Earlier this month, the city of Bend announced it is seeking applicants to fill three vacancies on its Human Rights and Equity Commission. Its goals include advocating for historically marginalized or underrepresented groups, evaluating city policies or regulations for potential barriers they may create and recommending how to remove them.
The commission is one of two community advisory groups convened by Bend’s Accessibility and Equity Department, which also provides linguistic services to non-native English speakers, and an array of other programs and training on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Meanwhile, Deschutes County commissioners recently voted to end the county’s DEIA committee. Andrés Portela, Bend’s equity and inclusion director, joins us to talk about his efforts amid the Trump administration’s backlash against DEI initiatives in government agencies, institutions and workplaces.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Earlier this month, the city of Bend announced it’s seeking applicants to fill three vacancies on its Human Rights and Equity Commission. The commission is one of two community advisory groups convened by the city’s Accessibility and Equity Department, which provides training and programs. Meanwhile, Deschutes County commissioners recently voted to end the county’s DEIA committee. That was in response to the Trump administration’s backlash against DEI initiatives in government agencies, institutions and in workplaces.
Andrés Portela is Bend’s equity and inclusion director. He joins us now. It’s good to have you on Think Out Loud.
Andrés Portela: Perfect, thank you. I’m happy to be here.
Miller: What is your own definition of diversity, equity and inclusion?
Portela: That’s a really great question. The city of Bend actually defines equity for all of our work. What’s been a really great process for us is we actually went through a process, as a city, to define what equity and inclusion looks like. So, we actually have two definitions. The first one is working towards fair outcomes for people or groups by treating them in ways that address their unique advantages and barriers – that’s from OHSU.
Additionally, we have a definition that we aspire to have, which is taking the efforts to provide different levels of support based on individuals or groups to achieve fair outcomes. Equity actionably empowers communities that are most impacted by systemic oppression and requires redistribution of resources, power and opportunity within those communities – we got that from the state of Oregon’s DEI Action Plan.
So that’s our definition of equity, and it’s really guided the work that we do in the other spaces.
Miller: DEI has, as I’m sure you know, in recent years but with a big crescendo in the last month, become a true conservative boogeyman, a catch-all for progressive overreach, for wokeism. I’ve seen it described as anti-white, or anti-male, or “reverse discrimination.” This is a big question, but how do you personally understand the backlash against DEI in recent years?
Portela: That’s a wonderful question. I go back to the way I was raised. I am the product of a young Puerto Rican man who came to the United States as a kid and grew up in New York. He was a part of the military, got out of the military cause he broke his spine. In that, he was raising a group of kids in a space that didn’t have sidewalks and didn’t have all the different things, so he was able to advocate for the best resources that were for his family and his community.
And what you see playing out at the federal stage is a lack of understanding of how diversity, equity and inclusion impacts us on the local level. And yes, if you don’t see yourself invested or see yourself represented within how things currently exist or how we’re moving towards, there can be some illusions of “I’m being left behind.” I don’t wanna say that that’s one political side of the spectrum or the other. I’ll say that a lot of folks feel like local government leaves them out. And it’s really the intention of the equity and inclusion department of the city of Bend to say we have multiple spaces for folks of all differing identities to advocate, activate, organize their connection to local government.
Miller: Well, what are some practical examples you could point to in Bend of this work in action?
Portela: We’ve done so much over the last year, but I think there are some things that are very concrete. So what we’ve been able to do is reform our language access policy, to make sure that we’re providing multilingual services. Additionally, we’ve been able to influence our policies, programs and our processes to make sure that we’re catching a larger swath of the community, really spending some time on, what does operations look like if we take a people-centered approach? What happens if we throw policy into a frame that looks at the individual in diverse backgrounds? And then, what is the culture that we’re trying to build as a beloved mountain town located in the Cascades?
So those are very tangible ideas, but what we’ve been able to do is conduct some internal trainings focusing on, how do we embed cultural competency? How do we then also usher in the work with accessibility? We’ve been able to really focus in on our internal accommodations process, our external modification process, but then show up at cultural and community events, changing the dynamic between how people interact with local government. People should be able to see their elected officials, but also see the city staff who get to move water, who help us move around spaces. And really, the Equity and Inclusion Department has created that bridge between local government, the folks that they trust within local government, and then the folks who get to feel impacted by the services we provide at the city.
So we’re going through that process now, asking folks to be on our Human Rights and Equity Commission, our city of Bend Accessibility Advisory Committee, and then we’re also doing our council goals process in which we’ve asked community to come to these pop-up events all around town and figure out, how do we move the city forward, together?
Miller: You mentioned the seats you’re hoping to fill on the Human Rights and Equity Commission. How much interest have you seen from the community for this commission or the other citizen advisory board?
Portela: I will say, in the city of Bend, the response has been overwhelming, but not just in this moment. The Human Rights and Equity Commission was created a few years ago with the desire from the community just to figure out, how do we embed equity within our considerations? How do we look at folks who are underrepresented or historically underrepresented within local government … and we had some local electeds say, hey, we want to champion this cause.
