Janice Garceau is the director of Deschutes County Health Services, and Ashton Varner is a diversity, equity and inclusion strategist who also chaired the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Committee that the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners dissolved in early February. The Source spoke with Garceau and Varner about the effects of that decision on the lives of County employees and residents as a whole. Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
Source Weekly: What are some of the misconceptions you’ve heard about DEI programming in Deschutes County?
Janice Garceau: I think, first of all, Ashton and I have really made a conscious effort not to use the terminology DEI, but to talk about diversity, equity and inclusion. I think the acronym has become associated with virtue signaling or with the notion that equity work is against a group of people. I don’t think people really understand all the things that are part of our day-to-day lives right now that are the result of work that people did to honor diversity and ensure equity and invite people into community — like wheelchair ramps, like laws against elder abuse, child abuse, child labor laws. There are so many things that we take for granted now that were the result of people saying, there’s something going on in our community that is causing some folks to be left behind or disadvantaged, and engaged in some thoughtful advocacy around that. That’s what I think the misconception is, is associating it with one or two hot-button issues, rather than understanding that work within the larger context of a community.
SW: What have been the effects so far of county commissioners’ decision to end the DEI committee?
JG: What I can say is we are not experiencing direct impacts in health services, because we are still able to offer a lot of things that we developed through our equity work. So, we are not seeing people impacted directly in terms of clients and service recipients. What we’re hearing from our staff is a great deal of concern from our immigrant community about what their future looks like in the U.S., and we are concerned about their feeling safe, accessing services. But that is not a direct result of the decision that was made by commissioners. That’s related to other factors going on right now.
“There’s
a phrase: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
Inequities hurt all of us.” —Ashton
Varner
Ashton Varner: We hear similar from the queer community as well. We have public health, but we also have behavioral health. So, our clients with behavioral health bring in whatever they bring in and whatever is causing them anxiety or stress or activating any of their mental health conditions. So that can really run the gamut, right? So, our behavioral health staff is hearing a lot about this from their clients right now.
SW: County staff conducted several audits, including one regarding language access for County services, and how the County may or may not be complying with federal language access rules. I wondered how those two things intersect now.
JG: I was born in Germany. My mom speaks English as a second language. Incidentally, so does my husband, practically speaking. Even when you’re doing everything you possibly can to learn a new language, you are probably five to 10 years from full proficiency, even when you’re living in a new country, and that puts you at a disadvantage if you’re trying to understand technical information or access services. So, this is a practical, necessary way to make sure that people who are newly immigrated here can actually understand their care and engage in their care. It’s pretty basic, and the federal law requiring it helped us be really clear about the mandate — but we are going to do everything we can to ensure people can access care, because our job is to take care of people.
AV: In our public health department, we have so many programs that focus on young families, etc. And if we have folks who aren’t aware of those programs or then also don’t think they can access them, that’s a real service they’re missing out on that could really help set that baseline for their family going forward.
SW: The County also performed a wage audit — finding that white men in County jobs are outearning everyone else by quite a bit. What can we learn from that audit? Is this more about the makeup of people in top positions in the County? Or about actual wage differences — one person in the same job earning less than another? Or both?
“I don’t think people really understand all
the things that are part of our day-to-day lives right now that are the result
of work that people did to honor diversity and ensure equity and invite people
into community — like wheelchair ramps, like laws against elder abuse, child
abuse, child labor laws.” — Janice Garceau
JG: An audit is not a deep dive into meaning or causes. It is an initial look that identifies a discrepancy or an imbalance, or an inequity. The County is currently involved in a wage equity study with an organization that’s going to look more deeply at answering your second question: Is this about people in like positions having a wage difference simply based on gender? And I don’t know the results of that yet.
The equity group that Ashton was chair of would have been one of the ways we might have more deeply examined what was eliminated by the audit.
SW: What are potential impacts of wage gaps for people who work for Deschutes County?
JG: What I would say about Deschutes County itself is that one of the concerning things about a significant wage gap is that this is a very expensive place to live, and so we have a very diverse workforce in terms of ranges of salary and pay, and if you’re working with a colleague who has to live in Madras or with a family member because of the lower rate of pay, that has a direct impact.
AV: Coming to mind for me is just, ultimately, inequities hurt the entire group, whether or not it’s easy to see as individuals. There’s a phrase: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Inequities hurt all of us.
SW: What are the broader benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts?
AV: What it offers an opportunity to see people for who they are and where they’re at, and to collaborate and offer that investment to your workforce, versus decisions always coming from leadership and whatever perspective happens to be in that room and happens to be privileged enough to be in that space. And I think for me, it again, goes back to that we can go farther together.
I don’t mean that’s the only way a person gets to that table is through privilege, but that to be seated at that table, no matter how hard you work to get there, is still privilege, and there’s often limited seats there, so to hold that seat is a privilege, and I think, an honor and responsibility to continue to listen and bring into that space the needs and perspectives of others who you’re responsible for or speaking for or representing that space.
JG: I’m sad because I’m seeing a moment where we are making it easier for people to avoid connection and understanding. And I’m afraid because some of the depth of the anger that has been directed at this work is quite concerning, and the use of dehumanizing language and the public sphere is a warning sign we should be paying close attention to.
This article appears in The Source Weekly February 27, 2025.
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This is such a great insight into the work the county does and the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion! Ashton and Janice are so well spoken and I appreciate their perspective and the work they do to make Deschutes County an inclusive place.