Buncombe County officials and state lawmakers in Raleigh crossed rhetorical swords Feb. 11 over accusations of unfair diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the county.
Officials, led by county commission chair Amanda Edwards and county attorney Kurt Euler, sought to “correct the record” on testimony given to the committee on Jan. 7 by Asheville lawyer and former Republican primary legislative candidate Ruth Smith.
Smith’s testimony focused on the Buncombe County’s Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP), which she claimed unfairly allocated resources based on race, when it was meant to help rural residents. Smith also testified that Buncombe County engaged in discrimination by proxy through programs like the Isaac Coleman Grants and through small business relief grants.
But in testimony to the NC House Select Committee on Government Efficiency, Edwards and Euler disputed those claims.
“There have been no instances where race-based criteria or other protected characteristics have been used in any of our work, including hiring contracts or allocations of revenue,” Edwards said.
Edwards said that REAP was designed to increase the county’s understanding of underserved populations, but it did not determine county policy. She said that small business relief was targeted at businesses with less than 25 employees — an often unreached group — and was not limited by race or gender, although outreach may have focused on BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) and women-owned businesses to ensure they were aware of the opportunities.
Another point of contention was the county’s Community Reparations Commission (CRC). In her prior testimony from January, Smith claimed that the county was trying to evade the 14th Amendment and implement unconstitutional policies on racial reparations.
Ultimately, the CRC developed and released 39 policy recommendations in a 2025 report, including establishment of an economic development center for blacks in Asheville, creating a black wealth-building fund, providing grants to black-owned businesses and legacy neighborhoods, and making direct cash payments to individuals harmed by racism.
The issue has drawn scrutiny from the Trump administration. In September, Harmeet Dhillon, assist attorney general for the civil rights division at the US Department of Justice, sent a letter to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners warning them about the recommendations of the CRC.
“My office will be closely monitoring your actions,” Dhillon wrote. “To the extent these recommendations are formally adopted, you are now on notice that my office stands ready to investigate and enforce violations of federal civil rights laws to the fullest extent possible.”
For their part, Edwards and Euler said during the hearing that no county staff or legal counsel ever advocated circumventing federal or state laws. Euler explained the CRC was formed after George Floyd’s death to gather information and examine historical discriminatory practices like redlining and urban renewal, not to promise payments for past slavery. The CRC’s findings were recommendations, and the county has taken no action on them, nor does it intend to, they said.
Republican members of the committee pushed back against the narrative presented by Edwards and Euler. Rep. Brian Echevarria, R-Cabarrus, asked in what ways Buncombe County had been “partial” in the past that it needed to correct those past injustices.
“Go ahead and confess your faults,” Echevarria said.
Edwards replied that she had “no faults to confess on behalf of Buncombe County government.”
“I don’t think there was any overt problem with Buncombe County,” added Euler. “I think what we are trying to do is make sure that we were connecting with people we don’t normally connect with. I don’t think that was necessarily based on race or protected class.”
“The truth is that the black community in Buncombe County suffers because of policies of Democrats for decades. And that’s the fact,” Echevarria countered.
