OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Hillsboro City Council Work Session and Meeting – December 16, 2025: ICE Response Updates

City CouncilTuesday, December 16, 2025
BodyHillsboro, Oregon
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, December 16, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:53:22

Transcript — Verbatim
0:06

Being here in person or online virtually, appreciate that.

0:10

Appreciate your willingness to be involved and listen.

0:14

During this time, during the work session, there is no public comment.

0:18

But at 7 30, we'll move over to the auditorium where community members are welcome to speak.

0:23

And so just so you know, typically we have work sessions from six to seven, and then from seven to whenever we have the city council meeting tonight, we wanted extra time for the work session.

0:33

So we're going from six to 7.30.

0:35

And at 7 30, we'll move in to the uh to the civic auditorium, the Shirley Huffman Auditorium, and we'll have our city council meeting.

0:43

Uh, if you are here in person and would like to speak during public comment section in the city council meeting, please fill out a yellow card and give it to the city recorder when we move over to the auditorium.

0:54

And the yellow cards will be in on the left-hand side of the room when you walk in.

0:58

And I'll turn it over to Robbie Hammond, our city manager to start the work session.

1:01

Thank you, Mayor.

1:02

Good evening, everyone.

1:03

Um tonight we have uh what I is our fourth city council meeting related to ICE and its impact over the past couple of months.

1:11

We have heard um a lot of feedback from our community, from our businesses, from our CPOs, and from the council.

1:17

Um, we have a great plan that the council um has asked us to move forward with over the past few weeks.

1:21

So tonight's gonna be an update for you all about where we're at with certain parts of that plan.

1:25

Um and so if we go ahead to the next, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize the PowerPoint's not up there.

1:32

Uh while he's pulling that up, I'll just kind of uh go through our agenda for this evening.

1:36

Um we were gonna be uh going uh Raheem's gonna review the plan that the city council asked us to move forward with um for the first several slides that'll just be kind of a quick review, and then we're gonna go into some um more detailed updates.

1:50

Um go back to the first slide.

2:07

There you go.

2:08

I'm gonna go ahead and go to the next one.

2:13

There we go.

2:14

Yeah, I got it.

2:15

So the first uh primary update is going to be on the community focused funding.

2:18

Simone's gonna walk through that uh as well as some proposals to move forward.

2:22

Uh, we were then asked by the council to look into small business support program uh funding as well.

2:26

Dan D is our economic and community development director is here tonight, so he's gonna walk through a proposal for that program.

2:31

Uh, we do have a program to discuss tonight with the human rights office.

2:34

Uh that Simone and I are gonna kind of tag team to talk about that one, and then we'll have hopefully plenty of time for the council uh for discussion and next steps.

2:43

Um next slide.

2:44

This is another one that we've already shown this slide in the past few meetings, but I did want to call attention to that last bullet moving forward as we talk about our shared principles and and why uh why this work is important, talking about our strategic plan.

2:58

We also now want to make sure to talk about uh the plan that we've adopted that we have on our website.

3:02

If you go to the city's website, we've been very open and transparent about what we're doing as a city.

3:07

And so um that's what is going to guide our conversation this evening.

3:10

So with that, I'll turn the time over to Raheem.

3:13

Thanks, Robbie.

3:15

Um, so good evening, council.

3:17

Um, happy to be here again today.

3:19

Um, as we move forward, um, like Robbie mentioned, I thought it was important to just recap very quickly on how we put our plan together.

3:27

So, as you recall, um, at our last work session on this topic, we took a lot of what we heard from you all from your proposals and things you wanted us to do, what we heard from the community um and uh what we heard from city staff and some of our community-based organizations to take all that information and put them in these seven focus areas.

3:48

Can um just to clarify when you say community, are you saying the people who are coming to the meetings, sending us emails, and attending online?

4:00

All of the above.

4:01

Okay, yeah, especially including a lot of the public testimony we heard at the many council meetings that we had.

4:07

Uh, we didn't we wanted to make sure that they saw that their voice was reflected in this.

4:12

And many of their proposals or things they were asking us to do were also reflected in the things you all asked us to do.

4:18

Thank you.

