Last month, the Jefferson City Council tabled a bill to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. The bill was sponsored by Ward 3 Councilman Scott Spencer and Ward 4 Councilman Derrick Spicer, who were looking to remove diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) policies from city boards, departments, and commissions.
The bill was crafted to have Jefferson City’s policies mirror federal law with federal civil rights laws, which prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
The sponsors of the bill believe that DEI programs could “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.” However, they made sure to reaffirm the city’s commitment to being an equal-opportunity employer.
DEI has been seeing a serious routing in Missouri lately. Governor Mike Kehoe signed Executive Order 25-18 which directed all Missouri state agencies to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and also ensured compliance with the constitutional principle of equal protection under the law. The Executive Order also barred the use of state funds for any DEI programs as well as prevented agencies from using DEI methods in their hiring practices.
The University of Missouri and Missouri State University have also chosen to discontinue their DEI departments and programs.
On a national level, President Trump also signed an executive order taking aim at DEI programs in the federal government.
“President Trump ran on a platform of ending waste, fraud, abuse and ending DEI programs,” Scott Spencer told the Missouri Times. “Over 66% of our community voted for Trump and that agenda. The people already have spoken on this issue. We were trying to implement a policy that the people wanted but unfortunately some on this council didn’t agree.”
Councilman Scott Spencer is rumored to be a possible contender for the House’s 60th District, replacing current term-limited Representative Dave Griffith.
Despite seeing serious setbacks across the state, the bill was defeated by the Jefferson City Council. The members who voted against the bill were the 5th Ward’s Mackenzie Job, the 4th Ward’s Chris Lueckel, the 3rd Ward’s Treaka Young, the 2nd Ward’s Aaron Mealy, Mike Lester and the 1st’s Ward Randy Hoselton.
The 1st’s Ward Randy Hoselton argued that this was not the right setting to have this debate, stating “this isn’t the state legislature this is city council. And usually whenever it comes to large broad social issues those are defined by those levels of government. Your federal, your state, you know here we deal with issues that are unique to Jefferson City.”
“President Trump is exactly right. DEI programs only divide us by race, waste our money, and result in underperformance and dangerous incompetence.” Stated the 4th Ward’s Derrick Spicer. “Taxpayer Funds should never be used for divisive, political policies like DEI.”
Councilman Derrick Spicer is currently running to replace outgoing State Senator Mike Bernskoetter in Senate District 6.
The members who voted in favor were 5th Ward Mark Schwartz, 4th Ward Derrick Spicer, 3rd Ward Scott Spencer and 1st Ward Jeff Ahlers.
The council is expected to hold two more council meetings before the upcoming city council elections which will be held Tuesday, April 8.
Jake Kroesen is a Jackson County native and a graduate of the University of Central Missouri. He holds a B.S. in Political Science.
