Lane County asked to reaffirm commitment to DEIA

Presenter: Public comments urge Lane County commissioners to step up as allies and to push back against national narratives undermining diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. On Dec. 3:

Demond Hawkins (Eugene Springfield NAACP, president): My name is Demond Hawkins. As we get close to the end of the year here, I just wanted to just be mindful as we’re getting into this transition here about the importance of the work in this community. So I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today.

[00:00:30] I want to take a moment to emphasize the importance of Lane County staying the course in its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives. Despite the growing national challenges and pushback, your dedication of these initiatives reflect the leadership integrity to serve all residents of the county.

[00:00:54] As the NAACP, we want to express our gratitude for your progress that you’ve made already through your equity department, the programs, policies, and actions you’ve implemented through the team that have had a positive impact and build solid foundations that we can collaboratively expand upon, whether that be in partnerships through our annual MLK event (which is coming up Jan. 20), your diverse business directory, having direct point of contact with concerns that may have arisen in the community. We’ve experienced where that’s been a great partnership with you.

[00:01:30] With that said, we recognize that the current political climate has created a more hostile environment for this work. However, these challenges also present an opportunity. By leaning into this moment, Lane County can establish itself as a leader in equity and inclusion, showing resilience and commitment to its core values.

[00:01:51] This is where allyship becomes critical. People of color and marginalized communities do not have the privilege of stepping away from the work. We live this daily. This is what it is for us. So true allyship leans in when things are tough and not retreat.

[00:02:08] Your continued commitment to DEIA is a signal to the community that Lane County is a place where everyone belongs. As leaders, we urge you to reaffirm your commitment both publicly and privately, use your platform and push back against national narratives undermining equity, justice, and let’s just work together and strengthen our efforts.

[00:02:31] The NAACP stands ready to collaborate with you and community partners to address these barriers and create meaningful change.

[00:02:38] Nichi Linder: My name is Nichi Linder and I am a concerned resident of District 2 and I am here to speak in support of our equity initiatives here in the county. I am very disappointed to learn that there has been funding rollbacks and potential concern around continuation of the work that we have done.

[00:03:00] We’ve made incredible strides and despite our commitment, with our stated values of equity and respect, we still have many families in our county who are struggling. Despite popular belief, we are a very diverse and varied community with a lot of different needs. And without having continued public input and focus on the kinds of initiatives that bring us all up together as families in our community, we will be leaving people behind.

[00:03:35] This is increasingly a concern with the upcoming administration. We will be looking to you, our local leaders both at the local level and at the state level, to provide protection, continued access, and generally making sure that we have a good equitable community where all of our families can thrive.

[00:04:02] So we are engaged. We’re excited to see what you can do. You’ve done some amazing things thus far and I hope that work can continue. We will be here watching to see how this next phase unfolds. I urge your support at every opportunity that you have to support funding, voting, really putting your money where your mouth is, as far as equity initiatives are concerned. Our families are relying on you.

[00:04:33] Anna Lardner: My name is Anna Lardner. My pronouns are she/her. A few weeks ago I came before you asking for some assurances and actions with regards to the upcoming federal climate and how that might imperil the values and mission that we hold dear in Lane County.

[00:04:49] Today I’m here with a much more specific request, but one that is no less essential. And this is about the upcoming county counsel process, specifically, the narrowing down of finalists as part of this process.

[00:05:02] I worked in the county for seven years first as a parole officer in the Domestic Violence Unit and then briefly as a mental health specialist in Youth Services before going on to pursue a career in dancing and art. It’s more of my passion, but local government is still very important to me, and the county counsel position is an integral part of that local government.

[00:05:20] ORS defines the county counsel, …one of the few positions that the Board of Commissioners actually appoints and selects themselves. It works directly for the board. The county counsel advises the board as well as all public officials on matters of legal, specifically civil, but also some criminal legal aspects related to the discharge of their duties and the carrying out of their county capacities.

[00:05:45] Now the county counsel position is something that not a lot of people in our community know what it does, but it’s extraordinarily powerful and has a huge impact on how the county does its business. This would be true in ordinary times. But it is even more so true in extraordinary times, which we find ourselves in today, with an incoming federal administration in Washington that is likely to be at odds both with county values in our mission, as well as state law.

[00:06:11] This will put Lane County in the future in a position where it may have to make tough decisions about what to do if federal guidance at the executive order level or the legal level is different from what we might want to do here in the county. I’ve talked with dozens of people from across the political divide in the last few weeks and very few of them knew what county counsel did or how important this position was.

[00:06:33] That’s why I’m inviting the county commissioners to open up the process of narrowing down those finalists in a public forum, a public forum with the finalists of the county counsel position to sit before members of the community and field questions that those community members might ask. This would give county counsels an opportunity, at least the candidates, an opportunity to discuss their legal philosophies, as well as for members of our community, an opportunity to see what those county counsel finalists might do in the future, to learn more about local government, and generally to participate in our democracy even more than they have in the past.

[00:07:11] I think this would be a great opportunity to show Oregon and the state as a whole, how we do democracy in Lane County, and the way that we want to draw on our community’s participation.

[00:07:22] Mindy Linder: My name is Mindy Linder, my pronouns are she, her. And I am raising my family in Commissioner (Laurie) Trieger’s District, and I work in Commissioner (David) Loveall’s district in Springfield, and I grew up in West Eugene, where Commissioner (Pat) Farr was my then-family’s city councilor.

[00:07:38] I want to extend my gratitude to the Board of Commissioners for your unanimous commitment to equity and respect in our region. I want to request that you stay the course and sustain your support of equity and respect as a fundamental priority that informs all public service efforts.

