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Commissioners ask staff to circulate DEI training report now; facilitated discussion slated for March
Summary
Commissioners requested immediate circulation of a DEI-training report (with a suggested neutral title to avoid politicized labeling) and asked staff to schedule a facilitated discussion and committee assignments at the March meeting; staff said the report could be sent now but the facilitated session cannot be prepared by Jan. 5.
Several commissioners at the Jan. 13 Columbia River Gorge Commission meeting pressed staff to distribute a completed staff report on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training so commissioners would have time to read it in advance of a facilitated discussion scheduled for March.
Commissioner Valerie Fowler urged staff to "get the report out now" so commissioners and residents could absorb its findings rather than waiting only for a facilitated meeting: "If you've got it, let's give everybody as much time as possible to absorb it." Several other commissioners supported distributing the report immediately for transparency.
Staff said the report had not been circulated because staff planned to facilitate a discussion around its findings and could not prepare that facilitation by Jan. 5; staff offered to circulate the report now and hold the facilitated discussion at the March meeting. Commissioners also suggested renaming the document to avoid the politically charged "DEI" acronym and used alternatives such as "culture review" to reduce politicized framing.
Separately, commissioners agreed to make committee assignments a discrete agenda item rather than leaving them in 'other business' and staff previewed several March meeting topics including committee updates and appointees to the Oregon and Washington Investment Boards.
Next steps: staff will circulate the final report to commissioners, present a facilitated discussion at the March meeting and make committee assignments an agenda item in January as requested.
