The city of Bend removed a committee meeting recording from its YouTube channel in March following public comments that began as criticism of the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts but turned into hateful speech and racist slurs.

The Human Rights and Equity Commission meets monthly to offer input on Bend City Council’s goals and policies and act as a bridge to people historically excluded from government participation. At its March 27 meeting, its members heard roughly 10 minutes of criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion work from five public commenters who were participating remotely via Zoom. But the comments took a turn.

When city officials attempted to end the public comment period after the typical allotted 10 minutes, one commenter began berating the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion Director, Andrés Portela III, who is Black, and members of the commission because he wasn’t allowed to speak.

That commenter repeated an anti-Black slur in fast succession for several seconds. Portela estimated the slur was used 19 times. Two other commenters, who had already spoken, joined in with anti-semitic rhetoric as city officials attempted to remove the commenters from the meeting.

The commenters listed their names as Chad Bastewell, Mittzy Bèphe, Jim Conley, Levi Coon and Barry Gaul. The Bulletin was unable to verify the identities of the commenters.

“This situation is not Central Oregon,” Portela told The Bulletin on Friday. “It is not the community at large, but it does reside in the community.”

The city is retaining the video recording of the meeting, and it’s available through a public records request process, Ian Leitheiser, assistant city attorney, wrote in an email Friday.

“But the law doesn’t require the City to feature the video on our Youtube channel, so we chose not to,” Leitheiser said.

At the commission meeting, following the public comments, Leitheiser said the commission will have to endure narratives and content that most reasonable people might call “objectionable, cowardly, spineless, utter bullshit.”

Portela said city officials are currently in the process of editing the video to put up an abridged version of the March 27 meeting without the 10 minutes of offensive speech. Since the incident, Portela said a flood of written public comment has come in assuring the commission’s members and city officials that the offensive speech is not reflective of Bend’s community.

Oral public comment in-person and remotely will be paused at the commission’s next meeting, Portela said. However, written comment and call-in comment outside of the meeting are encouraged.

Jack Orchard, a retired lawyer who advises newspapers on public records and meetings law, said removing one video while retaining others is an exception not quite in line with the spirit of the law.

“Just because bad words are used, that doesn’t mean you treat the public record differently than you would normally treat the public record,” Orchard said.

As a committee operating under the official umbrella of the city, the Human Rights and Equity Commission has to abide by certain public meetings laws to ensure access, but committee members can also use discretion if public comment strays from appropriate standards. Hybrid public meetings, which became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic, allow for expanded access to meeting participation. But they also run the risk of creating a venue for Zoombombing — unexpected and unwanted intrusions to video conferences — and concerted, offensive efforts like at the March commission meeting.

“The remote participation does allow for greater public participation and greater public observation of whats going on,” Orchard said.”On the other hand, it allows people, like any form of social media, to hide behind a two-dimensional form of communication.”

Bend’s diversity, equity and inclusion program has existed since 2021. The Human Rights and Equity Commission was established by a City Council vote the year prior. Portela, who was hired in 2023 as the city’s second diversity, equity and inclusion director, is the designated staff liaison for the commission.

The commission saw turnover of half of its membership in its first year. Recently, a commission member was removed by a council vote, and two other seats on the 13-member commission are vacant. Since its establishment, the commission has made strides in advising the council on policies related to housing, transportation and growth. Current work includes developing a system for reporting bias incidents in Bend and preventing those incidents. Portela said the comments at March’s meeting constitute a bias incident.

“Unfortunately these folks were welcomed into the space, and they caused utter harm,” Portela said.

The hate speech gets to the heart of why diversity, equity and inclusion work matters, he added.

This story contains use of vulgarity, including obscenities and references to racial slurs.