News

City may recast DEI board as Citizens Advisory Committee

By Lightning Reports, Published: December 3, 2025

Hendersonville's Diversity and Inclusion Committee, dormant for the past 12 months and outlawed last January by the Trump administration, could be recast as a committee advising the city on customer service and citizen complaints.

"Staff have been exploring opportunities to modify the role of this committee and honor the original goal of the committee, which was open and transparent government for all citizens," City Manager John Connet wrote in a memo to the city council. "Staff is proposing that the Diversity and Inclusion Committee be converted into a Citizens Advisory Committee that assists the City Council with customer service initiatives, public engagement, citizen complaint resolution and process improvements."

The council is scheduled to take up the proposal during its regular meeting tonight. If the council OKs the idea, staff will begin development of a new charter and bylaws for the committee, Connet said.

Executive orders Trump signed upon taking office terminated DEI programs in federal agencies, combated “illegal private sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs and activities” and barred recipients of federal grants from operating DEI programs, City Attorney Angela Beeker told the council in July. 

The executive order is “very broad and even though it doesn’t have the force of law, it still has very serious implications,” Beeker said. “So, for example, diversity requirements for hiring panels, or if you wanted to have a diverse candidate pool, any type of preference like that, they’re going to consider to be a violation."