Residents Urge Committee to Preserve DEI Office; Speakers Link Local Policy to National Trends

Residents urged the Financial Review Committee to preserve the city’s DEI administration role and consider its work before recommending changes.

Dana Watson, who said she lives in East Lansing and served on the selection group that reviewed committee applications, told members that the city’s 2020 resolution declaring racism a public-health crisis explicitly committed to preserving the DEI administration role as a permanent position. “We commit to preserve the DEI administration role as a permanent position within the city government,” Watson said, and warned that six years is not sufficient to remedy systemic inequities. She asked the committee to consider how budgetary choices and percentages affect equity and to review long-term spending such as city-attorney costs she said had reached $1.2 million in ten months.

Chris Root also urged keeping the DEI office. Root cited national developments — including a January 20, 2025 executive order referenced in his remarks and recent Supreme Court decisions — as context for why local commitments to equity matter. He said the work of expanding minority representation and addressing structural exclusion is unfinished and that East Lansing should not be part of any backsliding.

Committee response: Members acknowledged the speakers’ concerns and moved the DEI item up the agenda to allow public input to inform the discussion. The committee did not approve a formal change to the DEI office at this meeting; members focused most of their formal action time on the income-tax recommendations. The committee’s final report will include public comments and any recommended language the committee sends to city council for consideration.

Next steps: Public comments and the committee’s discussion will be included in the final committee report to council. Any change to the DEI position or charter-level language would require further process and, where applicable, voter approval.