4:20

Um, so to make sure we were clear on the things we were moving forward, we put together this plan, which um is now on our website.

4:28

Um, it is numbered, so there's a request to number them.

4:31

So I made sure they're numbered.

4:33

Um, but they're generally around these seven focus areas.

4:36

And the reason why you see two highlighted in green is because there was not general consensus on doing those things, but there was consensus on bringing more information back to the council.

4:46

Um, in those other four areas, which I'll go over very quickly in the next few slides, those were general, they were consensus from all of you to move forward with these items.

5:00

So under the internal focus areas, there were things around making sure there was appropriate signage, showing areas where ICE was or uh showing areas that were open to the public and not making sure that there was some training for staff, um, that we were reporting on interactions with ICE, and there was guidance and policies in place on what do we do when we do have ICE interactions.

5:17

Um there was a request to look at the internal staffing resources with a focus on bilingual support to be able to support this work, and uh Simone and Robbie will be able to talk a little bit more about that in the office discussion.

5:30

Um then website updates, just a big thanks to our communication staff.

5:33

They turn around the new updated website very quickly, and I think you'll see it does a very good job of explaining what we're working on.

5:40

And then um, you'd also asked us to evaluate more options for online or phone services for city services, which we're in the process of doing.

5:52

Counselor Sogato.

5:56

Yeah, can you hear me?

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Economic Development█████████████████████████████29%
Immigration Enforcement█████████████████████21%
Procedural███████████████15%
Human Rights Office███████████11%
Community Engagement█████████9%
Affordable Housing████████8%
Public Engagement██2%
Personnel Matters██2%
Fiscal Sustainability1%
Summary of Proceedings

Hillsboro City Council Work Session and Meeting – December 16, 2025: ICE Response Updates

The meeting began with a work session (6:00–7:30 PM) focused on the city's ongoing response to ICE enforcement, followed by a regular city council meeting at 7:30 PM. Staff presented updates on community-focused funding, a small business stabilization grant program, and a proposed Human Rights Office. Council discussion revealed divisions on the office, with some members preferring direct funding to community-based organizations. Public testimony emphasized codification, police presence, mental health support, and faster action.

Consent Calendar

  • The consent agenda was approved unanimously via roll call (7-0).

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Aaron Palmer urged the council to codify jurisdiction into law, noted 373 ICE raids in Oregon in November (130 in Washington County, ~25% from Hillsboro), and called for leadership and accountability.
  • Luce Gutierrez expressed gratitude for the updates and requested mental health funding, a dedicated officer to report ICE abuses, and continued support for her community.
  • William criticized loss of trust in police and government, highlighted community self-protection efforts, and called for education on ICE funding history.
  • SM raised concerns about Flock cameras in retail parking lots being accessed by federal officials and asked for regulation; also urged the city to act more quickly.
  • Jody Clark Lampa requested immediate police involvement to make ICE agents uncomfortable and support citizen observers, rather than waiting until January for decisions.

Discussion Items

  • Community-Focused Funding (Simone) : $200,000 was already distributed for food, legal, and rental assistance (32 organizations funded). A new proposal for an additional $200,000 for eviction prevention and rental support, with case management flexibility, was presented. Council consensus to move forward with this round, with emphasis on metrics and long-term sustainability.
  • Small Business Stabilization Grant Program (Dan Diaz) : Proposed $200,000 in direct grants (max $10,000) plus $50,000 for financial literacy support, targeting restaurants, food markets, and retail stores with 2–10 employees and gross revenue under $2.25M. Council discussed eligibility, verification, and timeline (late February–March 2026). General consensus to proceed with refinements.
  • Human Rights Office (Robbie Hammond & Simone) : Proposed new positions (Human Rights Office Manager, Assistant Communications Manager) within the City Manager's Office. Goals include partnering with CBOs, convening a community advisory committee, and addressing broader human rights issues. Council split: Mayor, Councillor Alcair, and Councillor Case expressed concerns about cost and effectiveness compared to funding CBOs; Councillor Sinclair and Councillor Salgado supported the office, noting CBOs are overwhelmed. Council agreed to first form the community advisory committee before deciding on the office, and to revisit with budget estimates in January.

