Nearly three decades ago, Logan was tasked with getting a diversity office off the ground in Scottsdale. This was a new venture among Valley cities, and the going was often tough. So tough that he nearly gave his life for it.
In 2004, six years after the city founded what was then called the Office of Diversity and Dialogue, a package arrived at the office. When Logan opened it, a pipe bomb exploded, nearly killing him. A subsequent investigation showed that the package had been sent by white supremacists enraged by the mere idea of diversity.
Logan survived that brush with death. But 20 years later, the office he built was sentenced to an ignominious demise. Tuesday night, the Scottsdale City Council voted 5-2 to gut the department Logan built, now called the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. There was no apparent justification for doing so other than for the council to align itself with Donald Trump’s baseless, culture war crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“I gave my blood for this organization,” Logan told Phoenix New Times about the diversity office. “If I hadn’t opened that package the way I did, I wouldn’t be here. To have this group of electeds come along and whitewash it the way they’re doing it tonight is a travesty.”
Created in 1998, the city’s diversity office has two employees who are charged with keeping the city compliant with antidiscrimination laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those two employees will be reassigned to other city departments.
Logan spoke at the meeting along with dozens of other residents enraged by the city’s move. The meeting was uncharacteristically packed, with hundreds of residents standing along the chamber’s perimeter. “This is bullshit,” one person shouted while others mumbled similar expletives. “Shame on you,” residents began chanting.
During the public comment section of the meeting, at least 45 people spoke out against the change in ordinance. Only two voiced support for it.
Ann Lyter, a Scottsdale United Methodist Church pastor and employment lawyer, noted that diversity is a tested corporate strategy. “Bias is real, and we need to address it so that we can hire the best people,” she said. “Companies that prioritize DEI tend to have happier and more innovative employees, higher retention rates and are better at problem-solving.”
Several speakers, including Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO Monica Villalobos, argued to the council that hiring based on merit and valuing diversity are not mutually exclusive. “Merit must include access,” Villalobos said. "Please don’t stop the momentum.”
Others lambasted the move as nakedly dogmatic. “How do I know that this is all about ideology?” asked resident Andrew Scheck. “Monday I called the Department of Diversity and I asked them, ‘How many people from the city council called you to understand what this department does?’” Scheck said the answer he received was just one — Maryann McAllen, who voted against gutting the office. Howls and applause ensued.
Logan, who is now the director of Phoenix’s Equality Opportunity Department, agreed with Scheck. “What’s troubling about this is the council, to my knowledge, hadn’t even asked what this office does,” Logan told New Times. “This is clearly political. What saddens me is Scottsdale has always taken a leadership role and been on the cutting edge. This tonight is nothing more than being a puppet for D.C.”
Don Logan was nearly killed by a pipe bomb sent to Scottsdale's diversity office in 2004.
TJ L'Heureux
A solution in need of a problem
The battle against DEI has primarily been pushed by new councilmember Adam Kwasman. Previously a state legislator known mostly for derailing his political career with a hilarious on-camera gaffe, Kwasman has painted DEI initiatives — which are about giving underrepresented demographics a fair shake — as abhorrent to American values.“You can’t walk into Scottsdale City Hall without being bombarded with DEI,” Kwasman tweeted on Jan. 23. “This poison will be rooted-out of our beautiful city.” In the picture accompanying Kwasman’s tweet, he’d circled city brochures depicting people of different racial backgrounds standing together.
Kwasman and Mayor Lisa Borowsky, who both won election on right-wing campaigns, have pushed the council into becoming “MAGA lite,” as one resident at the meeting described the council. For most of the public comment portion of the meeting, Kwasman stared intently at his computer screen. He did not address a question about Logan, whose life was almost taken by white supremacists as he worked against discrimination.
Reached by New Times, Kwasman would not comment directly on the measure’s widespread unpopularity among Scottsdale residents at the meeting. “I cherish and will fight for all Scottsdale residents to speak their mind on every issue,” Kwasman said.
Before the city voted to nuke the diversity office, two councilmembers attempted to win a stay of execution. McAllen and Councilmember Solange Whitehead proposed a work study session to discuss the actual problems the city faces by having a diversity office. That idea — to understand better what eliminating the office would mean — was shot down by the other five councilmembers.
Speaking at the meeting, Whitehead said the vote was hypocritical. The supposed goal of eliminating the diversity office was to ensure Scottsdale hired solely based on merit. Whitehead said the city already does that.
“I’ve got good news for you: For as long as I have been in Scottsdale, and for long before that, this city has been a merit-based hiring city,” Whitehead said. “This ordinance was done behind the scenes without a public process and serves no purpose.”
Whitehead also warned that the ordinance eliminating the office “is aimed at accomplishing nothing and solving problems that never existed and, sadly, sends a message to the world that this international destination is not open for all.”
The ordinance’s passage will slash DEI programming such as workplace diversity training, which makes up a minuscule portion of the city’s spending. The total annual funding for the program, including salaries for the two employees, is a little more than $700,000, according to City Treasurer Sonia Andrews.
Beyond that, it’s not clear what else will change in Scottsdale. The city will still need to enforce antidiscrimination laws and it will still need to ensure ADA compliance to avoid lawsuits. With the diversity office’s two employees being reassigned, that work may continue in some form.
What’s certain after Tuesday is this: By eliminating a groundbreaking office that withstood violent threats to its mission, Scottsdale’s new right-leaning city council managed to piss off a lot of people.
