At the end of the Flossmoor Board of Trustees meeting Monday, May 5, acting Village Attorney Karl Ottosen advised the board that village officials will need to be aware of any policies that might violate anti-discrimination laws if it applies for any federal grants.

Ottosen said the Illinois Local Government Attorneys Association issued a notice that when municipalities apply for new federal grant applications, whoever signs off on the application has to certify that the village does not have any policies that explicitly refer to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

“Under the previous administration, everybody had to prominently display and prove that they had DEI policies and the current administration is looking at the DEI as affirmative action, and that that is in violation of the anti-discrimination laws because that in and of itself was discriminatory based on race,” Ottosen said.

“If this village has DEI policies, I’m going to recommend, not that you … forget all that stuff, but that we write anti-discrimination policy that is strongly advocating that we shall not discriminate based upon any protected class.”

He added that the village should make sure it has proper complaint procedures in place in case anyone believes the village has done something improper.

“So you’re still going to be doing the exact same thing, protecting everybody’s rights under the anti-discrimination laws,” he said.

The key, he said, was to make sure policies adhere to anti-discrimination law but do not use DEI language.

On the first two days of his second term in office, President Donald Trump issued three executive orders intended to eliminate DEI initiatives from the federal government. Agencies have been aggressively enforcing those orders.

The battle between the Trump administration and Harvard University has been one of the most high profile contests over DEI policy. After suing the federal government over its anti-DEI policies, Harvard announced on April 29 that it was renaming its Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion to Belonging to Community and Campus Life. The move was part of an effort to convince the Trump administration to restore $2 billion in blocked federal funding. 

Flossmoor Mayor Michelle Nelson said she wasn’t aware of any village policies that include DEI language, but she has long expressed support for those values. 

“We’re going to have to go back and look at that,” she said. “I hate to say it like that. It’s so anti-what we are.”

Flossmoor has applied for federal funding to help pay for portions of its major flood relief project. A $2 million request to help fund Phase 5 of the Flossmoor Road Viaduct Project remains in limbo because the federal government has not adopted a budget. Public Works Director John Brunke said the village has contingency funding plans so the project can be completed even if the federal grant does not materialize.

Homewood Village Manager Napoleon Haney said he was unaware of any specific DEI language in village policies. He noted that the village currently is not planning to apply for federal grants, so the issue might not come up in any case.