Before we begin tonight's work session, I want to thank everyone for taking their time to attend either in person or virtually today.

During this work session, I want to remind people there's no public comment.

It's 7 p.m., however, we will go across the auditorium for our regular council session.

And at that point, public comment will be taken.

If you are here in person and would like to speak during the public comments section of the council meeting, please fill out the yellow card.

I think they're in the back on the table there or give it to our deputy to the reporter over here.

And when we move over to the auditorium.

Today's presentation is on the Water Millamat Water Supply Program.

And I'm going to turn to Acting City Manager Small Brooks, and she can do your questions.

Thank you.

And I'm going to hand it right on over to Nikki Iderson, our water department director.

Hi, good evening.

I'm Mickey Emerson, Water Director.

I also serve as the general manager for the Joint Water Commission and the Barney Reserve Reservoir Joint Ownership Commission.

And we'll be talking a little bit about those partnerships tonight.

We don't get to usually come and present to you guys very often, so we're excited to be here.

If you guys wouldn't mind raising your hands.

So there's a lot of work that's gone into this project, and everyone's very passionate about what we've accomplished over the last 10 years.

All right, next slide.

Oh, I have the that's right.

Not used to that.

Okay.

So tonight we built in these formatted slides, and these will be breaks in between the sections.

And we're asking you to hold your questions until you see this format until we break, and then that'll be a good opportunity to answer any questions you guys may have through each section.

And we put several of them in here, so hopefully you don't have to wait for too long.

All right.

So tonight uh we're going to try to cover about 13, actually more like 15 years of work in about an hour and a half.

So hopefully we can get that done.

We're going to briefly go over the Hillsborough's path to Lillamet Water Supply, our investment in the Willamette.

There were some questions previously at I think our utilities Hillsboro 101 session about uh regulatory permitting environmental benefits.

So we're going to hit on that and then talk about the current project stat project status, our integration plan and preparations, and then end with community engagement and outreach.

So every time uh we come talk to you guys, I always like to remind everyone of our mission in the water department.

Uh our number one mission is protecting public health.

I think we might be the only department that people actually we produce something people put in their bodies, and so that's very important to us.

We also plan for the future, not only for growth but for resiliency.

And our big part of our job is maintaining essential infrastructure so that people have drinking water 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Nearly every person that starts in the water department says, I never knew how much women delivering water to people's taps.

And I think that's one thing we like to call our work is a bit of the unsung heroes behind the scenes to make sure that water's there.

And lastly, uh fire flow protection is a critical um uh mission for us.

Uh an example is the fire in downtown Hillsboro.

Um, we serve we had enough water that we were using that the whole city of Beaverton was using that night to fight that fire downtown.

And we plan to oversize our lines so if in case things like that happen, or for wildfires that we are ready and available.

All right, it's cutting off a little, but I can get that information to you guys later.

Um, so the Hillsborough Utilities Commission was formed by City Charter, and they have oversight over our rates, our system development charges, and they serve as our local contract review board.

So our contracts and things like that for construction and design go to the utilities commission.

And we have a utilities commissioner here tonight.

I promised I wouldn't embarrass it, but Commissioner is here to represent us.

Uh Gotsi might be joining us as well.

It's not able to tonight.

All right.

Uh I do like to say that it's not a successful day in government if we do not invent a new acronym.

So there's gonna be many acronyms in here, and I we try very hard to spell those out for you and explain them throughout the presentation.

So, what is the Willamette Water Supply?

It's a regional partnership between several local governments where we're designing constructing a new seismically resilient drinking water system.

So you'll often hear us talk about the Willamette Water Supply program.

Well, before we uh started on this endeavor, I didn't really know that that was a specific definition.

So large programs are pretty much when you have a very large project and you have to break it up into smaller projects.

Generally, they're over a billion dollars, but it could be somewhere in that range, is what they refer to as a program.

And there are people that that's what they do for their job.

They go build a program in one place for 10 years and then move another place and build another program.

And then the Willamette water supply system is the actual assets that are in the ground and remain after the capital delivery.

So the program are all the people and mechanisms to build the infrastructure, and the system is what we have after.

So in Hillsboro, we have a long history of planning for many decades.

And generally in the water department, we plan for about 50 years.

And one of the reasons is that our infrastructure is expensive.

And then it's for that long, you can spread the costs out over that over the customers' need for that water.

So I'm not going to go through all the details, but some of the key points.

And then in the 70s, we built the initial Barney Reservoir, and then in this 1974, the irrigation district was getting the federal government involved, and we all partnered in Scoggins Dam, and that's the dam that's in front of Hague Lake.

And then shortly after that, knowing these new peak season supplies were coming online, we partnered with City of Forest Grove to build the JWC water treatment plant.

And then in years after that, the City of Beaverton and Twalt Valley Water District came online.

Since then, we've had some 30 years.

Oh, that's right, I gotta say that today.

Since then, we've had some wholesale customers.

We also serve the City of North Plains from the Joint Water Commission as well.

We do have a slow sand filter plant up in the coast range, which was Hillsboro's original drinking water supply.

And so you might hear us talking about an upper system sometimes and see different rates, that we still serve rural customers and western Washington County from that supply.

Back in the day when you'd put a pipeline in, people you would people hooked up to the pipeline as you went through their property because the groundwater in that area isn't very productive.

And then in the late 90s, we raised Barney Reservoir, and now it's has several different partners there as well.

But Hillsboro had the foresight to have the water right back in the 70s to be able to raise at that time.

And this summer we are celebrating our 50-year anniversary.

So we'll be having a little celebration with the Joint Water Commission Board of Commissioners.

All right, one thing that we have also have a long history in Washington County is partnerships, and we're able to you know build infrastructure and keep our rates more affordable because we partner together.

We build infrastructure in a way that we can split fixed costs and share those costs across multiple jurisdictions.

And these partnerships are formed by intergovernmental agreements, or S190 agreements, what we refer to them, and the Joint Water Commission is the treatment plant, some of you may have been to, and the transmission lines for that treatment plant.

The Barney Reservoir Joint Ownership Commission is a stored water facility in the coast range that supplies us during the summer when our river flows go down.

The Willamette, I'm going to start at the bottom there, the Willamette Intake Facilities Commission is several different local governments, and that oversees the intake facility on the Willamette.

And then there's the Willamette Water Supply Commission, which is those entities that are building a pipeline.

It's Hillsboro, Beaverton, and Twalt Valley Water District.

And each one of these intergovernmental agencies have their own board of commissioners.

The Utilities Commission serves for the City of Hillsboro, and then you have different commissioners from all of the different parties, which I'll walk through on the next slide.

So just to make it more confusing, we have many different in our many different partnerships.

You can see that Hillsboro, Beaverton, and TBWD are all in the Willamette Water Supply.

In the Joint Water Commission, we have the City of Forest Grove, who is one of the founding members of the JWC.

