Fresno County Supervisor Garry Bredefeld pushes to remove DEI language from county job applications

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno County is now in the midst of a DEI debate following President Trump's crackdown on the initiatives.

"DEI diversity, equity, inclusion sounds rather harmless, but it's not," said Fresno County Supervisor Garry Bredefeld.

"It discriminates on the basis of race and gender, which is illegal and frankly un-American."

Bredefeld announced Friday that he is pushing for Fresno County to do away with all DEI language when it comes to recruiting new employees

"Through my initiation, the county's human resources team has already begun, removing DEI language from job applications and is now conducting a full audit to eliminate any remaining politically motivated language across all hiring materials," said Bredefeld.

Bredefeld points to the language used in a county Unlicensed Mental Health Clinician job flyer, stating it acknowledges "long-standing historic and ongoing inequities that black, Indigenous and people of color, those living in poverty, LGBTQ+ members and other marginalized and underserved communities have experienced."

Experts tell ABC News that DEI is intended to combat discrimination with initiatives such as accessibility measures for the disabled, addressing gender pay inequity, and expanding recruitment practices among underrepresented groups.

Bredefeld calls the push politically driven, dangerous, and now illegal following President Trump's executive order terminating it at the federal level.

"Instead of fostering unity, DEI programs, encourage grievance-based policies and frame individuals as perpetual victims rather than empowering them through fairness and equal treatment under the law," said Bredefeld.

Now, most job postings on the county's website have no remnants of DEI verbiage.

"I don't think that DEI is politically driven. I think it's an effort to be diverse and equitable and to be inclusive and that's what we are as a community," says Luis Chavez, Fresno County Supervisor.

Fresno County Supervisor Luis Chavez tells Action News while these changes align with federal law, they could pose complications with state laws, possibly jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding coming to the county.

"The state law requires us to have training, culturally competent training for example. That's what the state requires, the federal government now is changing that priority," says Chavez.

Chavez says the county does not spend any money on DEI but does track data related to its employees.

"They hire based on merit; they hire people based on their qualifications. I'll give you an example we have in our public health department people who have to have a master's in public health administration or a medical degree. You can't overcome that," says Chavez.

Fresno County says it has removed "minor language from a couple of flyers."

In a statement to Action News, Fresno County says its merit-based hiring policies as an equal opportunity employer have not changed, writing:

"Individual Board Members do not have the authority to change policy, absent the majority of the Board of Supervisors. However, the County appreciates Supervisor Bredefeld's efforts that align with an ongoing review by Human Resources pursuant to changes in the Federal government earlier this year. As part of this effort, several job announcements and descriptions were updated, including the ones shared by Supervisor Bredefeld. The County's hiring policies have not changed. The County maintains a policy for hiring that is both merit-based and consistent with the County's Equal Employment Opportunity Program (EEOP). One of the County's Guiding Principles remains respecting and embracing ethnic and cultural diversity."

The county says it is still actively in the process of updating and standardizing all of its job flyers.

Supervisor Bredefeld expects the audit to be completed very soon.

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