Golden Gate Bridge District Drops DEI Language, Fearing Loss of Federal Funds

Update, 2:50 p.m. Friday:

The board that oversees the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District voted Friday to approve a compromise resolution that declares the agency’s support for human rights while rescinding previously approved policies that supported diversity, equity and inclusion.

The move was designed to adhere to new Trump administration funding rules that would deny federal grants to agencies that have adopted DEI policies. The funding rules are based on the administration’s position that diversity, equity and inclusion policies are discriminatory and illegal under federal law, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Bridge district General Manager Denis Mulligan had argued it was necessary for the board to rescind earlier district resolutions containing DEI language in order to preserve access to a $400 million Department of Transportation grant the agency is counting on for a seismic retrofit of the bridge.

Several board members said they were uneasy with abandoning support for equity programs under pressure from the Trump administration, saying they believe it could embolden federal authorities to impose even more restrictive conditions on future funding.

“Clearly the choices in front of us are awful,” said Sonoma County board member Gerard Giudice. He offered a compromise: replacing a 2020 board resolution with one containing a more general declaration.

“Let’s craft a resolution that is based on our values, that the district believes every person has the right to be respected and to be safe,” Giudice said. “That the district and the board of directors show honor, compassion, and the qualities of character that support equal justice and due process for all.”

The 2020 resolution, passed a month after the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd, originally read:

“The District believes every person, regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, or disability, deserves the right to feel respected and safe within our organization, to feel welcome in using our Bridge and public transit facilities, and to be afforded opportunities on a fair and equitable basis in all transactions involving the District.”

The new resolution says:

“The District believes every person deserves the right to feel respected and safe within our organization, to feel welcome in using our Bridge and public transit facilities, and to be afforded opportunities on a fair and equal basis in all transactions involving the District.”

The board voted to accept the amended resolution by a vote of 11–3, with members Joel Engardio and Danny Sauter of San Francisco and Holli Thier of Marin County voting no.

Original story:

The head of the agency that operates the Golden Gate Bridge is asking its board to repeal commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion programs in response to Trump administration funding restrictions.

Agency General Manager Denis Mulligan called the action “a business decision” that is necessary to ensure the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District receives $400 million in federal funding it’s counting on for a seismic retrofit of the bridge.

It comes as the Trump administration’s new conditions on funding have pushed agencies across California and the U.S. to review their DEI policies and priorities.

“It’s not $400 million we could get someplace else,” Mulligan said in an interview. “The question is, should we undo a couple of policies that we know are problematic words to access [these] funds or not?”

But the proposed move faces criticism from the district’s nine-member board, with one representative saying it represents a retreat in the face of an attack on local values.

“We can’t just live our lives only thinking about business decisions,” said San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio, who serves on the bridge district board. “There are things called moral decisions, and this is one of them.”

Mulligan’s staff has introduced a resolution for a Friday district board meeting that would rescind DEI-related measures adopted in 2020 and 2023.

The 2020 resolution was essentially a solidarity statement condemning the police murder of George Floyd, denouncing racism and committing the agency, among other things, to “recruit, hire, train and retain talent from Black People, Indigenous People, and other People of Color.” The 2023 policy approved by the board added “social equity” as one of the factors the district could consider in awarding contracts.

A staff report accompanying the Friday resolution notes that although neither of the prior board actions is in apparent violation of federal anti-discrimination law, they could run afoul of a pair of directives from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The first of those was an April 24 letter from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to all grant recipients. The letter warned “any policy, program or activity that is premised on a prohibited classification, including discriminatory policies or practices designed to achieve socalled ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ or ‘DEI,’ goals, presumptively violates federal law.”

The next day, the Federal Transit Administration issued funding guidelines requiring grant recipients to certify that they do not “operate any programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that violate any applicable federal anti-discrimination laws.”

Mulligan argued that the Trump administration directives leave the district with just three “unpleasant choices.”

The district could sign a funding agreement for the $400 million grant, which was awarded in 2023, with its current policies in place, but he said that would run the risk of having the grant denied or clawed back.

The district could instead challenge the orders in court, following the lead of about 30 other agencies that sued the administration in a Washington state federal court.

But Mulligan said that would mean engaging in a process that could take years to play out and delay the seismic project indefinitely.

Finally, he said, the district can rescind its policies and avoid the uncertainty and delay of the first two options.

“That will allow us to award a construction contract, start strengthening the bridge and put people to work, hundreds of people to work,” Mulligan said. “And so when you look at the three options from a business perspective, that seems to be the most prudent” course of action.

The general manager also argued that repealing the board’s previous actions will not alter the district’s commitment to the Bay Area community.

“If we undo two policies, we’re still the Golden Gate Bridge District,” Mulligan said. “You know, this was a bridge that was built with all union labor in the 1930s. It’s a bridge of the people. We provide first-class bus and ferry service to everybody. We treat our employees with dignity and respect. You know, if you’re a vendor, we’re a trusted partner that you can do business with. So none of that changes.”

But board member Engardio called it “disappointing and alarming” that the district would back away from values that should be celebrated.

“We are talking about a simple statement that said people should be treated with respect, feel safe, and be free from discrimination,” he said, referring to the 2020 resolution. “There is nothing controversial about that statement. And if we start retreating from statements like that, where does it end?”

He added that the district retreating from its positions on DEI would send a negative message to its workforce.

“If we’re rescinding statements that say, ‘Folks should be free from discrimination,’ what kind of signal does that send to our workers and to the people?” he asked.

The bridge district is just one of many agencies contending with the implications of the Trump administration’s new demands on recipients of federal funds.

BART has apparently taken down a page that promoted its DEI efforts. The page, which was live as recently as early March, has been scrubbed of content and now displays the message “access denied.”

In response to emailed questions about the page, a BART spokesperson wrote: “The district has reviewed federal guidelines and taken steps to bring its programs into compliance. We are not providing any more details beyond that at this time.”

Thirty-one jurisdictions nationwide, including San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties and the city of San José, filed a federal suit in Washington state in May challenging the administration’s authority to impose new conditions on funding that had already been awarded. The grants at risk would help pay for homelessness prevention, housing assistance and transportation infrastructure.

A federal judge in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration earlier this month, an order now under appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court.