic, Deschutes Health Services was prioritizing equity and access when they realized some county residents were having trouble getting care, according to Deschutes County Health Services Director Janice Garceau.

Spanish speakers weren’t able to navigate or access critical health information or care as well as native English speakers, she said.

This realization drove the creation of targeted approaches to serving county residents with equity, inclusion and access in mind. The scope has now broadened beyond Spanish-speaking communities to include members of the LGBTQ community, communities of color, new immigrants from China, Native American community members and rural county residents.

Garceau said people come to the county with different needs based on things like language, income, gender or nationality, but also rural community members, like those living in La Pine.

“We were finding it extremely difficult to staff that clinic,” she said. “The La Pine community is a very proud community. It has its own identity and it wants to be served in the way it wants to be served.”

With the help of DEI programming, she said her department was able to increase pay for rural health workers, which helped staff La Pine clinics with people who live there.

Chang said his fellow commissioners have been swept up by national politics and don’t understand what diversity, equity, inclusion and access mean when it comes to county services.

Adair said she voted to end the committee because the prospect of losing federal funding concerned her.

During the Feb. 5 meeting, she said she was following presidential orders from the top.

According to Jana Cain, the acting chief financial officer for the county, Deschutes County receives $6 million directly from the federal government and $5.8 million in federal passthrough funding, about 1.7% of the total budget.