Community and political leaders scrambled Monday to fight the announced closure of the region’s federal civil rights office.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which investigates and highlights abuses, announced last week that offices in Denver and Kansas City would close in October.
The move provoked immediate concern that the 16 states now served by those offices would get lost in a district that will be governed from Los Angeles and Chicago.
The effect of the closures would be particularly felt in minority and American Indian communities that are often cut off or do not have access to traditional or urban services, said Carole Barrett, chair of the North Dakota Advisory Committee and a professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Mary in Bismarck.
“It was devastating news because these states that comprise the Rocky Mountain Region are vulnerable states with vulnerable populations,” she said.
In Colorado, the state’s anti-discrimination agency is gearing up to fill in the holes that will be left when the federal office closes. Other states in the region are worse off, many without a state agency to step in and pick up the slack, said Wendell Pryor, director of the Colorado Civil Rights Division.
The federal commission is consolidating six regional offices into four. Offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., will remain. The move and other staff reductions – including cutting civil rights analysts in Los Angeles and Chicago – are intended to help slash a projected deficit of $265,000. The commission’s $9 million budget has not been increased in a decade.
The Denver office oversees civil rights issues in Montana, Colorado, the Dakotas, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and the 60 reservations in the region. The Kansas City office oversees 9 central and Southern states.
The decision to close Denver’s three-person office will make it more difficult for urban and rural Westerners to get the protections they deserve, said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
“The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights plays a critical role ensuring that discrimination and fraud against individuals cannot get swept under the rug,” DeGette said.
“The Rocky Mountain West too often does not get its appropriate share of resources and services from the federal government.”
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., is drafting a letter to the commission in an effort to keep the office alive.
In 2001, the regional commission reviewed the learning gap between black and white students in Denver public schools. Last year, the commission was involved in a dispute involving American Indian students at Fort Lewis College in Durango who accused a professor of racism and unethical behavior.
Most recently, the commission began a study, which Barrett fears will be tossed by the wayside, on border towns with high populations of American Indians.
In an effort to keep their work going, the local staff submitted a cost-saving proposal to stay in operation.
The plan includes cutting expenses by more than $50,000 annually through salary reductions and moving to a less expensive office.
The proposal is under review, said commission staff director Kenneth Marcus.
Staff writer Elizabeth Aguilera can be reached at 303-820-1372 or eaguilera@denverpost.com.
