A member of an Oregon Department of Transportation advisory committee responsible for guiding the agency’s policies on equity in construction contracting has been dismissed for making inappropriate comments related to race and gender.
The comments were made in an internal survey that agency staff circulated among committee members; the survey sought feedback on policies aimed at remediating historical harm caused by discrimination in the awarding of transportation construction contracts.
The situation unfolds as Oregon lawmakers consider a $200 million workforce development package aimed at helping the state’s most economically disadvantaged find new careers. The state is also preparing to invest more than $1 billion dollars in a project to renovate and cap Portland’s Rose Quarter stretch of Interstate 5 to help with revitalization of the Albina District, the city’s former Black urban core which was destroyed when the freeway was originally built in the 1960s.
The I-5 freeway is seen through the fencing at the back of Harriet Tubman Middle School in North Portland, April 9, 2021. That stretch of freeway is at the center of an ODOT project to help revitalize Portland’s Albina District, the city’s former Black urban core destroyed when the freeway was originally built in the 1960s. At the same time, ODOT recently dismissed a member of an advisory committee for racist and sexist comments.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
The comment accused the state transportation agency of…
