The implications of President Trump’s disdain for DEI programs filtered all the way down to Stafford County on Tuesday.
The Board of Supervisors was to discuss the establishment of an ad-hoc committee to review the charter and purpose of the county’s Diversity Advisory Coalition, which was started in 2020.
But much of the talk at a work session centered around this question: Does the mere existence of a diversity committee endanger federal funding on which the county relies?
One of the executive orders Trump issued on his first day in office earlier this month sought to eliminate any federal programs that had to do with “diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI. The order said the programs showed “immense public waste and shameful discrimination.”
Those developments prompted Supervisor Crystal Vanuch to suggest that the board wait to act on much of anything related to the county’s Diversity Advisory Coalition until there was more clarity about how the executive order would be carried out by federal agencies.
“I just want to make sure that we’re doing things in a smart, timely manner because these things are out of our control,” said Vanuch, who represents the Rock Hill District. “We can’t control what happens at the federal level.”
Aquia District Supervisor Monica Gary said lashing out against diversity is “fear-mongering.”
“If the decision is between listening to people of diverse backgrounds who are my constituents — and residents in this county — and cowering to threats of, ‘We’re going to withhold funding for things that we need, that maybe we already have in the works,’ I am 100 percent always going to listen to the people that I represent,” Gary said.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Deuntay Diggs said the anti-diversity talk was “disgusting.”
“And I use the word ‘disgusting’ because, for crying out loud, we don’t serve under or live under, a king,” said Diggs, “and we’re doing something that we believe will positively impact our community.”
Vanuch said she didn’t have a specific problem with the coalition. But she didn’t want to move forward with something that might need to be changed later, and she didn’t want to risk losing federal funding just to have a diversity panel.
“Maybe not everybody agrees with me, but I don’t want to risk all of our federal grants and funding for transportation for that,” she said.
In the end, the supervisors agreed to revisit the issue in six months.
Code of Performance
Also Tuesday, the supervisors had a somewhat tense exchange about their Code of Performance, the board’s commitment to conduct county business in a professional manner.
Vanuch said Jan. 7 that she wanted to make an addition to the code that would say county employees who also serve as supervisors must take leave for board meetings, activities, work, or constituent outreach and submit that leave request to the county administrator for public review.
Such an amendment would apply to only Diggs and Hartwood District Supervisor Darrell English, both of whom work for the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office.
But Vanuch said the move should be made solely for reasons of transparency.
“It’s not meant to be ugly to anyone, or retaliatory or anything like that,” Vanuch said. “But I think that we have, as a board, made conscious decisions in the past not to have county employees in leadership positions just because of that issue.”
Falmouth District Supervisor Meg Bohmke also said that, if she was in her colleagues’ situation, she would have already gotten an opinion from the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council about it.
“I would recommend that, if you haven’t already gotten an opinion, that you get an opinion from them,” she said.
On the other hand, Gary and board Vice Chairwoman Tinesha Allen said they were against the change.
“I feel like we previously had that conversation on our board, and the board was not in favor of doing that,” Gary said. “So I don’t know that that’s productive to bring that back up.”
And the two supervisors who would be affected by the move? They weren’t pleased.
English said he would submit his timesheets if that was sought by either his peers or his constituents and was necessary to prove his integrity.
“But,” he added, “I’ve never had anybody say anything to me about it.”
For his part, Diggs said that the conversation “really pisses me off,” and that he wouldn’t be submitting timesheets to the county administrator.
And he went a step further, mentioning he has spent 16 years serving the county as a sheriff’s deputy.
“Should things continue to be brought up and insinuations made and something adversely impacts my career, my calling, something that I take very seriously, I’m going to take legal action,” he said. “If I’m doing something wrong, then by all means, hold me accountable. But I will not allow politics to be used to impact my career that I’ve worked very hard for.”