And then the Barney Reservoir Commission, we have Forest Grove and Clean Water Services.

They use that stored water for cooling the river to meet their permit requirements.

And then the Willamette Intake Facilities Commission also has Wilsonville, Sherwood, and Tiger.

That facility was originally constructed by Wilsonville and TBWD, and they had the foresight to size it for a regional water supply.

And then, as I mentioned, the three are in the Willamette Water Supply System.

So historically, people plan for water supply just for growth.

And in recent years, we've been really focusing on resiliency.

And there are many different things that we need to think about for our drinking water supply to make sure that we have that water at the tap for all of our customers.

You can see on the top left-hand corner, that's one of our staff at a water.

I don't know if I should embarrass Dale here, but that was the North Transmission line.

I think that happened during the air show.

We have a history of having major events during holiday weekends or different events.

And then you see on the top right, that was the Lee Falls fire, and that's how close it came to our infrastructure.

We had actually staff had done some planning, I believe, with gas and fire to make our facilities more defensible.

Um, but we did work with um gas and fire, they were the forest command, ODF, and then Hillsborough Fire also supported us in making sure that upper system maintained um operation during that fire.

Also with climate change, we're looking at drought impacts and summer water shortages, and then one of the big things that we often experience here is power outages from wind and ice storms.

I think you guys might have heard that happen.

I think it was 2021, maybe 22, where they had a big ice storm in the Clackamas basin.

So in previous years, we had built a standby power facility at the Joint Water Commission so that we can rely on standby power generators during those events.

So this question came up, I think during the budget committee.

So we included this information on what is our current capacity and what are we growing to?

And so you can see the joint water commission capacity on that kind of lower left is 41.75 million gallons per day.

And then you can see the it's kind of a darker blue color, is if you look at all of our customer demand, that's where we're at right now, and then we our highest peak day usage was 33 million gallons per day.

Now we I think hit close to our peak in about 2015.

So we did expand the joint water commission plant because we knew we weren't gonna get to 2026 without an expansion, and so that's where we you see those hash marks, that's where we still have available capacity in our current supply.

Then on top part of that graph, you'll see the Willamette water supply treatment capacity.

So initially we built 15 million gallons per day, which is that kind of hash mark in the middle, and then the additional capacity we have above that is what we can still expand to in the alignment.

So many parts of the Lamet system, the pipeline and things that you can expand easily were built to that build-out capacity, and then we have to add other components like filters and things to get to that build out if and when we need it.

The nice part about being able to phase it in is we don't have to build that additional capacity of the treatment plant until we get close and we see that our city needs that supply.

So back in 2009, um we the original plan was to raise Scoggins Dam.

And we'd worked on that, I think it was about 20 years.

I'm looking at Tacey that that project had been going.

And in around that time, we saw the project had quadrupled in cost, and then we found um endangered species within the inundation zone of the dam race.

And so Hillsborough led an alternatives analysis to look at the different water supplies available, and we had a lot of different criteria that we'd set up with community engagement and input and stakeholders, and our big focus was making sure that we could have water supply when we need it, and with that project and the complexities and the cost, we really wanted something where they had least cost, least risk.

But there were several different other criteria involved in that decision as well.

We worked closely on that last decision with TVWD.

They did a similar parallel alternatives analysis, and luckily we both ended up with the same supply decision.

So the responsibilities are a little different on the Lamet Water Supply.

So TBWD is the managing agency, they will do the board administration of the Lamet Water Supply Commission and the WIF Commission.

They take care of the facilities and fleet, any design that might need to be done by the engineering group, water resources, natural resource management, and information technology.

They also are operating the transmission lines and the reservoir storage, and then Hillsborough will be the operator and mainten and prime maintenance for the Willamette Intake Facility, Raw Water Facility, and the water treatment plant.

So this is a very simplified diagram of everything that went into the last 13 years, but essentially we made the water supply formal decision in 2013, and then we spent some years working on these intergovernmental agreements with all those different partners.

The program we hired program staff that came online and helped us with mobilization of the program.

And Joelle Bennett, can you raise your hand at the back?

Is our water supply director there?

She works at Twalt Valley Water District and is here if there's any technical questions that we need help with.

Then we did permitting, then you can get to final design.

We're finishing up construction, and then the last step is water supply integration.

So at that, I'm gonna pause for questions.

I have some questions.

Yeah.

I've been doing a lot of homework on water over the past few days.

Yeah.

And I learned from talk to Scott McKean.

Not sure.

From the to Rollington River.

Oh, right.

Florida Council.

Yep.

And he told me about an event that happened in the 70s where a moratorium on development happened.

That because uh and it was for development because the Twalton River was polluted at the time.

So do you know?

And this is unfair, but do you know was the Barney River or the Barney built after that?

You know, I don't know, but the Twalton River is rain fed.

And I now I wish I would have put this picture in the presentation.

I usually do, and we have a picture of some of the founders of these projects standing right over the river with a river going between them.

And it wasn't very wide.

And so we're not like snow fed, we don't have a lot of groundwater.

Um, so at that time, there I believe there might have been a sewer sanitary moratorium, but yeah, that might have been that's what created the unified sewerage agency, which is now clean water services.

But those that was right around the time that the original Barney Reservoir was built, and then Scoggins Dam.

I think that all led into that storage facilities so that they could release water.

So Cleanwater Services, why they got involved in Barney, but they didn't join until about 99.

Okay.

So I'm still learning.

Yeah, I'm just curious like if there were subsequent things that happened that would have caused a moratorium because of concern about water pollution.

You know, I think that was probably around the time that they you have the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, and I think across our nation, the federal government realized that they needed to have regulations in place for discharges and regulations in place for drinking water, and a lot of those regulations are what drove treatment for both wastewater and drinking water.

Yeah.

And then just one more thing.

I talked to Kelsey Tuelleton River Keepers.

And um, she talked about, and we can't have this discussion in full tonight, but she talked about concerns about water, pollution, and contamination from data center usage.

Um, and she and Scott both said that there's an unknown about how much water is gonna be needed.

And so here's an unfair question.

Do we have the water supply to meet an unknown need to cool down data centers?

Yeah, and I'm gonna ask staff if they can uh grab the FAQ that we brought.

Um, data centers have been a hot topic lately, so we brought our FAQ.

We also shared a lot of them information at Public Works Day this weekend and answered people's questions.

Um and I did present on the governor's task force on data centers because they wanted different perspectives across the state.

Um, currently, data centers only use about 1.76% of our total supply, and that's in your handout.

What we're seeing on the west side of the cascades is that data centers generally use ambient air for cooling.

Um, I think that's different in different places of the state and country.

And one thing that we're seeing is that you know, community members have concerns, and I know there's a lot of conversation about misinformation, but for it is different here, and that's something that we're working on is try to explain to the public what is different and why because people have fear and concern about things, but data centers here, they're not using much water.

