Boulder County Commissioners' Statement of Support for County Employee Deborah (Debbie) Ramirez
We fully support an employee’s right to speak their truth and we stand with Debbie Ramirez in her courageous decision to speak up.
We stand firmly behind our brave Boulder
County employee who chose to speak publicly about a demeaning and demoralizing act of sexual misconduct she experienced as a young woman. We fully support an employee’s right to speak their truth and we stand with Deborah Ramirez in her courageous decision to speak up.
Debbie is a valued and trusted member of our Department of Housing & Human
Services. She is dedicated and passionate about serving families who are most in need. She has spent the last five and a half years
with Boulder County coordinating financial resources for low-income families by
matching requests for support with available funding sources, matching
community donors with families and individuals during the holidays, and
recruiting and working with community volunteers in support of families and
children. Her work has been exemplary and always a model for providing the best
in public service.
We feel it is important that we use our standing as elected
officials to identify ways in which the public dialogue about important issues can
be improved. It is our view that the proper reaction to assault or harassment
allegations should be the immediate belief of the victim, especially when their
choice to speak out comes at such an enormous personal cost. We wholeheartedly assert that a person brave enough to speak up should know that they will be
heard and that their claims will be granted a full investigation.
We believe Debbie Ramirez. Knowing the personal peril and unwanted spotlight that a modest civil servant like
Debbie has put herself in to shed light on an all-too common occurrence
of men harassing and humiliating women when they’re at their most vulnerable, grants
her even more respect in our eyes.
Sexual harassment and assault should never be tolerated in our
society and the more we can support those who have been victims of these crimes
to safely come forward, the better chance we have of stopping the cycle.
Sincerely,
Cindy Domenico, Deb Gardner, Elise Jones
Boulder County Commissioners
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