Bend paid its equity director $86K to resign after he’d already quit. Here’s what happened

When Bend’s equity and inclusion director announced in September that he would step down, he sent city officials a letter explaining his reasons.

As one of Bend’s few Black city employees, Andrés Portela III said in the resignation letter that he had endured racist incidents at and outside of work. He also alleged senior city staff undercut his leadership and excluded him from decisions about restructuring his department amid federal scrutiny of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

But days later, Portela sent in another, much shorter resignation letter — this time without any critiques of the city. Shortly after, the city paid him an $86,000 settlement, according to public records.

In a statement this week, the city of Bend justified the payout as a way to manage legal risk. The city also cast doubt on Portela’s credibility.

“Andrés demonstrated inconsistent statements, behaviors, and actions during his time with the City, including in the period after he announced his resignation,” according to Bend’s Oct. 29 statement. “In the judgment of the City’s Human Resources Department and the City Attorney’s Office, this created risk and justified a resignation agreement.”

Bend hired Portela in 2023. This year, President Donald Trump signed executive orders to end federal contracts and grants for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, leading many local governments to abandon them. In Central Oregon, Deschutes County responded by dissolving its DEI committee. Bend, by contrast, joined two lawsuits to publicly challenge the executive orders.

“Any implication that the City of Bend has backed away from equity work is absolutely false,” according to an emailed statement sent by city spokesperson René Mitchell.

In the immediate wake of Portela’s resignation announcement, top city officials publicly praised his track record. The city has also kept records of his complaints about discrimination out of public view.

The city said it will work with an outside contractor to review the former equity director’s concerns about his employment.

“We take these allegations seriously,” Mitchell said in an email.

Before Portela resigned, the city quietly restructured its equity department over the summer. With a total of four employees, its staff focus on things like making sure city programs are accessible to people with disabilities or those who speak languages other than English. Portela supervised three people, according to city records, but was stripped of management responsibilities in June.

“Over the past several months, we became aware of leadership issues in the Equity and Inclusion Department,” the city told OPB when asked to explain the changes.

The city did not take any formal disciplinary actions against Portela during his two-year tenure, according to a public records request. The staff Portela had supervised were reassigned to work under other managers. Bend Chief Innovation Officer Stephanie Betteridge told OPB previously that their roles and work remained the same.

“These decisions were once again out of my hands,” Portela wrote in his initial resignation letter.

Bend has not released an official copy of that letter, despite public records requests by OPB and others. But the former equity director provided a copy to OPB, and the city confirmed its authenticity.

In it, Portela calls City Hall an “unsafe, inequitable and professionally hostile environment.” He describes interactions in Bend and with his colleagues as “racist,” “inappropriate, discriminatory and harmful.”

The letter mentions an exchange with then-City Council member Barb Campbell. In an interview, Portela said Campbell called him “brotha” in an advisory committee meeting last year. Campbell confirmed the incident to OPB.

She said she tried to apologize to Portela for using African American Vernacular English, which she said was wrong due to her position as a councilor and as “an older white woman.”

“Just treating him that way was honestly kind of disrespectful to him,” she said in an interview this month.

But, Campbell added, her attempts to make amends with Portela didn’t go well.

“I said, ‘I do not have the time for this,’” Portela recalled to OPB.

He said he reported Campbell to City Manager Eric King. Portela feels King’s handling of the complaint fell short.

“When I have a situation of discrimination and I take it to the city manager and nothing comes of it, I think that’s a failure,” Portela said.

Campbell, who lost her reelection campaign in 2024, said she was called into the city manager’s office to discuss what happened and left that meeting under the impression it was a minor event.

King declined interview requests through a spokesperson, citing concerns about discussing personnel matters. He answered OPB’s questions over email.

“I had a discussion with the Council member about microaggressions, and why their behavior was not appropriate,” King wrote in response to a question about the incident with Campbell.

He said he offered to remove the council member from the advisory committee where the incident took place, “but Andrés [Portela] asked me not to take that step, and said the situation did not require any further action. I took him at his word,” King wrote, adding, “In retrospect, I should have removed the Councilor.”

Portela’s letter also criticizes King’s response to a racist attack Portela experienced outside of work in Bend, where 87% of the population is white.

“I explained how I have been chased outside of city hall, spat on and called the n-word, only for Eric [King] to pivot the discussion,” Portela wrote in his resignation letter.

King confirmed the former equity director mentioned the attack in a meeting last year.

“I missed an opportunity to sufficiently acknowledge this incident when it was brought up. Shortly before Andrés left the City, I acknowledged this incident and apologized for not pausing the meeting and recognizing the harm he had experienced,” he wrote.

City officials have not provided details about how they will handle the review into Portela’s complaints, except to say it will be conducted by an independent contractor.

“We know it can be frustrating to not have all the information and encourage patience as the review proceeds,” a statement from the city reads. “Additional information will be shared at the conclusion of the review. In the meantime, we remain committed to a fair and objective process, without undue speculation or rumor.”

Bend said in a statement it will be working with a different consultant to “to shape the future of the City’s equity work.”

OPB first asked the city to release Portela’s resignation letter on Sept. 16. Hours later, a new, much simplified version appeared in officials’ inboxes. It was just a few lines long and without any allegations in it at all.

The former equity director and King both agree they had a conversation before this happened. But they starkly disagree about what was discussed.

King said in an email that Portela “offered to write an email with the basic details of his resignation for Human Resources.”

“One of the outcomes of our conversation was to schedule a meeting later that week to discuss Andrés’ experience in Bend,” he added.

But Portela said in an interview the city manager pressured him to write a new letter in order to “get around the public records request.”

“I explained, ‘I don’t feel comfortable,’” Portela said of their conversation. “‘And what will this even solve?’”

A couple days later, he signed an agreement with the city to receive six months of his annual $135,000 salary and health insurance payments.

He also agreed not to sue the city.

In response to OPB’s records request, the city provided Portela’s second letter, but not his first. The city cited legal exemptions in Oregon’s transparency law that are intended to protect personal privacy, personnel discipline actions and internal advisory communications.