Um, most of them just use ambient air, and so that's something I've learned is different in different parts of the state.

Does that answer your question?

Uh yes, it does.

Okay, and with um the Dallas as an example, um, they're right there on the Columbia and near Dam and have access to water, but they have a different climate than we do.

Yes.

So I think um you're right that um it's water may not be the big issue, it is an issue, but it's more about energy.

But I was curious about our water system.

Their water usage in Hillsborough is very similar to just a commercial building.

Um, I think that's different for different types of technology and different geographic climates, but we've we've done, I don't know, Tacey, how many public records requests on at least five?

At least five, and I think Kelsey was one of uh put in a couple and we responded to that as well.

So we did provide that information.

Um if you guys want us to come back and talk about data centers, we can and water.

Um, but I do want to try to get through, but I wanted to be responsive because I knew you might have questions.

Nick, you have a question.

I was looking at slide number 12.

It's the Hillsborough's reliability planning.

Um, in that you're talking about our capacity.

Help me understand this uh chart a little bit.

On the left, you have JWC treatment capacity, which I understand.

Doesn't that provide water to multiple jurisdictions?

JWC does provide multiple water, but that is Hillsborough's ownership within the joint water commission.

That was my question.

Yeah, this is Hillsborough share of the JOEs.

Yeah, that's a great question.

I should put that on the side.

This is Hillsborough share.

And that's the same for the Willamette Water Supply hash mark bars up here.

That's correct.

All right, thank you.

Yes, we can move on.

Yeah.

So with that, I'm going to hand it off to Lee and try to get to his slide.

I hope they didn't go too far.

There you go.

Thanks.

I'm Lee Lindsay, the Water Business Operations Division Manager, and I'm here to talk about our investments in the WWSS.

So on this slide, uh the at the top, the WWSS baseline budget chart shows a 1.6 billion dollar total project with Hillsboro owning about 33% or about 534 million.

At the bottom of the slide in green, you can see the Hillsborough funding chart is showing the combination of funding sources we've been using to fund that 534 investments.

So revenue bonds, a federal loan through the EPA, and cash reserves.

And then a final note on this, it says additional bond with a question mark.

So we're monitoring our financial condition and our fund balances in the water department, and we're working with the finance department to see if we need an additional bond.

And that's why we have a line for that.

However, to date, we have not needed that.

So we're just leaving that as a placeholder until the project fully completes and fully closes out in case we should need another bond.

So this slide is showing uh one of the important notes on this slide at the top where it says controlling project costs occurs at all milestones.

So this slide is showing some of the larger dollar amounts where we're able to realize cost savings on this project.

So there's other uh occasions, many other occasions where we're able to receive cost savings or realize cost savings, but this is highlighting the major ones.

Um we work with our WWSS partners to control costs.

Uh and uh like I said, it's not all the cost all the savings listed, but it's for larger ones.

We've had pretty good success.

So this slide is showing uh Hillsboro's residential water rates for a typical residential customer.

You can see Hillsboro is highlighted in green, and so a typical monthly bill is about $56, $56.26.

And you can see as comparators, some of the other water providers in the area.

And what you can see there is that our water rates are kind of in the middle of the pack or in a uh fairly reasonable spot relative to our other competitors.

When we started this project uh several years ago, our forecast was showing that Hillsborough was going to rise more to the right, that our rates were gonna uh increase.

But what we've seen over the years is other water agencies are also doing uh capital projects and spending money to improve their systems, so their rates are going have gone up also.

So ours are pretty much stayed in the middle.

Um, so uh we haven't seen where we've moved uh much higher.

So I think we're looking good relative to our other uh water providers in the area.

So this is showing our forecast for our water rates for Hillsboro residential customers.

So we do we complete our rate study about every six years, and it's basically a six-year financial forecast that helps us to uh forecast what we need to do for our rate adjustments each year over that six-year period.

So we completed a rate study, and in 2026, for our residential customers for a typical residential customer, it was a 5.7 percent increase that translates to about $3 a month for a typical customer.

So you can see the product the rate there is about $56.26.

We say typical because we do have customers who use less water every month, like um, we see seniors or our smaller households may use less, some uh households may use more.

That's given us sort of a good guidepost of what a typical customer would see.

Um, other customer categories, so we don't just have residential customers, we have other customer categories like commercial and public entities.

Uh, for our other customer categories, the rate adjustments range from about 3.2 percent on the low end for commercial and nonprofit customers up to about 8.3 percent for our industrial customers.

And where those different rates uh came from was as we did our uh rate study analysis, we assign all of our costs to the various customer categories, and then we see how much of a rate adjustment we need to uh provide for each uh customer category to fully cover their costs.

That's why you see some differences uh in those rates each uh for each different customer category.

For 2027 and 2028, you can see what we're forecasting for rate adjustments.

Overall, it's about a 4% increase for our residential customers.

So, again, for that typical residential customer, that's gonna be about $2.24 for 2027.

Both of those 2027 and 2028, they're subject to Utilities Commission approval.

So those are our forecasted uh rate adjustments.

So, well, we have a couple of fiscal policies we wanted to highlight that are important for the Willamic water supply.

The first one is an ordinance and a resolution.

Uh, the water department received approval to issue bonds up to 450 million dollars.

We received approval from the Utilities Commission and from the City Council before issuing any debt for the WWSS investments we talked about today.

Also, you see that other uh ordinance and water resolution related to our fiscal policies.

So the water department has a set of fiscal policies that align with and support our citywide fiscal policies.

And the reason we have both of those policies and why they're so important is that those policies have helped us to obtain a high quality bond rating.

Uh, we received a bond rating from Moody's and SP.

And what a high quality bond rating does is it allows us to access lower interest rates.

So you saw that federal loan, we were able to get a 1.36% interest rate, but we have to have a good high quality bond rating in order to even access that federal program.

Next slide.

So this is shifting gears a little bit.

This is about the economic impact of that very large TAPOR project.

It's a 1.6 billion dollar project, and our program office tracks how the money uh is spent and where that impact is.

And so what we found is that 77% of the expenditures uh or about 1 billion dollars have been or will be spent in local or regional expenditures, meaning in Oregon or Washington State.

So that's Oregon and Washington suppliers, subcontractors, engineers, skilled workers, that kind of thing.

And it's good to see that positive impact on the economy.

Um, and I think this is my last.

So if we have any questions on that session, I have a quick one.

Um, I noticed on the slide that with the water rate forecasts, and it mentions um categories range from 3.2% for commercial and nonprofit.

I get the 8.3 being significantly higher for industrials, but but why do we give commercial a break?

Like I understand giving nonprofits a break versus residential, but why do we do that for commercial?

Um basically what we do with our rate study is we assign all of the costs of providing water to each of our customer categories based on how they use the water system.

So one of the most important cost factors is it's called peaking.

It's how much do you use in the summer, you use more in the summer versus in the winter?

