The Deschutes County Commission voted 2-1 Wednesday morning to dismantle an internal committee spearheading diversity, equity and inclusion work across the county, a reaction to the Trump Administration’s efforts to purge similar programs from the federal government.

The decision nixes the committee — formed in 2023 with a group of directors and staff from a handful of departments — in the process of developing a work plan to make county workplaces more inclusive and improve access services for diverse groups.

The work focused specifically on improving employee retention will be transferred into the human resources department.

Republican commissioners who voted to cut the committee said the county could perform its basic duties without the diversity programs and hinted it should align with the preferences of the new president.

“We’re following the president from the top,” Commissioner Patti Adair said. “The federal government is in charge of a lot of funding that comes to Deschutes County, and I would hate to lose it.”

In the first week of the presidency, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion in the federal workforce, contracting and spending.

Despite Trump’s ongoing efforts to push out DEI, the vote caught some committee members off guard when it became a late addition to Wednesday morning’s meeting agenda late on Monday. A group of staff attended Wednesday’s meeting but weren’t allowed time to speak on the issue.

In a letter to commissioners, Janice Garceau, director of health services and committee member, said removing DEI work would be premature given probable legal challenges to Trump’s executive order, and that without a plan to replace the committee’s work, would undermine staff and community’s confidence in inclusive access to services.

Garceau said the committee’s work had already resulted in changes to practices within her department: translating important information to Spanish and other languages, using plain language and carrying out internal anonymous surveys to improve retention.

Commissioner Phil Chang, a Democrat who advocated for keeping the committee, said he viewed the work as important to making sure county staff better reflected the people it served and making sure county services reached marginalized groups.

“If we looked at this work plan, we could probably see there’s still a whole lot more to do,” he said.

According to Chang, the committee formed not because of direction from commissioners but because of an initiative of staff to work on diversity issues, He questioned the urgency to end the committee.

Commissioner Tony DeBone read the county’s mission statement and said he also supported “inclusive, effective and accessible” services to all residents, non-discrimination and the county’s “obligation to ensure disparities are addressed” — but did not support a staff-led committee working on DEI.

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives in American institutions have become a polarizing topic in recent years, with proponents arguing active inclusion efforts are necessary to provide opportunity for underrepresented groups, and opponents arguing the practices unfairly provide benefits to people based on race and other factors.

In her letter, Garceau refuted some of the most common arguments against DEI, writing that there is no evidence white males have suffered because of DEI practices and said hiring based on race is illegal and not what the diversity programs do.

In a 2023 request soliciting a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant for the county, the committee defined the terms as recognizing the community has a variety of social identities and experiences, seeking a workplace where that identity does not predict success, and maximizing opportunity for participation and access.

The three DEI words have become divisive in recent years, said Tim Brownell, director of the county’s solid waste department and member of the committee. He said in an interview the committee was “really starting to find its footing and its purpose,” and that the goal was to improve the culture of the entire county organization, both for employees themselves and in providing services to the community.

The decision to cut the diversity committee comes after an internal audit showing gaps in pay between male and female employees prompted a full-scale wage equity analysis, due in spring of this year. According to Garceau’s letter, the audit also showed the county workforce is losing women of color at disproportionate rates and gaps remain for people who don’t speak English in accessing information.

Brownell spoke out against the board’s decision, saying it didn’t consider the potential impacts on the county’s workforce.

“It’s entirely a political decision,” Brownell said. “It’s taking a national ideology and it’s bludgeoning the work and contribution of a number of people who are representing the interests and desire and hopes and aspirations for a hell of a lot more employees than the eight of us.”