RALEIGH — The Wake County Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is costing taxpayers more than a million dollars in 2025.
A public records request revealed the office’s adopted budget for 2025 is more than $1.171 million. That’s a 32.4% increase over the previous year’s approved budget total of $884,245 and a nearly eightfold increase over the first adopted budget in 2022 of $131,008.
The records show the adopted budget for 2025 for salaries and benefits of all staff, including part-time employees, accounts for $968,471 of the overall total. Regular salaries and wages without benefits included totaled $679,489.
In attempting to access the county’s DEI office website before publication, an error message came up, which a Wake County spokesperson addressed in response to a North State Journal inquiry.
“No one is blocked from accessing the website,” the spokesperson said. “The webpage for our Office of DEI is not currently available, because we are taking time to thoughtfully rework the content.”
The website appears to still be out of service; however, the public can view a saved version on the Wayback Machine internet archive site.
While the office’s website is currently down, a February 2025 archived version of the Wake County DEI Office’s staff page listed four employees: Director Danya Perry, Program Manager Christal Carmichael and DEI Consultants Molly Marcotte and Quianne’ Holmes.
Not including benefits, the salaries of these four employees cost taxpayers $454,336 in 2024. Assuming the same number of employees for 2024 and 2025, the difference between the salary figures for those years represents just under a 50% increase.
According to salary data compiled by the News and Observer (N&O) in 2024, Perry was paid $158,377. He was hired Jan. 14, 2022. Public records show he was making $151,557 in 2023.
Carmichael was hired on Nov. 30, 2022. Public records show she was paid $101,444 in 2023, and the N&O’s database shows she received a raise to $102,843 in 2024.
Marcotte was hired on Nov. 11, 2022. Her rate of pay in 2023 was $88,000. The N&O’s database shows an increase to $96,558 with “increased workload” as the justification.
Holmes was hired three days after Marcotte. Public records show a 2023 rate of pay at $88,000. That pay was increased to $96,558 in 2024 with the same justification listed for Marcotte.
According to Wake County’s more than $2.074 billion adopted budget for 2025, DEI is mentioned nine times across various sections. The 2025 budget reflects a property tax hike on county residents of 51.05 cents per $100 of valuation.
The adopted budget shows the Wake DEI office falls under the county manager’s purview, and the office’s specific budget is not outlined in the document but is mentioned regarding “DEI program” training.
Records received by North State Journal show $75,570 is allocated for “other professional services” that include contracted services and consulting fees. Additionally, there is $139,486 for contractual services, which consists of a host of items such as leases, equipment, printing, cell phones, training and more.
North State Journal reached out to Wake County Board of Commissioners Chair Susan Evans about whether the board has had discussions related to presidential executive orders on DEI as well as state-level pending legislation.
In an email response, a Wake County spokesperson said the board “has not had any formal discussions on DEI related to the president’s executive orders and pending state legislation” and that the topic is “not presently on our meeting agendas for April.”
North State Journal also asked if the board was aware of the increase in expenditure for its DEI office.
“Over the past several years, the commission has approved budget allocations to create and expand the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” wrote the county’s spokesperson. “That information was shared in detail with the Board in the budget book for each fiscal year and publicly on our website.”
The spokesperson also said the funding for the office “is local funding only.”
“We do not rely on any state or federal dollars to support the Office of DEI. In fact, less than 0.1 of 1% of the County’s operating budget goes toward DEI programming,” the spokesperson wrote.
