Missoula City Council and County Commissioners are prepping to pass a joint resolution calling for an expansion of the County and City bureaucracy under the guise of “Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.”

The “JEDI” resolution is littered with references to the National League of Cities, an advocacy group funded in-part by the George Soros Open Society Foundation. The Board of County Commissioners reviewed the draft resolution at their monthly meeting last Thursday including presentations from city administrators and staff and the new County Equity Coordinator, Jamar Galbreath. The county will be considering it for a vote at their next meeting. Public comment ends August 5th.

In the resolution, the board resolves to commit to initiatives, efforts, strategies, and partnerships that align and support the efforts of the National League of Cities.

Emmy Award-winning reporter and radio host, Shad Olson investigated the connection between the National League of Cities and George Soros. In his documentary report, Olson reveals how the National League of Cities is doing the work of the extreme left in the “bottom-up” remaking of America, supporting policies that limit second amendment freedoms and that funnel taxpayer money to expansion of the local bureaucracy.

The County draft resolution calls for city and county resources and funds, which includes property tax revenue, to be distributed “through a lens of equity” to “marginalized” populations. The resolution references disparities within “Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color” with regard to access to housing to justify the policy shift, despite the housing crunch affecting all working Missoulians regardless of their individual racial makeup.

According to the Missoula Organization of Realtors, the median housing price in April in Missoula stood at $406,500, and a listing spent just 77 days on the market. Two years ago, the median price was $299,000 and a listed home averaged 170 days on the market.

City representative Ashley Wells introduced City of Missoula Chief Administrative Officer Dale Bickell during the County meeting last week noting that the resolution came as a result of being accepted into the Cities and Towns Opportunity Equity Cohort of the National League of Cities. Ten other cities are in the cohort including Fremont, CA; Houston, TX; Kansas City, MO; Milwaukee, WI; Plainfield, NJ; and South Fulton, GA.

Bickell said during comments to the Board of Commissioners that they worked with the County, the University of Montana, Missoula County Public Schools, and All-Nations Health Center to gain acceptance to the cohort. He also mentioned that the group working within the city bureaucracy will be using the resolution to “tak[e] actions in equity and systemic racism and put these in actionable items as city government.”

The issue of “systemic racism” has already been used to justify expansion of the local bureaucracy including the hiring of Galbreath to the new role of County Equity Coordinator. Galbreath brings experience from his four years of work at the Missoula non-profit activist organization Empower Montana to “correct systemic inequalities” and from his role as Diversity Programs Coordinator at the University of Montana. Galbreath has made a career of framing bureaucratic priorities through the lens of race.

Similarly, with the hiring of Wells at City Hall, who holds a certificate from the University of Montana in Public Administration with an emphasis on equity, policy, and budgeting in public institutions. These hires point to an employment pipeline from Missoula’s cathedral institutions such as non-profits and the University to City and County government bureaucracy.

According to the resolution, the City and County are resolved to “create a JEDI Advisory Board” and to further assist the current JEDI working group which includes UM, MCPS and others. Both entities will be charged with developing a “Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Plan” that will, according to the resolution, include hiring “JEDI consultants” and create “JEDI training and assessments” for employees and city officials, amongst other priorities:

‣ Strategies for reviewing and revising our policies, procedures, initiatives, and public engagement plans to better reflect justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion to ensure equitable delivery of Missoula County services.

‣ Procuring JEDI consultants to expedite efforts and ensure Missoula County more closely resembles the communities it represents by fostering justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion on our neighborhood councils, numerous boards and commissions, and in our hiring practices.

‣ Identify and establish tools for measuring progress including creating a JEDI training and follow-up assessment to measure JEDI knowledge for County leadership, employees, commissions, boards, community councils, and the Board of County Commissioners.

‣ Establish community engagement tools including a JEDI Advisory Board and community convening to advance efforts, engage and connect community with resources, and align our JEDI efforts with community partners’ efforts.

That this work begins in earnest upon adoption of the FY22 budget.

Missoula County and City Joint “Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” Resolution. Page 2-3.

The resolution will be discussed at City Council on Monday.

During the meeting, there was public dissent to the city and county hyperfocus on race and equity.

One public commenter, Jason MacDonald, a trained welder who attended Missoula College, spoke against the “JEDI” resolution saying, “The diversity equity inclusion stuff. We can think back to the Phase 1b program for vaccine distribution and a middle-aged man like myself with asthma was not allowed to get the vaccine and a young kid was because the color our skin was different.”

Missoula County racialized access to the vaccine in their Phase 1b vaccine rollout plan this year, noting that “people of color ages 16 and older” without any prior health condition were eligible under the phase. People not falling under the grouping “people of color” had to have an accompanying health condition which did not include asthma.

MacDonald continued, pointing out the contradiction of race-based equity policies, “These policies are inevitably trying to ‘get rid’ of systemic racism and inequality and the policies themselves are geared towards race. So the policies themselves are racist. And I don’t know how people can’t just acknowledge how terrible and cancerous this is.”