So customers that use more in the summer tend to have higher costs, and so that drives our rate adjustments.

What else it looks at is what we've been uh what we've already charging right now, and then how much do we need to uh increase the rates in order to cover the cost for that group?

So with commercial and nonprofit, just the way the numbers worked out where the costs were and where we had already had our rates, they came in a little bit lower.

Uh, another we may do the next rate study, and commercial might come in at one of the higher ends.

Yeah.

That's where Sinclair lived elsewhere, Alcart.

Thank you.

Um, for the future growth assumption um and the system development charges revenue.

How does that factor in in repayment?

Like how do you factor after that in repayment?

Yeah, um, so early on in the project, we did a community advisory panel on this project and how the percentages should be based on system development charges and rates.

And that was because a good portion of this project, the 15 MGD, can meet our winter day demand post-earthquake, and we would prioritize people in hospitals and schools and things like that at that time.

And so that community advisory panel had recommended a 50-50 split on SDCs and rates, and then the utilities commission in a few years after that increased the amount of SDCs that are being utilized.

I think to date, we're using a much higher percentage.

It's at least 60%.

And I think we might be at a 90% SDCs right now.

So I would I would frame the commitment this way.

What I've said, and what I've heard is our commitment through the utilities commission is that the cost of the WWSS and the debt payments all the way for the next 30 years that we'll fund at least 60% of that with SDCs.

Uh that recognizes that expansion, that new uh uh water available to us for new customers.

The 40% is recognizing that that sustainability, that resilience that we have this uh project that is built to high quality high high earthquake standards, and like he said after an earthquake, we'll have that water available right away and we'll prioritize it for emergency needs and that kind of thing.

Yes, we've exceeded that by quite a bit to date um because we are able to hold some of our cash reserves.

Uh, one thing that's a little different about Hillsborough is we have water supply agreements or SDC contracts for large industrial.

They come in and have a cap on their water supply, and then if they grow, they have to keep paying SDCs.

So if they get to that point and they grow or expand, they have to come back and pay.

Whereas the single family residence comes and pays for meter once and they're done.

But it's a different kind of situation.

You're feeding water to a family versus a campus style that might grow over time, and that's really worked well for how we've been able to repay some of the debt and cap costs on this.

The only request I have is uh can we do a follow-up on how we how that breaks down with the SECs?

Yes, we can.

So much.

So my question is kind of related um to rates, but I so I don't know.

Um if we charge companies in the enterprise zone, we're charging them all the same rates.

Um is one question I have.

And then uh, and then I want to know like if you have done studies of other areas in getting ready for a project, I read a significant amount of information about pollution contaminants from data centers.

So has your department considered doing a study uh of water and potential risks from data center contaminants?

Yeah, I'll take the first part of that.

I think you had asked if I remember the first part was about rates.

Is that correct?

Okay, I might have missed.

Can you repeat that portion of the question?

If enterprise companies are they being charged the same rate?

So we have actually different rates for commercial, which includes like small business.

Um quite often they irrigate in one meter and they don't have separate irrigation meters.

So we have is it 11 different customers?

So we have a lot of different, so we have large industrial customer uh customer category, we have a small industrial customer category, commercial nonprofit, and we can give you guys we can send that back out afterwards so you can see those rates.

Um, and then that really plays into their usage, the size of their business and things like that.

Did that answer that first part?

Okay, and then the second part was um pollution related to data centers.

Um, one thing that's different in Hillsboro is that any wastewater discharge from any kind of industrial or other customer goes into our our sanitary sewer system.

So there isn't discharge to the groundwater here, like that may occur in different areas, and I know there's a lot of concern about that, um, but that doesn't occur here.

Um we even we do plan reviews, we have inspectors and all that.

We have quite a thorough system to avoid those kind of issues in the room.

The other thing is that we were serving potable drinking water to these businesses, so there's not a lot of things in there that I would be concerned about concentrating.

Uh, for instance, we don't have PFOS in our our drinking water, and so that's something if you don't have something to concentrate for evaporative cooling, you wouldn't see it in Hillsborough.

But many of our data centers are not doing evaporative cooling here, so it's not really an issue.

Hopefully, that answers your question.

Counselor Slogalo.

Yeah, thanks for the presentation.

Uh really huge uh system, right?

One of the things I remember I've had the opportunity now to go twice to the um water treatment facility, and one of the things that always is just really fascinating to me is just how much technology we have integrated into our system with sensors and automatic things that really detect any sort of issues with our drinking water.

Can you remind me?

I don't remember from the from the tourist when's the last time we had anything serious come up with those alerts and warnings because it's like I mean, it's like 24-7, we're keeping an eye on the quality of our drinking water, right?

So can you remind us?

So can you remind us has there ever been like any serious scares with the quality of drinking water in the city of Hillsborough?

I wouldn't say there's been any serious scares.

I think the one of the reasons that I will sleep better at night when the Willamette supplies online is that because Hillsboro doesn't have a secondary source of supply.

We've come really close, like in winter storm events, we've been out of power and had issues where many of the other JWC customers went off of the JWC, like TBWD went more on their Portland supply, so Hillsboro didn't have to go into a water supply shortage.

So when we have another water supply online, we will be able to have that kind of resiliency through two different systems.

And I think many of us in different events like the wildfire events, we'll be looking forward to having that backup supply.

So our community doesn't see any impacts.

Does that answer your question, Council?

I don't know if the country were muted.

Yeah, that answers my question.

Sorry, I was uh sorry.

So I want to make sure that got your answer here.

All right, thank you.

Let's move on.

Can I just add um flair out there?

You mentioned enterprise rates and just wanted to make sure we have classes, but we don't have like breaks for certain businesses in certain areas.

It's all dependent on class, and once it's determined, then that is that is the charge.

There's there's nothing.

Okay, I guess you were thinking that.

Oh, that's all right.

I forgot we switched that up.

So a question came up during um, I think our August Utilities 101 section.

So I wanted to address that here about environmental permitting and regulatory benefits and work we've done on cultural resources.

So one you may not know, but early on in this program, I was doing two jobs for a while.

I was water resource division manager and the permi and outrange manager.

It was a little too much, but hindsight being 2020.

I still learned a lot.

It was a great experience, and I got a better understanding of how the program office works.

But really, anytime a project touches water, it goes into a multi-layer permitting pipeline.

There are extensive local, state, and federal reviews.

I think the number I got from the program is they've acquired nearly 700 permits for this entire project, and they still have probably 25 to 30 remaining.

It looks at water quality, quantity, uh, there's throwover views at the state and federal level and threatened dangered species, and then there's other environmental reviews that go through the land use process as well.

One thing that we also do when you go through a federal permit is you work with the tribal governments um in consultation through Section 106 of the Historic Preservation Act.

That was probably one of the coolest meetings that I had as we went down and met with confederated tribes of the Grand Ron, and they give us quite a bit of input on our routing of our pipeline and areas to avoid.