Key Outcomes

  • Consensus to fund $200,000 for eviction prevention/rental support using four named organizations, with staff to finalize agreements in January.
  • Consensus to proceed with small business grant program with refinements based on council feedback (e.g., minimum revenue consideration, clearer employee criteria).
  • No final decision on Human Rights Office ; council directed staff to provide budget estimates and continue community advisory committee work, with a follow-up discussion at the second council meeting in January 2026.
  • Codification of sanctuary policy to be discussed at the January work session.
  • Approval of consent agenda and three ordinances (Fire Code, Comprehensive Plan amendments) via unanimous roll calls.
  • Library levy update : 64% of Hillsboro voters supported the county library levy, including 63% in South Hillsboro.

Meeting Transcript

Being here in person or online virtually, appreciate that. Appreciate your willingness to be involved and listen. During this time, during the work session, there is no public comment. But at 7 30, we'll move over to the auditorium where community members are welcome to speak. And so just so you know, typically we have work sessions from six to seven, and then from seven to whenever we have the city council meeting tonight, we wanted extra time for the work session. So we're going from six to 7.30. And at 7 30, we'll move in to the uh to the civic auditorium, the Shirley Huffman Auditorium, and we'll have our city council meeting. Uh, if you are here in person and would like to speak during public comment section in the city council meeting, please fill out a yellow card and give it to the city recorder when we move over to the auditorium. And the yellow cards will be in on the left-hand side of the room when you walk in. And I'll turn it over to Robbie Hammond, our city manager to start the work session. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Um tonight we have uh what I is our fourth city council meeting related to ICE and its impact over the past couple of months. We have heard um a lot of feedback from our community, from our businesses, from our CPOs, and from the council. Um, we have a great plan that the council um has asked us to move forward with over the past few weeks. So tonight's gonna be an update for you all about where we're at with certain parts of that plan. Um and so if we go ahead to the next, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize the PowerPoint's not up there. Uh while he's pulling that up, I'll just kind of uh go through our agenda for this evening. Um we were gonna be uh going uh Raheem's gonna review the plan that the city council asked us to move forward with um for the first several slides that'll just be kind of a quick review, and then we're gonna go into some um more detailed updates. Um go back to the first slide. There you go. I'm gonna go ahead and go to the next one. There we go. Yeah, I got it. So the first uh primary update is going to be on the community focused funding. Simone's gonna walk through that uh as well as some proposals to move forward. Uh, we were then asked by the council to look into small business support program uh funding as well. Dan D is our economic and community development director is here tonight, so he's gonna walk through a proposal for that program. Uh, we do have a program to discuss tonight with the human rights office. Uh that Simone and I are gonna kind of tag team to talk about that one, and then we'll have hopefully plenty of time for the council uh for discussion and next steps. Um next slide. This is another one that we've already shown this slide in the past few meetings, but I did want to call attention to that last bullet moving forward as we talk about our shared principles and and why uh why this work is important, talking about our strategic plan. We also now want to make sure to talk about uh the plan that we've adopted that we have on our website. If you go to the city's website, we've been very open and transparent about what we're doing as a city. And so um that's what is going to guide our conversation this evening. So with that, I'll turn the time over to Raheem. Thanks, Robbie. Um, so good evening, council. Um, happy to be here again today. Um, as we move forward, um, like Robbie mentioned, I thought it was important to just recap very quickly on how we put our plan together. So, as you recall, um, at our last work session on this topic, we took a lot of what we heard from you all from your proposals and things you wanted us to do, what we heard from the community um and uh what we heard from city staff and some of our community-based organizations to take all that information and put them in these seven focus areas. Can um just to clarify when you say community, are you saying the people who are coming to the meetings, sending us emails, and attending online? All of the above. Okay, yeah, especially including a lot of the public testimony we heard at the many council meetings that we had. Uh, we didn't we wanted to make sure that they saw that their voice was reflected in this. And many of their proposals or things they were asking us to do were also reflected in the things you all asked us to do. Thank you. Um, so to make sure we were clear on the things we were moving forward, we put together this plan, which um is now on our website. Um, it is numbered, so there's a request to number them. So I made sure they're numbered.

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