Six months after NHJournal broke the story that the Concord City Council had hired the “Cash Cow Consultant” to review the city’s diversity efforts, Concord has ended its relationship with the contractor.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the city’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Belonging (DEIJB) Committee, the Concord Monitor reports its members “decided to sever ties” with Racial Equity Group, the consulting firm headed by James Bird Guess.
Guess is the motivational speaker who previously launched the Cash Cow Consultant seminar, teaching people how to get rich quick by selling racial diversity.
“Yep, I bought into the ‘just speak your passion’ myth like so many others, maybe you did too. And I was still broke!” Guess posted on his “From Broke to Millionaire Consultant” web page.
“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!” (Emphasis in the original.)
Guess also listed himself as CEO and president of the James Bird Guess International Success Academy on LinkedIn. At the academy’s website, people can buy copies of Guess’ books, including “The Grinders,” and “How I Made a Quarter Million Dollar$ From the Trunk of My Car!”
James Bird Guess in a marketing photo from his ‘Cash Cow Consulting’ website.
Last January, after NHJournal reported on Guess’ background, the city council still voted to award him a $40,000 contract to conduct focus groups and consult on the city’s diversity and equity policies. Councilor Karen McNamara urged he fellow councilors to ignore the reporting of the “anti-progressive New Hampshire Journal.”
On Tuesday, however, the DEIJB committee decided to move forward without Guess or the Racial Equity Group.
Six months ago, Mayor Byron Champlin defended both the contract and Guess. “He really is a Horatio Alger type of story,” Champlin told NHJournal. “He’s a self-made man.”
According to the Concord Monitor, however, Champlin called the work from Guess’ firm “sketchy,” although he believes the committee still gathered valuable insights from the process.
The Monitor also quotes DIEJB board chair Rabbi Robin Nafshi. “The work that they did was completely based on characteristic identifiers. It was completely bad,” Nafshi said.
Wrong, says councilor Jennifer Kretovic, who disputes the Monitor’s reporting.
“Their work was satisfactory,” Kretovic told NHJournal. “But the committee decided there was no need to continue (the contract). We could do the work ourselves.”
Kretovic said the major issue looming over the committee and the city’s actions regarding it is New Hampshire’s new law that prohibits state agencies, towns, and school districts from entering into contracts that include DEI clauses. She says that, despite the committee’s name, there is no specific reference to “protected classes” in the founding documents or in the four major recommendations from the consultant.
“There is no violation of HB2,” Kretovic insisted. “All of the work was done before it took effect July 1.”
Other members of the council had a different reaction to the committee’s decision.
“I urged my colleagues to vote against this contract back in January,” Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton posted on social media. “I’m disappointed that taxpayer dollars were, in fact, wasted on this contract. Too often, out-of-state consultants working on these issues result in government leaders checking boxes instead of doing the hard work it takes to create more welcoming and just communities.”
“This is so very frustrating and exactly why I voted against this. We have now wasted taxpayer dollars and made exactly zero movement forward,” echoed Councilor Michele Horne.
The question many taxpayers have been asking since this debate began is, Where is the evidence that Concord has a diversity and equity problem?
Kretovic, the council’s representative on the DEIJB committee, told NHJournal it doesn’t, which is what the consultant found.
“Look at the recommendations, they’re all things that would make life better for all residents of Concord, not just protected classes. Things like improving transportation, that’s an improvement for everyone.”
At the same time, the DEIJB committee has formed a subcommittee to see if they should change their name to take words like “diversity” and “equity” out of their title, though without changing their work or their mission.
Kretovic did acknowledge there was one concern that impacted the committee’s thinking on continuing to hold focus groups: immigration enforcement.
“We need to be concerned about ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” Kretovic said. “Some ‘new Americans’ might be uncomfortable coming to a meeting.”
Asked why newly-nationalized citizens would be concerned about immigration enforcement, Kretovic clarified that she meant “new arrivals” to America, including illegal aliens and refugees.
Asked if she was truly concerned ICE might raid a city council meeting, Kretovic said, “I am concerned that ICE is going to show up anywhere in our city. If we had ‘new Americans’ on our committees, we would have concerns about their well-being.”