And then we worked with them on an intergovernmental agreement in case we had a discovery of an artifact, how they wanted us to handle that, what we needed to do.

Um, but that was a really for me personally an enjoyable part of the process, and we got to see some of the artifacts that they have collected through that time.

Um, that was one of the questions that we had early on, and then I just wanted to highlight really quick some of the cool environmental projects that we've done as part of this.

Um, we partnered with Oregon State Park and Malala Riverwash, that's Malala's watershed council, and to do a restoration project in their floodplain.

And this is the confluence of the Malala Pudding and the Willamette Rivers.

And almost this whole quite a bit of this park was taken up by knotweed, and it was the banks were falling into the river, and you had it was impacting wildlife in that area.

And so part of our mitigation for temperature impacts of lower withdrawal was a restoration of this, removal of invasive species, and replanting of native trees.

This is probably another one of my favorite projects is we the pipeline went through Roy Rogers right next to the Twalton River Wildlife Refuge.

And we worked closely with the refuge, the Twelton Wildlife, the Friends of the Twalt Wildlife Refuge and Clean Water Services.

And that top picture you can see that's Chicken Creek that flows into Twalton River, and it was channelized because the wildlife refuge was an old dairy farm and the farmer had channelized the creek.

They had were missing funding to be able to reconnect that creek to the old stream channel, which was still in existence through the refuge.

So part of this was the Willamette water supply.

We were able to provide the funding to reconnect that stream channel.

And if you go out there and walk around, you can see all the wildlife now that exists there.

It's a it's a really cool project, and it was a great partnership for us.

And then in our neck of the woods, uh, we worked on the Rinco Woods Nature Park project.

Um, this project, we partnered with Hillsborough Parks and Recreation and Metro.

We also received quite a bit of community feedback on this.

There was a lot of concern about the habitat restoration of this project.

So we put together habitat restoration plan, a mitigation plan.

We put it out for public comment, and we had a couple different meetings.

There was quite a few people that lived in that neighborhood that were very concerned about it.

And they really did appreciate the way we approached it.

And so we also provided the eastern and western trail improvements, and that was through negotiation with parks and metro to provide a benefit to this.

They don't you didn't just want to cross the property, but you wanted to provide a community benefit.

And then we did an improvements to accommodate some of the uh flood flows.

They had a gravel trail that kept washing out and into the river, and the fish and wildlife folks didn't really like how that was happening.

So we helped improve that area as well and the erosion there.

And at the end it was very successful, but it was a good example of community engagement.

And then another quick pause before I hand it off to Chris.

Any question?

Okay.

All right.

Well, I'm Chris Wilson.

I'm the water treatment division manager, and I get to talk to you kind of about the operations of the system and and where we're at with all of that today.

So tell myself next slide.

So looking at the overall project, um, you know, some of the key components here was clear down at the Lameth River at the bottom of the map.

There is we had a raw water pump station and all the improvements we we did to that in order to upgrade that and get pumps to pump the water up to the treatment plant located in Sherwood.

I'll show a little bit more about that later.

And then from the treatment plant, it goes up to a water storage tank up on Cooper Mountain that'll hold 15 million gallons of water up there, and then of course, all the piping, um, about 30 miles of earthquake resilient piping that connects the whole system together and about 66 inch pipe.

And more than likely, you've seen some of it going in the ground around Washington County if you've left the house.

So, like Nikki was mentioning, you know, a lot of stuff going on, a lot of different the program was broken into all these different projects, and so just kind of following the pipeline.

You can just see all the different projects that have been going on all the way through, and really all the pipeline is in the ground.

Um, the treatment plant is getting close to complete, and the reservoir is ready, and so we're we're getting real close.

Um, you know, Hillsboro also, like Nikki was mentioned earlier, is responsible for operations and maintenance of the water treatment plant.

So you know, this includes both the treatment plant, the raw water facilities, what we're calling the WIF, just overall intake.

You know, we're gonna operate it, we're gonna maintain it, we're gonna set the flows, we'll do all of all of that stuff that goes with that.

Um, these staff, which we are still bringing on board, are um they are Hillsborough employees, however, all the partners that are in the Willamette help contribute to the you know cost of those of those staff.

Um, and as part of our staffing plan, and as we prepared for hiring, we're hiring about 20 new employees to help operate and maintain those treatment plants.

So the workforce development, like probably with most industry out there, is is it's hard these days to get people to come and so we've been working on workforce development.

We created an operator and training program.

We call it the OIT program, it's been very successful to help bring in new folks, diversify the workforce, and just to get people interested in in um water treatment, and that's gone really well for us.

Um we have I think all of the OITs that we've we've had over the last four or five years, they've all currently working for the city in one department or another, um, most of them with the with water, but one I think is with public works at the currently.

So um, and there's still more to hire.

There's positions that are posted right now.

There's a lot of, like I say, the treatment plants coming online.

Hopefully by the end of the year, maybe early next, and we hope to have the staffing ready to go by that time.

So the some pictures, some fun pictures.

Um the bar left there is the Willamette Intake Facility.

So that building that's kind of right in the middle is is where the pump station is.

You can see just in the bottom corner of that picture, that's actually the Willamette River.

So it's the pumps, the pumps that are in the middle are inside of that building, and we you know, there's those pumps are about 1500 horsepower motors, so we pump a lot of water out of there up all the way up to the treatment plant where we will treat it.

And the raw water facility there is it's um kind of the upper site, and that's where we have our MCCs, our control panels are all of our power for those motors are is up there in that new raw water facility building.

So and here's you know, the the 66 inch pipe going in the ground.

Like I said, this I'm sure I'm sure you've seen throughout the county as it goes in 30 miles of earthquake resilient pipe going in the ground.

And this is looking at the 15 million gallon finished water reservoir on Cooper Mountain, and you can see there's enough space there for a second one.

Original design did have two tanks, but you know, when this system comes online, um you know it won't be it'll be a 60 million gallon um a day, but we're expecting you know um demands to be less than that to begin with, and as demands grow, we will look to expand here and add a second reservoir.

Here's the you know, the the slide uh the best picture of all the water treatment plant.

So um you can see there's a lot going on there, and we're getting real close.

Um, this treatment plant, like I mentioned, is located in Sherwood on Twalton Sherwood Road and 124th.

Um, the initial capacity of the treatment plant is gonna be 60 million gallons a day, um, which will be about I think the third largest treatment plant in the state of Oregon, with the JWC treatment plant being 85 million gallons a day, which is currently the largest treatment plant in the state of Oregon.

Love to say that.

Um eventually, you know, this this plant is being designed and built with the ability to expand up to 120 million gallons a day in the future.

Um the city of Hillsborough's initial capacity is 15, and when we do expand, it will increase up to 36.2.

The treatment plant is you know a multi-barrier treatment process.

You know, in addition to filtration, we also have ozone and UV in this.

