Politics

GOP seeks to end diversity initiatives within Missouri agencies

Published

2 years ago

March 28, 2023

Natural Bridge

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High employee turnover has plagued Missouri’s Department of Social Services for years.

The department’s staffing woes have contributed to a range of problems — from foster children languishing in state care for longer than they should be to disabled residents waiting months to receive federal food benefits to investigators unable to keep up with child abuse and neglect complaints.

Gov. Mike Parson dispatched one of his top lieutenants — his former deputy chief of staff, Robert Knodell — to the agency in 2021 to address the long list of challenges, top among them employee morale and retention. In a November presentation to the governor’s cabinet, Knodell zeroed in on one retention measure he believes has proven especially promising.

The “Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging” group that the department formed in 2020.

According to Knodell’s presentation slides during the cabinet meeting, obtained by The Independent through a Sunshine Law request, more than 400 employees had participated in the focus groups as of November. Those who participated, Knodell said, were much less likely to leave their jobs.

“Turnover for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging focus group participants is LESS THAN HALF the Department-wide turnover rate,” one slide emphasized.

But the program, which one department employee called “groundbreaking,” now faces a new challenge: The GOP’s escalating war against “woke” government.

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft tweeted that a job posting for a “diversity, inclusion and belonging leader” within the Missouri Department of Natural Resources was an example of “left-wing indoctrination in the workplace” and the wrong use of taxpayer dollars.

“It’s time to end ‘woke’ in government,” Ashcroft wrote.

Republican lawmakers have chimed in this month as well.

State Rep. Bishop Davidson, R-Republic, went on Facebook to decry inclusion meetings within the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development for “lacking transparency.” State Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, advanced a bill out of committee last week that would prohibit public universities from soliciting diversity, equity or inclusion (DEI) statements when hiring.

And the GOP criticism is having an impact. The University of Missouri System announced Friday that its four campuses are scrapping the mention of DEI statements in their job posts, in response to Richey’s bill.

State department leaders are desperately trying to fill thousands of vacant positions in areas such as mental health, social services, corrections and education. These are also the departments that house Missouri’s largest minority workforce, and some agency leaders have found that making these workers feel welcomed in a white-dominated state government actually helps retain them.

Yet hearing the GOP rhetoric against these efforts is discouraging to minority workers, said Natashia Pickens, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 6355.

The union represents Knodell’s employees in the social services agency, as well as those with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

“It’s put a lot of fear in workers,” Pickens said. “They’re like, ‘If they get rid of these programs, they’re not going to keep Black people. They’re not going to keep LGBTQ people.’”

Not only do the inclusion programs help workers feel welcomed, Pickens said, but they also give them visibility for promotions — something she said minority employees statewide have long struggled to land.

Ending the programs will further the delays in connecting the state’s most vulnerable populations with food, health care and other services, she said. And while she believes pay increases will help ease staffing shortages, the anti-DEI rhetoric could counteract that.

“Killing those programs is not going to help with retention,” Pickens said. “And what that’s going to do is put more work on the backs of the workers that do remain.”

Wiley Price

The St. Louis American Natasha Pickens, president of Communications Workers of America Local 6355 that represents the Missouri public sector workers including the Missouri Department of Social Services, spoke at a rally on May 14, 2021, at the DSS headquarters.

‘A right to belong’

A supervisor in DSS’s Family Support Division told The Independent in an interview that the focus group has been important to creating a sense of belonging among her team of 55 workers. She participated in the program but asked not to be identified publicly for fear of political attacks for her involvement.

“I am sad that people want to politicize it,” said the woman who identifies as white and lives in a Republican-leaning county. “I don’t care what side of the aisle anyone sits on, we should all have the right to feel like we belong.”

Especially through the pandemic, she said she “completely believes” that it is helping DSS with retention because employees feel like “they can be heard.”

“In these focus groups, we’ve had people share everything from a fear of coming back into the office to maybe other things that they’ve gone through,” she said. “And to know that your peers are feeling similar, I think that’s a big help for staff.”

She said the group emphasizes belonging.

“Nobody is telling you to change your beliefs,” she said. “No one’s trying to push their beliefs on you. It’s just about making everybody feel they’re a part of the group. And we all have a right to be different.”

The effort also helps her team understand the perspectives and needs of their diverse clients as well, she said.

Despite pushback from Republican elected officials, Knodell said in a statement to The Independent that the department is committed to the initiative.