[00:07:57] We need now, more than ever, your unwavering determination to represent and serve each and every person throughout Lane County, regardless of race, gender, identity, religion, etc.

[00:08:11] I have been a public servant for almost 20 years and currently work for the Springfield Public Library and History Museum. As a public servant, I understand that the currency we deal in is trust. The success and efficacy of our service relies entirely upon whether or not the people we are here to serve feel a sense of welcome, belonging, and inclusive representation in our staff, facilities, resources, programs, and services, and the only way to build trust is to earn it.

[00:08:43] And equity is a trust-building tool. The work of Lane County’s equity program has made tremendous strides since its inception. I have had the honor and pleasure of working alongside Lane County’s equity program staff and community leaders from across Eugene and Springfield to be intentional about the engagement of those who have been historically marginalized, and who are disproportionately impacted by systemic inequities.

[00:09:09] Together we’ve built authentic relationships and held space with curiosity and an open mind, learning with the intention for both ourselves and the institutions we represent to learn to be and do better.

[00:09:23] The constituents of Lane County are watching, and they are holding us all accountable to earn and sustain their trust. Thank you for what you stand for and all that you do to ensure this remains a priority.

[00:09:38] I’ll leave you with the thoughts of one of your young constituents, Natalia Caird, who is a 16-year-old Springfield High School student who honored the Springfield History Museum with her oral history last year. She shared her perspective as a young Black woman growing up at this point in our history.

[00:09:55] She speaks of how her generation doesn’t just want a life that is comparatively less oppressive than those who came before. Her generation wants and deserves greatness. Now my 10-year-old daughter, and I’m sure your children, families, and those of all of us, that is what they deserve and want: Greatness. So, please. We’ve got work to do.

[00:10:18] Laurie Trieger (Lane County commissioner): I appreciate everyone for coming… I will speak to the topic, which is this organization’s longstanding and firm commitment to the values of equity, inclusion, respect, belonging. And really what that means as a government is that we have a responsibility to create policy and programs that serve the entirety of our community and remove as many barriers as possible because it is often government that has put those barriers in place.

[00:10:45] So we have a dual purpose of breaking down barriers that government has put in place as well as creating new pathways forward. And absolutely we do that with our words, with our deeds, with our policy, with our programs, and absolutely we do that with our dollars. And so thank you all for coming to speak to the importance of that and what that means to you.

[00:11:07] David Loveall (Lane County commissioner): I want to just say a couple of things about that. You know, the thing I love about Springfield the most is that diversity is not their top priority, inclusion is.

[00:11:16] And I think when I say that, I want to clarify what I mean by that. The great thing about Springfield is, we don’t tend to take preferred classes and continue to divide people up. We just get jobs done. We include people for what they are and how they come to the table, and we don’t really spend a lot of time in my experience talking about how we’re different, but rather how we’re more cohesive and how we want to work together as a community.

[00:11:38] So that’s what I really love about Springfield. The currency of trust, I think is a great statement, Mindy, you said the currency we deal with is trust and the only way to build trust is to earn it. And I’m hoping that this Board of County Commissioners, myself included, is earning your trust by what we do and how we face difficult decisions, but also how we face those difficult decisions with sometimes difficult arguments and difficult discussions.

[00:12:01] And I think part of the reputation that maybe some people are trying to portray myself with—with a filter—is that my objection to DEI is the objection to the program itself. It is not. The objection I have is that there’s no room for discussion and disagreement.

[00:12:16] Those people that come forward, and I’ve had many people come to me and ask me why there’s not a table for disagreement and discussions amongst the DEI audience. And that these are people from preferred classes that feel othered by the process.

[00:12:28] So that’s what I’m going to fight for, is more candor and more transparency on bringing people to the table that disagree and want to refine how we include, equitably, people in our community better.

[00:12:40] Because every single one of us on this board is committed to doing that. There’s nobody on this board that has a secret agenda to slight anyone of any class or gender or identity here. We want everyone in Lane County to succeed in the way that they see fit and the way we can help them as a community or board.

[00:12:56] So I want to make that statement as a strong position of where I’m at.

[00:13:01] Heather Buch (Lane County commissioner): For all of you that spoke, thank you. You have my support and my allyship. I will lean in, and I absolutely would love to see us reaffirm that commitment. There is a lot of uncertainty with the new administration coming in and I can feel it. I can feel it in our community and I want to be as supportive as possible and utilize the position that I have for the greatest good of our community and I think that’s part of it, absolutely.

[00:13:36] They’re such wonderful, inspiring words from the young Springfield constituent that you mentioned, and speaking of young constituents, every year in Pleasant Hill there is a third-grade teacher that teaches about the government to their class and I receive letters from eight-year-olds that I respond to and of course thank the teacher every year, for opening their world to civics and government. And I just thought I’d read a few of them. They’re fairly short.

[00:14:14] Presenter: She read letters from Addie, Cecilia, Penny, and this last one from Lydia.

[00:14:19] Heather Buch (Lane County commissioner): ‘Dear Commissioner Buch, My name is Lydia. I live in Dexter. I go to Pleasant Hill Elementary. I’m eight years old… I like to play in our pool. I like to tell jokes and play sports. I like Oregon because there are stores, companies, churches, and homes. I like Oregon because you can have a family and you can be free. I think you can improve safety. What is it like to be a county commissioner? Do you like your job? What is your favorite place to go?’

[00:14:51] I just wanted to take a moment and just share these wonderfully sweet letters from the eight-year-olds who are actually thinking about what’s going on in our community. And this is the kind of work that inspires me every day.

[00:15:05] Presenter: Lane County commissioners are asked to reaffirm their commitment to DEIA work, as they are reminded that our youth expect and deserve greatness.