- Clackamas County in Oregon has announced that its Equity and Inclusion Office will close on February 5 after eight months of discussion
- The office cost nearly $1 million a year, and Commissioner Ben West said it was divisive and unnecessary
- West said the county will recognize people on merit: Emmett Wheatfall, a former county diversity manager who retired in 2019, said it was a step backward
An Oregon county has voted to eliminate its Equity and Inclusion Office, saving the district nearly $1 million a year after deciding the unit was divisive and unnecessary.
Clackamas County, which includes Portland’s eastern suburbs and extends to Mount Hood, announced earlier this month it would close the office. The two full-time employees will be reassigned to jobs in different parts of the municipality.
Ben West, a Republican nurse and U.S. Navy reservist who became one of five members of the Board of County Commissioners last year, said the office was not working in the best interests of residents.
“We believed it was really important to focus on merit, fairness and equality, and not on racistizing the workplace and the province,” West shared. Fox news.
‘We no longer wanted that in our province.’
Clackamas County Commissioner Ben West said Thursday that closing the Equity and Inclusion Office was the right thing for his county
West, who like his husband Paul is white, is raising a black son, Jay.
He said he felt like a DEI office was pushing people to be categorized based on their race, gender or orientation.
‘We value the individual. We appreciate you regardless of your unchangeable attributes,” West said.
“Those aren’t the things that make you unique and special to Clackamas County. It’s that individual spark within you that does that, that makes you a person.’
He said they want people to “all feel like it’s a great place to live,” with a “diversity of ideas.”
He added that they felt like the DEI office was “becoming a distraction, and we didn’t want that in the county.”
DEI departments sprung up across the country amid the soul-searching sparked by the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
But they are controversial, with critics saying they lead to unfair hiring practices and discrimination against people who fail to tick the right diversity boxes.
Supporters say the policy is necessary to right deep-seated historical wrongs and swing the pendulum back to a neutral place.
West said he felt having an Equity and Inclusion Office was divisive
Mark Shull, another member of the Board of County Commissioners, supported West and said the office should close
Emmett Wheatfall, a former county diversity manager who retired in 2019, said he was disappointed by the news
The office will officially close on February 5, eight months after they began discussing whether to get rid of it.
In May 2023, Commissioner Mark Shull said it was an “unnecessary expense” that “does nothing but create friction.”
West agreed, saying diversity, equity and inclusion efforts create a “victim mentality.”
But Emmett Wheatfall, a former county diversity manager who retired in 2019, said in July that getting rid of the office could lead to more discrimination complaints.
He told Oregon Live last week that the decision to get rid of the office was a step back.
‘I am sad; it seems like we are going the opposite way,” he said.
‘I hope we can move forward again, but that takes champions.’