So this is a very good treatment process and is going to make a lot of really good clean water.

Here's a couple of fun pictures looking down the pipe gallery.

I know it's kind of a mess of pipes, but that's where underneath the filters where all the clean water will come out, come into those pipes and then go down into the ground and off eventually to the reservoir.

Um, then we're looking at some ozone generators here, which again is you know, some of the maintenance and stuff that we're gonna be taking care of these equipment, and uh it's part of the treatment process.

We got more there again, the water treatment plan on the left, looking at the UV reactors in the bottom left, um, some of the backwash pumps and motors that backwash our filters in the top right, and then equalization basin pumps is an equalization basin, is where any of the backwash water or water that's being used throughout the process that doesn't go into the the clear well or clean water will go into the equalization basins and get recycled back around so the treatment process and and retreat it.

So that's my stuff.

You got any questions?

Councilor Sinclair.

Thank you.

Um thank you so much.

This is a great presentation.

Um looking back on page 16 of the printed out presentation.

Um looking at the Hillsborough WTP operator staffing and duties.

What does um operators at locks tank and evaporators mean?

What's a box tank?

Oh, are those that's sure.

Yeah, so that process is part of the ozone, is so that's a liquid oxygen is locks, and so it's part of the process.

So we get deliveries of liquid oxygen, it goes through an evaporator, which breaks apart like the um H2Os and and creates actually an O3, which is um ozone, and so that's part of that process and creating creating ozone for the treatment process.

So yeah, and um, looking at this, what I definitely have to learn more about the two different programs that we're responsible for being the WWSP and the WWSS, but looking at the continued workforce development, how many people are we projecting here for the first 15 million gallons?

Because that's what we're at right now, and then we'll project forward to was it 62 million?

Well, the treatment plant will actually make the treatment plant will be a 60 million gallon day treatment plant from the beginning.

Yeah, and we're right at about 20 staff for that um for that initial build.

Okay, yeah.

And in that, do we receive this will this as part of the funding receive uh community service fees for this?

I'll take that.

Yeah, um, we don't receive uh community service phase or any like tax revenue for water, everything that we get comes from system development charges and water rates.

Everything that we get comes from system development charges and water rates.

Okay.

Um the city council did approve us to have some ARPA funding for startup of our OIT program, and that was a successful program.

And we've been able to get more people interested in drinking water when we started that.

We'd have, I think we had a recruitment for three operators and two or two people applied.

And Chris, how many people applied for last OIT?

And now it's a permanent program.

All the partners fund it through their water rates.

Yeah, I think for the last OIT position, we had almost 200 applicants, I think for it.

Um, and we've we've done it for four years now.

And the first two years we did two OITs at a time, and then the last two years we've taken it on as a water department funding.

So we've only done one per year, but um, and but the applicants have just increased over the years, yeah.

Absolutely.

And I'm so sorry, I said I said community service.

Yeah, I'm so sorry, I missed school.

Does that apply to this with the workforce development at all?

No.

Okay, yeah.

Um, everything that we get is just water rates or SDCs, except for that one time ARPA funding that council approved.

Okay, thank you so much for clarifying.

I have one more.

And for people who don't know what uh OIT program is, can you say where it is and share who's eligible to participate in that?

Yeah, the O the operator and training program, and it's um a city funded um position, and we provide one year of training, um, full-time training.

We provide benefits, it's just like you're being hired, but it's a one-year um position, and we will rotate them to the treatment plant, we'll take them down to water distribution, the operations center.

They've been working with the resources group, getting to know sampling and all these different aspects of the water um department.

And really, anyone is um where the whole idea behind the the operator and training program was that you know, the going to Clackamas community college, getting a two-year degree, not everyone was able to kind of make it through that program or to have the resources to do that program.

And this was kind of an alternate route into the workforce.

So, like, you know, you were able to apply, show interest in doing the things that we were gonna ask you to do.

I mean, it was really no, there's very little um you know, like uh experience needed, honestly, like you know, and so um and it's been really hard to you know, like go through 200 applicants and just have to choose you know one person to do it, and so it has been it's been very successful, but um, you know, it's and but it's a full-time position.

And one thing that we heard from some candidates, it's it was hard for people to leave a job.

Let's say someone worked at Amazon a warehouse with um benefits to do an internship for to become an operator without benefits, and so that's one of the reasons that we included that with the uh full-time position.

And and just one last question.

How many people have successfully gone through the program?

Yeah, so we've had two, four, five, I think six people go through the program at this point, and five of them are currently working for the city of Hillsborough while one is still in the OIT program.

I will say though, that like probably only about one of the six has actually made it the full year without being hired prior to that.

So um, there's been one successful graduate of the program, but they've all they're all working for the city, so it's you know considered a success for sure.

Yeah, yeah.

So I've got a question.

Um, so Hillsborough is responsible for the water treatment plant, and we've got whatever 20 employees.

So we have 20 employees or so working in Sherwood right now.

Well, not yet, but um, right now I think there's about eight out there, or maybe seven.

We've been kind of phasing it along with the construction and bringing everybody on board kind of when the resources are needed.

There is a posting that's live right now for five more operators um to bring on and and get those guys going.

We also have um what else right now?

There's a maintenance operator that just closed.

We'll be doing interviews probably next week.

Um, and so we are starting to kind of ramp up with that because we are getting closer to the end of the construction pro in the program and need to be ready to kind of hit the ground running when when they say go.

So does it cause any additional costs like Amsterdam facilities or all their offices on site, everything on site?

It's it's is there a management issue?

Is there additional costs that'll see with our folks working 45 for an hour away?

Sure.

Um so all of the offices aren't on site right now.

There's trailers like a bunch of construction trailers and things going on out there, was still with the program offices and construction offices.

And so right now we're utilizing those trailers.

Um fingers crossed, we should be moving into actually the the administration building that's part of the you know um the actual building that we will be in should be ready, you know, sometime soon.

But um, so we would be able to go into there, and the raw water facility is actually complete and ready to go, and there's a lot of office space down there.

So if we get these next five, six people brought in ahead of time, we plan to station some of them down there at the raw water facility while we wait for the admin building to get going.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Right on, thank you.

Hey, thank you.

Um, my name is Jessica Dorsey.

I am the water resources division manager here at the city.

So, as you can tell, this is a um very complex project with all the design and environmental permitting and the construction process that's taken a very long time.

The last piece of that is water supply integration.

Nikki mentioned that briefly earlier.

Um, and that in itself, even though it's the last piece of the puzzle, um, has been a multifaceted effort over the last eight years.

Um, so what we mean when we say supply integration is a thorough evaluation of our current drinking water system and our supply, um, and then looking at how we plan to introduce our new supply, um, doing a really thorough evaluation of um our operations and developing strategies to optimize those operations and um the water quality in our system.

