A recent decision by the Bend Chamber of Commerce to oppose a proposed anti-bias ordinance has drawn criticism from some of its members.

Several business owners and local executives publicly broke ranks with the chamber Wednesday night at a hearing of the Bend City Council on the proposed ordinance, which would make it illegal to discriminate against a person based on sexual orientation or sexual identity.

Some chamber members publicly questioned whether they would remain in the organization. Since Gary Peters, head of the Bend Chamber, gave his remarks at the hearing on Wednesday, one chamber member had quit and five had joined, Peters said. He declined to name them.

Among the members who split from the party line was Mike Hollern, board chairman at Brooks Resources, and his wife, Sue.

Brooks is a major employer in Bend and a leader in the development community with Mount Bachelor Village and Black Butte Ranch on its resume.

Hollern, who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, said he doesn’t know all the legal issues involved with enacting such an ordinance, but he believes it is important for the city to support the law because of the message it sends.

”The chamber came to a different conclusion,” he said. ”But I cannot disagree more on that position.”

Hollern said his company, which employs about 125 people during the peak summer months, already has a nondiscrimination policy, which has been in place for years.

”It’s all part of our corporate culture. It’s just stuff we believe in,” he said.

Chamber leaders are sticking to the view that the proposal is bad for business. The proposed ordinance, said Peters, creates an unnecessary liability for businesses, which would have to defend themselves against potentially frivolous lawsuits.

Peters said many of the chamber’s members feel the same way. In a recent survey that was included in a regular Friday e-mail to members, roughly 70 percent of the respondents said they opposed the city ordinance, the chamber said.

Peters said he answered between 50 and 75 phone calls Thursday after publicly testifying in opposition to the ordinance at Wednesday night’s hearing. Most of the those calls were from supporters who want to see the proposal defeated, he said.

Peters also defended the chamber’s decision-making process, which started with the survey and concluded with a vote by the 18-person board of directors to oppose the ordinance. The board voted on the measure at a regularly-scheduled meeting, which are held the third Thursday of each month. The meetings are not open to the general chamber membership, with some exceptions, Peters said.

Unlike public bodies, the chamber board of directors does not distribute its agenda to chamber members, either. ”We run the chamber like a business, where you have a board of directors to make these kinds of decisions. It is a very well-accepted process,” Peters said.

Some business owners and professionals said the chamber has overstepped its bounds by wading into the discussion about gay rights.

”Seeing (Chamber CEO) Gary Peters on the news speaking for me as a business owner incensed me,” said Bob Sant, owner of the Blue Spruce gallery, a specialty pottery shop in the Old Mill District.

Sant said he has belonged to the Bend chamber since 1993, when he bought Blue Spruce. Previous owners had been members since the 1970s, said Sant. But after the chamber’s decision to oppose the gay rights ordinance, Sant said he is considering dropping his membership.

”This is such a strong step in the wrong direction, it really makes me wonder whether I can align myself with the group at all,” he said.

Peters said it’s not the first time that the chamber has heard criticism over its political activities. The group has also drawn fire for endorsing political candidates. That practice prompted the Bend City Council to contemplate withdrawing its membership from the organization last year. The council voted ultimately to remain in the chamber, with councilors John Hummel and Bruce Abernethy voting to quit.

All seven council members attended a recent chamber breakfast at which Mayor Oran Teater gave chamber members an update and overview of major city projects.

Hummel said he remains uncomfortable with the city’s relationship with the chamber as long as the organization remains politically active.

”In an ideal world, the city council would be a member of the chamber. But that would only be if the chamber didn’t endorse political candidates and didn’t take divisive stances on social issues. It’s not that I’m anti-chamber; I’m dying to support city membership in the chamber. But I can’t do that if they’re (politically active).”

Peters said that the chamber’s political efforts are not going to end anytime soon. Businesses who want to see the chamber out of all political discussions might want to look for a different organization to join, he said. ”For those people, the chamber is not right place. But for the majority of businesses out there, this is what they want.”

Business owners like Erica Reilly said they are disappointed.

Reilly, a part-owner and general manager at The Grove Cantina in downtown Bend, said she and her business partners have been rethinking whether they want to be associated with the chamber, which they joined less than six months ago.

Reilly said she wasn’t surprised when she learned the chamber would oppose the ordinance.

”I was disappointed and a bit resentful that I’m a member of this group and what they were representing is so far from my views,” she said.

It’s a particularly dicey issue for The Grove, which has been actively supporting efforts to promote diversity and the passage of the new law since a male customer was attacked in the club last year while dancing with another man.

But the ordinance actually would not apply to such incidents.

Kathleen Leppert, a local real estate agent and self-described token liberal in organizations such as the Central Oregon Association of Realtors and the chamber, said she is frustrated to the point of dropping out of the chamber.

One of the problems, she said, is that the chamber did not communicate well with its membership. The chamber member survey was placed in the back of the organization’s newsletter and easily overlooked. On such an important and controversial issue, Leppert said, the chamber has an obligation to make a better effort to reach its members.

”I don’t know where (Peters) got the notion that he represents all members,” Leppert said. ”But it has to be more than just a small group of people raising hands in a private meeting that no one knew about.”

Eric Flowers can be reached at 541-383-0323 or eflowers@bendbulletin.com.