The department has also adopted training on diversity, inclusion, and belonging — over 3,000 employees “completed portions of the curriculum” in fiscal 2022, per Knodell’s presentation — as well as adopting a “heritage calendar highlighting focus area of belonging and inclusion,” and a “day of remembrance” to mark staff lost since 2020.

“Groupthink, strategic missteps and bloated bureaucracy are the results of organizations that fail to inclusively consider needs of customers and staff,” Knodell said, “or misuse initiatives to advance an ideological agenda.”

Pickens said she’s confused about what Republican leaders mean when they use the term “woke” in relation to these efforts.

“I have no idea what they mean by it,” she said.

Tim Bommel

Missouri House Communications State Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, speaks during House debate on April 12, 2021.

Ban on DEI statements

The House’s special committee on government accountability recently approved a bill that seeks to bar public universities from giving preferential treatment based on DEI statements.

Richey, the bill sponsor, said he consulted the Cicero Institute, a Texas-based conservative think tank, when crafting the bill. But his definition of “diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging” is his own, he said.

The bill defines it as “any administrative, ideological, or programmatic effort or perspective that requires applicants to promote or support the idea that disparities are necessarily tied to oppression, involves collective guilt ideologies, and emphasizes the importance of activism and structural reforms based upon intersectional, divisive, or political identities.”

Richey said no one is against diversity, but accused DEI initiatives of being politically charged.

“We all understand that the terms individually of diversity, equity, and inclusion can mean a whole host of things depending on the context — most of which none of us in this room would have a problem with,” he said last week. “However, when you put them together programmatically, and the way in which they have been in our current landscape, that’s when you begin to see ideology taking over that is very divisive.”

Last week, the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development responded to an anonymous letter released by someone claiming to be a department employee complaining that voluntary diversity meetings for staff members weren’t recorded and were part of the “woke” agenda.

The letter was posted online by Davidson, who echoed a similar sentiment as Richey, saying the “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and “belonging,” together are politically charged and politically motivated.

The department responded to Davidson in a letter, stating that the discussions and best practices shared in diversity sessions help better position team members to meet those needs of “hard-to-reach populations.”

“To reach marginalized populations, a better understanding of the hardships and barriers they may experience is imperative,” Leroy Wade, interim commissioner of the higher education and workforce department, said in a letter to Davidson.

Davidson could not be reached for comment.

Not time to throw in the towel

Diversity officers are not new to Missouri government.

The state’s Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) has been around since 1994 to recruit and retain a diverse workforce.

“Diversity drives innovation,” Chris Moreland, spokesman for the Office of Administration, the agency that oversees the OEO, said in a statement to The Independent. “All team members should feel that their contributions and opinions are valued. In turn, by striving to foster an environment where our team members feel respected and valued, the state can attract and retain top talent in our workforce.”

The office produces reports on its minority workforce annually, and there has been a slight decrease since 2020. The Kansas City Star reported last week that many state agencies are far less racially and ethnically diverse than the state as a whole.

It’s a pattern that the OEO has documented for the past two decades, since the office began its annual reports. Those reports also show that Missouri has only met its minority participation goal for state contracts four times in the last 30 years.

And while the state has long struggled to move the needle on increasing workforce diversity, Pickens says now is definitely not the time to throw in the towel.

“Before the pandemic, work was hard,” Pickens said. “But since the pandemic, the job responsibilities have changed. The way we do the work has changed. It’s a very different environment.”

The programs are helping the workers come together to cope with the difficult past few years of the pandemic and become stronger, she said.

“Anything that will help boost morale and make folks feel good about coming into work,” Pickens said, “I don’t think is a waste of taxpayer money.”

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, said diversity and inclusion are coming under GOP attacks as the next phase of a constant and shifting culture war waged purely for political gain.

After scoring points by targeting transgender kids with legislation taking away access to gender-affirming care, Rizzo said, Republicans appear ready for a new boogeyman.
“They’ve already moved on to the diversity stuff,” he said. “You can already see, it’s coming from Washington and they’re starting to target diversity positions in government or even in business. The fear mongering doesn’t stop.”
This story was originally published on the Missouri Independent. The Independent’s Jason Hancock contributed reporting.

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

Published

5 months ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”

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Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

Published

5 months ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.

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As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

Published

5 months ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.

Dilpreet Raju

Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.

No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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