So for Hillsborough's integration plan, we're documenting documenting all the studies and analyses that we've done, including hydraulic modeling and water quality blending studies, um, and then pulling that together and including that in a document that uh details our strategies for operations and includes things like our um systems control strategies and programming for our system when we're ready for supply integration.

So where we're at right now is um finalizing that document, um, finalizing those last plans that will include reviewing that effort with the city's equity toolkit this summer.

Um, but then we do continue to coordinate with the Willamette Water Supply Program staff and our partners at Beaverton and Twalton Valley Water District as we're refining those commission and startup plans for the treatment plant and the overall system as it comes online.

So we'll be revisiting our integration plan and adapting that as needed as we get closer to integration time later this year.

Any questions on that?

Looks like there's no questions from us.

Maybe there's one.

Um question I have is who in this uh intergovernmental partnership is the governing authority for regulations.

Uh so we have the two different commissions uh and TBWD administers those boards.

So the WIF commission, that's the intake facilities commission, the one that included Wilsonville, Sherwood and Tiger, and then that's over the intake facility, and then we have the Lamet Water Supply System Commission, and then they have regulatory authority over the rest of the system outside of the intake.

Does that answer your and then we all um if you're talking about like Safe Drinking Water Act authority, um, we all have to comply.

Um, and DEQ has a um actually OHA has primacy over the Safe Drinking Water Act, DEQ has primacy over the Clean Water Act.

And so those are the two main regulations that we and agencies that we have to work with very frequently.

Okay, thank you so much.

Hello, my name is Stacey Steele, and I'm the intergovernmental relations program manager for the water department.

And this very week I began my 30 second year with the City of Hillsboro.

So to ensure that I stay concise and I don't talk too much.

I'm gonna stick pretty close to my notes.

But I do want to tell you that I love my hometown, and I'm very passionate about community engagement.

And so if after what you hear what I mentioned here, you want to talk further about it, I'd be happy to engage with you as well, and we could talk more about anything you're interested in about these things.

And also, as counselor Salgado mentioned earlier, he went went on a tour with us and love to have you on a tour and take you up and talk more about what you see.

So sometimes seeing things brings out even more than just seeing the slides.

So anyway, on that note, I'll go back to my notes.

So when I started working here, which, if you're doing the math in your head, that was 1995.

The city was oh, oh, sorry.

The city, as soon as this gets there.

Okay, the city was in the middle of constructing the Barney Reservoir expansion, which had been planned about 20 years beforehand.

And the Barney expansion, as Nikki mentioned, was dedicated in 1999.

And then the following year in 2000, city leadership directed the water department to begin planning a water supply for the next generation.

So we went right from dedicating to beginning planning.

And that's how it works when the community is growing.

Water isn't the driver for growth.

Growth decisions are made by regional and local urban planners, but the water department has a duty to serve once that's decided.

Since water systems usually take about 25 years to plan and build, it's an ongoing process.

So that's that's a key thing to know there.

A key component of that process is community engagement.

Beginning in 2010, the water department engaged with the public through various means and hosted 10 diverse public workshops to garnish input to provide the utilities commission as they considered options for a new water supply for Hillsborough.

And if you want to know more, and it was a two-year process, our community engagement that we did.

If you read the staff memo, it does refer.

We now have a historic URL that you can go to and really dive in and see everything that was done.

The technical memos are still there and all the things that went into deciding on the Will Ammet as the preferred option for the next water system for the next generation, the Hillsborough.

So if you're into that, I I advise you to go there.

That'd be great.

And then once the Willamette water supply system was selected as the preferred alternative in 2013, then communication engagement work shifted to talking about the project and the construction and how it was all gonna happen.

And as you can see from the timeline, the water department has been engaging with customers and stakeholders about the WWS for over a decade now about this very project.

So staff has spent time engaging the community through regular and more innovative means.

So big big part of it is the rate setting process.

And although water has had a customer assistance program for water bills since 2006, the UC did direct water to work with community partners and other city departments to provide options for ratepayers as we went along because the project itself did lend itself to some increases in rates.

The UC has incorporated customer feedback regarding affordability options, multifamily usage, and control over water charges into its rate setting processes.

So the things the community was concerned about and communicated to our utilities commissioners, then they definitely took action and directed staff to find ways to accommodate or at least find solutions, other solutions to what was what their concerns were.

The UC also hosted a community advisory panel.

This is the second one to what Nikki referred to.

We had two.

One was about where the funding was coming from, and then this one was about rate impacts and rate structure.

Panel, all the panel's recommendations, including the creation of a lower cost rate tier for low water users was were incorporated into the study and then implemented into the rate structure.

And that's the current uh rate study that we're going off of now.

We have all those recommendations from those community members that we've included.

And actually, Commissioner Yent was part of that, that uh advisory panel.

So you can attest to that.

This process received recognition and coverage at a national water conference.

So it was it was considered in a pretty innovative.

Um, and communication continues.

So as messaging moves into the integration phase, which is what Jessica was just talking about, communications will evolve with messaging about the new water source.

Internal staff is going through training to help customers with questions regarding the new water source, and there will also be crisis communications training to cover any potential issues as the water sources are combined.

We don't foresee any issues.

There's been a lot of work put into making sure this integration goes smoothly, but you also want to plan for what could happen and be ready for it.

So we'll we'll do the planning and then we'll we'll be happy when we don't have to use it.

And then lastly, utilizing the community engagement framework.

The department uses the city framework.

I know uh Simone was very part of that, getting that developed, and we were happy as it came along that it follows a very similar framework that the water was using even before the city one was developed.

And so because of that, water and city community engagement work very well together, and they're gonna continue to do so as we bring on the new water source, we're that next generation together.

So thank you all.

I just is that your last I want to make a comment about Tacey actually started a really scary thing back in the day.

She started our first Facebook page at the city, and back then everyone's like, what is this thing?

And then eventually it moved over to City Facebook page.

So I have to give Tacey kudos for being innovative at that time.

So Counselor Sinclair, then Counselor Elkart.

Um thank you.

Uh when we're talking about different uh points of communication, do you guys communicate RDPO, the regional disaster preparedness association?

And then what will that look like if they don't receive funding to continue forward?

Yeah, we've been able to do regional projects together through grants.

Um there are some portable treatment systems that we've gotten through those grants.

Um I think what will happen is we we utilities will either have to step up and that'll hit our ratepayers.

But that's something I'm hoping eventually comes back if it's paused for some time because I do think that historically has been a very bipartisan issue is disaster preparedness.

The other thing I think we've discussed before is the fuel shortage issue in North Portland is something that they focus on.

Most of that work is led by the regional water providers consortium, and then we participate in that work with them.

But it definitely will have an impact.

And please keep us updated on uh as I developed in.

We'll do.

Um and I haven't, I'm sorry, I haven't been to one, but you talk about watersheds um and um habitats.

