Complaining about news coverage from the “anti-progressive New Hampshire Journal,” the Concord City Council approved a $40,000 contract for a DEI consultant who previously hosted a “get rich from consulting” event.
NHJournal first reported on James Bird Guess, now president and CEO of Racial Equity Group, and his background, pitching his “From Broke to Millionaire Consultant” web page on Monday morning.
By Monday afternoon, New Hampshire House Republican leaders were calling out the left-leaning Concord City Council’s actions.
“If you’re wondering why property taxes keep rising, consider the costly programs pushed by Democrats to support their allies’ divisive social initiatives. How many more of these snake oil salesmen are we paying for?” said Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn).
“It is astonishing that the city would entrust taxpayer dollars to someone who openly admits his focus is on profit rather than expertise,” added Deputy Majority Leader Joe Sweeney. “The people of Concord deserve better, and it is shameful that the city has chosen to prioritize pyramid schemes, con men, and fraudsters over its taxpayers.”
But supporters of Bird Guess were unabashed during Monday night’s city council meeting.
“This consultant, I 100 percent think he will get the work done,” said City Councilor Ali Sekou.
Bird Guess’s strongest support came from City Manager Thomas Aspell, who acknowledged he had personally vetted the consultant. Aspell said he relied greatly on endorsements from Massachusetts communities.
“This group (Racial Equity Group) has done a tremendous amount of work with our neighbors down south in Massachusetts, and those are the folks that I talked to,” Aspell said. “And not only the Massachusetts Municipal Association but several of the communities. And they were very pleased with the services provided.”
Bird Guess has contracts with the University of Massachusetts—Amherst and the town of Wellesley, Mass.
Aspell said the hope was to provide diversity training regarding appropriate behavior toward multiple groups. “Women in the workplace — and not just here but in society,” Aspell said, as well as the “LGBTQIA++ group.”
In 202o, Bird Guess hosted the “Cash Cow Consultant” event, teaching people how to “Become a seven-figure consultant with no employees.”
“Now, don’t get me wrong, speaking with passion and helping people is a blessing. I love helping people, but that’s only a small part of the equation of making six to seven figures!” Guess wrote. (Emphasis in the original.)
The contract is part of a $140,000 appropriation by the council in 2023 to fund expanded DEI — or as the City of Concord calls it, DEIJB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Belonging) — training. The $40,000 appropriation was for focus groups and facilitated conversations for the city’s boards and commissions to be provided by Bird Guess and his team.
Mayor Byron Champlin, also a Bird Guess supporter, acknowledged the training would be voluntary because the citizens who serve on those bodies do so voluntarily.
Champlin told NHJournal he talked to Bird Guess about his get-rich-quick days and has no qualms about awarding him the contract.
Bird Guess also sent the council a letter assuring it that the conference was a one-off and that messaging was in his past.
“My firm has since been too busy and too focused on identifying inequities and removing barriers to equal opportunity for the stakeholders of local government agencies. This is also why I have not conducted another conference since that single one in 2020.”
Asked by Councilor Jeff Foote if the city had hired a facilitator to advance the work of any other board or committee other than the DEIJB committee, Aspell said no. Asked if he knew of any other New Hampshire communities that are paying for this DEIJB facilitation, Aspell said some public schools may have done it in the past, but “I can’t think of any.”
Progressive councilor Michele Horne said that while she supported the proposal to fund more DEIJB training, “My pause is sending our tax dollars to Texas. I don’t feel comfortable with paying somebody in Texas. I think that societally, the climate, things are just a lot different there, and I don’t feel comfortable that they know the issues that are happening in Concord.”
On the other hand, Councilor Karen McNamara said the “fresh eyes” of an outsider “would be a good thing.” And she urged her fellow councilors to ignore the critics.
“Not surprised at all that the anti-progressive New Hampshire Journal would come out with this article as they did,” McNamara said.
In the end, progressive politics prevailed. The contract was approved by a two-thirds majority, though in a voice vote, meaning there is no record of how the individual councilors voted.
“As any other committee, we trusted our city staff to do the due diligence, do the work, do the background, and bring the recommendation,” Sekou said. “And based on the recommendation we had, we all agreed that this is the most qualified candidate.”
