Republican councilors oppose Hogsett’s new diversity office, but Shreve leaves door open

Joe Hogsett, left, and Jefferson Shreve

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s proposal to create a city office prioritizing diversity efforts was met with “no” votes from some City-County Council Republicans. But Hogsett’s GOP mayoral opponent Jefferson Shreve wouldn’t rule out the concept if his public safety funding priorities could be met first.

Hogsett, a Democrat, introduced the Office of Equity, Belonging and Inclusion in his budget speech to the full council Monday night.

“It is past time that we join our peer cities by putting an overall strategic vision to our enterprise and community DEI efforts,” Hogsett said in written remarks. “The new office will administer staff training, collect relevant data, and lead community programs to address the needs of our large and diverse community.”

The move comes after Hogsett in December announced the city would have its first chief diversity officer. Ben Tapper, who would lead the new office, began his role in January.

Tapper presented the office’s proposed budget on Tuesday evening to the council’s Administration and Finance Committee.

The 2024 cost would be $687,865, which would fund three full-time staff members: Tapper, the director; a data analyst; and a training manager. Additionally, the office would have two AmeriCorps Public Allies who would be paid with funds provided by Serve Indiana and AmeriCorps and specialize in community engagement and closing language barriers. 

Republicans on the Indianapolis City-County Council Administration and Finance Committee were quick to question the proposal’s cost. It still passed out of committee on a 7-4, with all Republicans voting against it. It is almost certain to receive final approval from the full council, which is controlled by a Democratic supermajority.

Republican Minority Leader Brian Mowery, who voted against the measure, said he believed the responsibilities of the office could be placed upon members of individual departments or a deputy mayor.

“I don’t know that we need a whole department and over half a million dollars to make sure it’s getting done, but I appreciate your enthusiasm,” he told Tapper.

Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Shreve would not rule out the concept of such an office—in a Democrat-dominated city that is 28% Black and nearly 11% Hispanic. 

“I’ll be curious to see what sort of funding will be dedicated to that,” Shreve told IBJ Monday, prior to the office’s budget presentation. “But this is such a diverse city. I mean, obviously we need to be approaching that thoughtfully and structurally.”

In a statement following the budget presentation, Shreve repeated his campaign pledge to first prioritize the funding and hiring of a public safety director, a position that Hogsett eliminated. But he said the Office of Equity, Belonging and Inclusion would have benefits.

“DEI initiatives are important, especially in a city as increasingly diverse as Indianapolis, to ensure our city government serves and creates opportunities for all residents,” Shreve said in a statement. “The creation of this new office calls for four new staff members, and so while I am in favor of its benefits, I also continue to believe our most urgent new hire should be a Public Safety Director to help end the violence and crime plaguing our city.”

Shreve’ s take comes as moderate and conservative Republicans at the state level battle over the issue. While current Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb appointed the state’s first chief diversity officer in November 2020—even before Hogsett had done so at the city level—Republican candidate for governor and former attorney general Curtis Hill has called for the dismantling of the office.

How Indy’s office would work

Tapper said the city’s diversity office would “guide the strategic equity, belonging and inclusion vision for the city-county enterprise.” This would entail collecting data and creating employee resource support groups.

Tapper said he’s already helped form three employee resource groups since starting the role in January: one for Black employees, one for Hispanic and Latinx employees, and one for employees who are members of the LGBTQ community.

He’s currently working to establish a public-facing demographic dashboard to show what the city-county government’s workforce looks like when compared to the greater population. The office will also provide diversity, equity and inclusion training to city departments, contractors or outside groups that request it.

Under Hogsett’s budget plan, funding for the office would come from a mix of property and income taxes, plus miscellaneous other sources, according to city spokesperson Mark Bode. No other budget was “cut” to fund the office because it was able to be funded with organic revenue growth, he said

During the Aug. 15 committee meeting, Democratic Councilor Maggie Lewis said funding a city diversity office is a moral obligation.

“We fund the things that are important to us,” she said. “And so if we say that our city welcomes all, and diversity, and equity, and inclusion is important, then it’s important for us to fund it.”

Tapper said that similar-sized cities have both an office focused on diversity and officials in different departments focused on diversity. He pointed to Portland as an example.

“So the office of diversity, equity and inclusion manages the broad vision. But then there are people embedded in each department to coordinate the finer details of that vision, and that’s how I imagined it working here,” Tapper said. He also said a single person could not implement the goals of the office with over 7,000 city-county employees and more than 900,000 Indianapolis residents.

Republican Councilor Josh Bain asked if DEI training provided by the office would be mandated, and what requirements the city currently has on DEI training. Tapper responded that some departments, like the Department of Metropolitan Development, do have required DEI training. He said there are not currently plans to create mandated DEI training throughout city-county government.

“Transparently, I’m not worried about whether we mandate or strongly encourage it,” Tapper said. “What I do know is that there’s a need for more training and various types of training.”