The Sherburne County board this week voted to terminate all county initiatives and programs aimed at advancing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
The action, according to County Administrator Bruce Messelt, is in response to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order instructing federal contractors to not engage in DEI efforts, which he described as “illegal discrimination.”
During the board meeting Tuesday, Messelt said county officials had identified one program that could come under federal scrutiny: a DEI-specific assessment in the county’s Health and Human Services department that was funded by $33,000 of federal COVID relief funding and $166,000 of other federal money.
The contract was with Minneapolis-based CultureBrokers, which offers consulting services for DEI efforts. Messelt said the contract has been fully executed but the group’s suggestions were never implemented.
Board member Andrew Hulse said Tuesday he didn’t agree with the organization’s recommendations to begin with.
“At the end of the day, there are 13 protected classes in Minnesota statute — four more than in federal statute. It’s already illegal to discriminate. Period," Hulse said. “Their report out to us [was] leading toward hiring practices that I was not comfortable with.”
Messelt said the county already conducts hiring and employee evaluations based on performance, and he reiterated that won’t change.
“It is predominantly a merit-based system,” he said. “The county has not hired, promoted or evaluated individuals based upon what would commonly be called DEI.”
