The City Council voted on Monday in favor of reclassifying the Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator position and dissolving the Inclusive Sioux City Committee.
Many of the council members expressed that it was a difficult decision to make and that they did not want to do this. They also said that there was too much at risk if they were to lose federal funding for transportation and housing.
The Trump administration said organizations could lose funding if they don’t halt DEI programs.The latest piece regarding that came to the city in a letter on April 24.
Bob Scott, the mayor of Sioux City, said, “we seem to be going way backwards on some of this stuff it bothers the heck out of me I can't tell you how much it bothers me”.
He added, “It’s just what we are doing is not what the federal government is even talking about, I worry that we change things for no reason.
One council member, Matthew O’ Kane, suggested the Diversity and Inclusive Coordinator and Inclusive Committee could fit under the Human Rights Commission, and that the Inclusive Committee could become a subcommittee under the Human Rights Commission. O Kane is the only council member who voted no for all the issues involving DEI.
Community members including Monique Scarlett and Ike Rayford, expressed their concerns about these issues and what it would mean to the community if they were taken away.
Ike Rayford said, “ We cannot claim to be a city that cares for its people while simultaneously stripping away the very frameworks meant to protect and empower them. These initiatives were put in place because our community asked for them, because history demanded them and because progress required them”.