Montgomery County government’s sprawling bureaucracy includes the ‘Office of Community Partnerships‘, led by Diane Vy Nguyen-Vu, who is the director. It first came on my radar as I researched Montgomery County’s “Sister Cities” non-profit. More to come on that – like how much did MoCo taxpayers spend on former CM Craig Rice (and maybe future “special projects manager” Craig Rice) to go to Ethiopia?
Similar to our earlier post about CM Evan Glass’s tepid attempt at setting up an “Anti-Hate Task Force” via the County government (with potential federal funding asks, of course), this “Office of Community Partnerships” appears to be overlapping both any potential “Anti-Hate Task Force” but also MoCo’s “Committee to End Hate/Violence”.
Per the Office of Community Partnerships website:
The mission of the Office of Community Partnerships (OCP) is to strengthen relationships between the Montgomery County government and the residents it serves, with special focus on underserved and emerging communities and our neighbors in need. The OCP serves as a bridge builder between the County government and community organizations serving the residents of Montgomery County, working across the barriers of race, ethnicity, income, and religion that too often diminish communities. OCP’s mission is to carry out the County Executive’s commitment to build a larger policy table with participation by a more diverse range and greater number of residents as we work to become America’s most welcoming community.
Isn’t this just a slightly different iteration of mission compared to what the “Committee to End Hate/Violence” does? Currently, this branch of local county government appears to be supporting, financially, the MoCo Sister Cities “non-profit”.
But, quickly – a few other things catch the eye when reviewing the “Ethnic Advisory Groups” website of this county bureaucracy.
First – notice what “Ethnic Advisory Group” appears completely excluded from this list below? No “Ethnic Advisory Group” for Ukrainian refugees? French immigrants? Greek? Bulgarian? How about Romanian ex-pats? What would be their advisory group?
Second – are LGBTQ people an ethnic group? Or does Montgomery County mean that this “advisory group” is only open to LGBTQ people of select ethnic groups listed above?
It all sounds and reads kind of exclusive. Not inclusive.