Where we’re at today is we’re still figuring out how [to] create spaces in which people who have never interacted with their local government – other than paying bills – can find that blend. So the community really is responsive. Folks show up to public comment. Folks show up to better understand how economic development will take place and how our water services are all interconnected, for both the Human Rights and Equity Commission, but also on the City of Bend Accessibility Advisory Committee, which our department holds ...
Miller: You mentioned water a couple times and I’d love to understand how diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility plays into something as central and basic to a city’s functioning as water, as clean water going into homes or dirty water leaving it. When you think about, say, an equity lens and for sewers or or the water department, what do you see?
Portela: Sewers, water, transportation. I see people that use and access systems. Thinking back about my dad and his relationship to local government, my dad had a distrust of local government. We see that now with what’s playing out on the federal level, we see it playing out in our local communities where people just don’t trust local government. So that can play out with, if I once didn’t have access to clean water, I can then not trust local government.
Really, it’s creating a space in which we can have conversations on how we distribute water, or how we are planning road development, or how we’re having interactions with public employees such as police and firemen – all of these different things are services that the city of Bend provides. As an equity department, we’re able to bridge that gap and then think about the people, the place, the process, the culture, the policies, the operations.
Miller: I guess I’m hoping for a more specific example of how equity and inclusion could affect the policy decisions that are made by the people who are delivering those kinds of basic services of water or roads. What kinds of conversations do you want city leaders to be having, if they are being true to these ideals?
Portela: I think it’s something that we already do with the Human Rights and Equity Commission. You will have a presentation by staff before it goes to the elected leaders. This is a whole space of … And just taking a step back, advisory bodies for cities serve a very good role between staff and elected leaders to advise on how community is going to either perceive or react to tasks that keep cities moving. So in the Human Rights and Equity Commission, we’re getting presentations about economic development, water service delivery, collection systems, master plans, all of these things that all these departments are doing. And it’s the first interpretation on how this will impact everyday life.
Then if you add a layer or the equity lense to that, it’s like, OK, let’s say I am a person who has limited mobility or my race, my other identity may interact with the services that the city of Bend provides. They’re able to give that concrete and direct feedback to city staff to change or influence how we do things, and then also give a recommendation to their elected leaders. So it really changes and enhances the dynamic between community, staff and elected leaders.
Miller: As I mentioned at the beginning, earlier this month, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners voted 2 to 1 to dissolve a Diversity Equity Inclusion and Access committee that had been run by county staff. What went through your mind when you heard that?
Portela: When I heard some of the things that were going on at the county commissioners, my first instinct was to reach out to the folks who are directly impacted. There are folks within the diversity, equity, inclusion environment, as practitioners who, this is their life’s work. So my first thing was thinking of the person, figure out what is going on, or the work that can continue or can’t continue, and how do we best support it?
But I think additionally, what is the official stance of the city of Bend and how are we messaging that to the community, that we are committed to this work? And luckily, our mayor had given a statement publicly. The night after, the city manager gave a message to staff to say that this is integral to how we do our work, and that’s not a slight at the county commissioners. But I say that to say, at the city of Bend, we’re committed to understanding how individuals are going to be impacted by policy decisions, by service and operation, and then also in our programming.
Miller: One of the issues that those Deschutes County commissioners brought up is that they don’t want to jeopardize federal funds by having DEI initiatives. Has that conversation been had at the city level in Bend? I mean, is federal funding in the city at risk because of the work you’re doing?
Portela: I believe that there’s multi-state guidance by the Oregon Department of Justice. The executive order ultimately stated things that were already real. It said that that law already states that you can’t conduct illegal discrimination. It wrongfully conflates the idea that diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring practices are intentionally discriminating. That’s not what we do. We provide the right resources and programming so that folks can think about their individual needs. And we take a very large and broad approach to that, in understanding both our workforce and community needs.
So, yes, the executive order is talking about illegal discrimination, which is something we already don’t conduct. But I also want to say that these sort of things are gonna come up in courts and there’s going to be a ton of challenges. It’s really important that folks who are impacted or seeing these things take a pause, and figure out how your organization is going to adjust once there’s actually a law that says this work can’t continue or will continue. But we’re having those conversations. Right now, it’s work, continue the work and bring folks in to do this work.
Miller: When you look society-wide, do you think that a different method of pushing for equity and inclusion, broadly, over the last decade would have led to less of a backlash?
Portela: Can you restate your question?
Miller: I’m just wondering if you think that … and you know there’s one minute left, so I don’t even think it’s fair to … This is a question I’m deeply interested in, but I don’t think we have time for it. So instead, Andrés Portela, I’m gonna thank you for your time and I hope to talk again so we can dig deeper into all these questions. Thank you very much.
Portela: Yes, please. Thank you so much.
Miller: That is Andrés Portela. He is the equity and inclusion director for the city of Bend. He works in the Accessibility and Equity Department. And I’ll say here, because it is an issue that we hope to return to, I have been wondering if societally, a different way of talking about equity and inclusion, of messaging it over the last, say decade, would have led to less of a backlash – given that we have seen an enormous backlash against DEI in recent months and recent years. That is a question for another day.
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