An urgent matter needs to be brought to the attention of the public and colleagues at DEQ regarding blatant disregard for concerns raised by our Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) colleagues around discrimination at this agency. We call on allies to sign onto this open letter and call agency leadership to share your support.

Late last Monday June 16th, 2025, we were made aware that one of our newest BIPOC employees was removed from trial service and employment. We are angry and deeply disappointed in the agency's decision. Many of you have worked with this DEQ colleague and know that they brought academic expertise, lived experience, and an unwavering dedication to environmental justice.

This removal is a clear example of the agency's hypocritical approach to equity and justice. While the agency publicly states that it values environmental justice, when staff are doing the work of building it into the fabric of DEQ’s programs and culture, they are made to feel uncomfortable, unsupported, and pushed out. It is unacceptable to celebrate the idea of justice while demonizing, gaslighting and scapegoating those who challenge the status quo in the pursuit of it.

Background and chronology of the wrongful firing of our colleague:

This situation escalated when the employee’s direct manager, the new Assistant Director who is leading the Office of Equity, attempted to schedule a meeting on June 9, 2025 to discuss a matter related to an April meeting. The employee reasonably asked for additional clarification about the issue and requested a third party be present. These requests were grounded in rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the employee’s discomfort from meeting alone with the Assistant Director.

Instead of honoring the employee’s rights and accommodating the request, a basic expectation under ADA protections, a foundational practice of equity-centered management, and central to DEQ’s stated value of “care,” the Assistant Director ignored the concerns and initiated intimidation tactics to pressure meeting on their terms. This behavior was not only inappropriate, it was retaliatory. Ultimately, rather than respect the rights and concerns of an employee, the manager chose to terminate employment during trial service.

Further, this decision was made with no previous warning or suggestion of corrective action – the employee passed their singular trial service check in with no concerns mentioned. Staff have quickly come to respect and value our new colleague’s contributions, and looked forward to working together to incorporate EJ into more of our work at DEQ. This loss is a major step backwards for the entire agency and a major waste of government resources.

In addition, we are aware that there were multiple instances of micro-aggressions directed at this employee by other staff at DEQ. We are also aware that HR was notified of at least one of these micro-aggressions and held a meeting with a DEQ staff member that witnessed the micro-aggression; we are not aware of any follow-up that HR conducted to discuss the micro-aggression report with the perpetrator.

This termination is part of a broader pattern:

Firing a BIPOC staff member from the Office of Equity shortly after finalizing DEQ’s strategic plan, which states our first goal is to “create a culture of inclusion and racial equity to foster organizational well-being and effectively serve our employees and communities” is insulting. This employee is now the third Environmental Justice (EJ) or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) professional that DEQ failed to provide with adequate support to retain at the agency for at least one year of service – an egregious fact for such new and critical positions for advancing environmental justice at our agency. Three other legislatively-approved DEI and EJ positions remain unfilled.

Staff from across the agency have spent years advocating for the resources that have become the foundation for the fledgling Office of Equity. The agency’s failure to intervene, support, or uphold our colleague’s rights – and support their work in the Office of Equity - speaks volumes about DEQ’s readiness to meaningfully invest in equity and justice work. We are particularly disturbed by the appointment of the newly appointed Assistant Director to lead the Office of Equity. There has been no statement of his qualifications to date, and his selection to that position undermines the credibility of the Office given his reputation for intimidating employees, particularly employees of color. This person should never have been appointed to be in a position of management over DEI or EJ positions. That decision was a failure of leadership.

Tragically, these experiences are not new at DEQ:

• In August 2021, the agency’s newly formed BIPOC affinity group issued an open letter outlining patterns of discriminatory behavior towards employees of color and recommending concrete actions the agency could take to address them. Among other things, that letter identified that 42% had experienced issues during trial service including lack of clear standards for evaluation, fear of speaking out about discrimination due to lack of job protection, managers not setting employees up to succeed, and no accountability for managers who have a demonstrated pattern of pushing people out during trial service.
• In September 2023, another BIPOC employee was terminated during trial service, a decision which was later reversed after nearly one hundred employees signed a petition. In response, Director Leah Feldon apologized for this and other harmful actions towards BIPOC employees and pledged to overhaul the trial service process. No such actions have been taken to date.
• In December 2024, the director issued a belated response to the 2021 BIPOC letter, and pledged to collaborate with the DEI Council and share more information on the recruitment and retention process. The very next day, leadership sent an email announcing drastic changes to the Office of Equity, removing a woman of color as leader and moving it under a new Assistant Director position - a position which had not been announced, with no application process and no consultation from the DEI Council, Environmental Justice Work Group, Affinity Group, DEQ’s third party equity consultants Engage to Change, nor the Senior DEI Implementation Specialist.
• In March 2025 the BIPOC affinity group sent another open letter to protest these changes, reiterate grievances and provide specific actions DEQ leadership could take to help meet its commitment to DEI and EJ, underlining the importance of concrete agency leadership during a time of attacks from the federal level. We encourage everyone to (re)read this letter.

If we as an agency are to aspire toward the ambition articulated in DEQ’s newly adopted Strategic Plan of becoming an anti-racist agency, we need to take this as an opportunity not to further entrench harmful patterns but question existing power structures and create new systems.

We call on the agency to:

• Return the employee to their position under a new manager
• Make the Senior DEI Implementation Specialist permanent, instead of limited duration
• Remove the current Assistant Director from their role in overseeing the Office of Equity and establish qualified leadership of the Office of Equity
• Partner with DAS’s Office of Cultural Change to restructure where the Office of Equity sits within DEQ, ensuring its independence from HR
• Complete the requested actions in the BIPOC letters

How to help*

• We call on our allies to sign onto this open letter.
• We ask that you call the following agency leaders to register your concern:
  • Leah Feldon: (503) 229-5300
  • Shannon Davis: 503-875-4924

*Please note that any DEQ employees should take these actions on personal time and not using state equipment. If you experience retaliation for taking these actions during your personal time, please contact your union steward and/or email JusticeAtDEQ@gmail.com for support.

As staff at DEQ we look forward to working to advance “environmental protection and justice for all communities and ecosystems in Oregon,” with the values of care, transparency, and accountability. We call on DEQ Leadership to do the same.

Sincerely,

Colleagues for Justice at DEQ