That's that's a question if you talk about those and different kinds of water sources that we have around the city, not just uh drinking water, but like Jackson Bottom wetlands and um I making sense in my question.

So you're talking about a city approach, and yes, you overlap with parks and rec when you we do partner with parks and rec from time to time, and we partner with public works where that questions about sewer and stormwater would come.

We um let's see, in about 2016, we formed a utility services committee of which we all get together and talk about these sort of things because we realized hey, we're all one city and we were siloed and just kind of talking about our issue, and you want to talk about this, you need to go somewhere else and and realize people in the community they don't know which department necessarily does what, and they're calling the city and they want their answers, and so we all work together now, and so I have a better understanding of what they do, and I know my counterpart, so we can we can talk about all those things together, and we a lot of times also get together community events so that if you have a question, there's several of us there that can potentially answer it.

So we do work very closely together on on those issues.

We try not to stay separate and siloed.

Thank you.

Did you have another question on counselor?

One last quick question.

You probably promotion answer it, but uh pertaining to our intergovernmental agreements.

How is communication how with rural communities throughout Washington County?

Yeah, so we um serve quite a bit of rural like Western Washington County with our upper system, and so you know, we communicate with those customers and people in those areas, and then we actually share a raw water intake at the JWC with the Twamp Valley Irrigation District, and so we work very closely with our egg partners uh throughout the basin, and there we have this flow management committee, they participate on it, and other stakeholders in the basin also participate on it.

So we try to look at a broader picture than just the city of Hillsborough because we are all partners and sharing that intake.

Um, I think it's pretty innovative in Oregon, but it helps kind of force us to work together, and we have a great relationship with them.

Thank you.

Just to know you have 12 minutes and 12 slides.

Oh, go ahead.

I think that was actually our last slide.

We had a bunch of backup slides in case you had detailed questions.

So if there's any more questions, we can take them.

I did want to add when you're talking about rural communities.

I know Hillsborough's been also active in helping in emergency situations.

A Yamhill uh had a drought, they didn't have enough water, water shortage a number of years ago, and our operations of them are here today, went out and helped them get a wash water supply going.

We've offered the same assistance to like City of Gaston and done things like that there.

So where if we can help, we definitely do.

That's a good reminder.

In our upper system over the years, we've also talked to City of Carlton and City of Yamho.

They've run into water shortages due to drought and slow stream flows.

And so they're looking at potentially hooking up to our upper system as a backup emergency supply.

So we try to take a much broader look than just our own community because it's a big community.

So any other questions?

Oh, sorry, Calcutta.

Um water supply study.

Do you have impacts that you can share?

I mean, what were you looking at in these studies?

Yeah, on the backup slides, I think you guys are on.

We actually we developed our criteria through that community engagement effort uh that Tacey was talking about.

Um and we also went out and met with several state orders.

We met with the river keepers, Twalt River Keepers at the time.

I don't think the staff are the same because that was probably 10 years ago, but they actually gave us a lot of great feedback on that as well.

Um, but we did look at environmental uh ownership was really important to Hillsborough that we weren't just buying water from another entity and we didn't have any control over our own supply.

Um we did have cost risks, and there were I can't remember how many they're on that website, and we can send that to you.

Okay, okay.

All right, thank you.

Great.

Thank you very much, Nikki and team.

I appreciate it.

That's great information.

Uh looks like you're gonna get us a couple of follow-up pieces of information.

Please send it to the entire council and appreciate.

Thank you.

We'll be back in session for council at 7 p.m.

Thank you all.

Thank you all.

Hello, everyone, welcome to the May 19th, 2026, Hillsborough City Council meeting.

Uh thank you for joining us this evening.

You may have noticed I am not Mayor Beach Pace.

Mayor Pace is on a well-deserved family vacation, and so I will be presiding today.

For translation services, please use the QR code on the poster on the left of the room or on the front page of the agenda.

To begin this meeting, I invite you to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the report for which it stands.

One nation undervisible with liberty and justice for all.

Councillor Harris.

Here.

Councillor Alcair.

Here.

Counselor Sinclair.

Here.

Councilor Case.

Here.

Counselor Salgado.

Here.

Councillor Amvery.

Mayor Pace is excused.

Thank you, Adam Two.

Our first uh presentation will be the 2026 Preserving Historic Hillsborough Awards, presented by David Moore, who serves as the Historic Landmarks Advisory Committee.

David, why don't you get started?

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to uh if you would push the button in the middle there to the green.

There we go.

We are on.

Well, thank you for the opportunity uh to share.

And uh on behalf of the whole uh historic landmark advisory committee, uh it is a privilege to be here.

Um we uh as a committee uh it was difficult to to choose which uh properties to choose for these, not because we couldn't find them, but because there were multiple ones for each of the categories that were really excited about uh some of the things that are happening here in Hillsboro and the the way that people are taking care of some of the historic properties.

So the very first one uh award that and I will mention for any of the people here uh after I explain about them, then we'll have an opportunity for any of the property owners that are here to come up and receive their certificate.

So um the first one is the stewardship of a residential structure in an original conviction uh that went to the McFeeder House, uh which is number 12 on the cultural resource inventory for the city of Hillsboro.

Um many of you have probably been by this house and and thought, wow, that's that's just a beautiful house.

And uh that's we just wanted to recognize that.

Uh and they have continued to do a good job of uh preserving the uh historic integrity of the house, uh especially on the exterior.

Uh the second one is the restoration of a residential structure, uh, the Ulrich House.

Uh this is in Arenko.

Uh now you'll notice from the picture, it may not look very restored.

This was the house uh not long ago, a couple years ago.

Uh and this is the house uh currently.

Uh the they went through an application to do a um modification for a house on the cultural resource inventory, and we approved that.

And they're doing a major rehab of the house, and it's an incredible makeover.

The house was uh looking very much uh abandoned, and they've been doing an incredible job.

And just wanted to recognize the restoration that they're doing uh on that house.

Um the next category is the stewardship of a non-residential structure in original condition, and this goes to the uh Masonic Temple, uh, the Tualdy Lodge, uh which is number 18 on the cultural resource inventory.

Uh this last year, many of the windows on the building were broken uh by vandals here, and they've done a great job, not only of replacing those windows, but replacing them in a historically uh appropriate way.

And so just wanted to recognize the work that they continue to do to preserve the historic integrity of that building.

The next one is retention of a historic structure through remodeling and adaptive use, uh, the collective market building as it is uh currently used, the uh former um uh funeral home, the Donaldson Sewell uh mortuary built in the 40s or 50s.

Um uh the collective market has been just doing an incredible job of uh really using that building uh and making it a part of the downtown core of Hillsboro uh and it's owned by the people who also own the the building next door, which is on the cultural resource inventory, uh, and I would love to see personally this one uh come onto the cultural resource inventory as well.

It's a culturally significant building, uh, but they've done a great work of uh reusing that building and adapting that.

It was slated for uh demolition about 10 years ago, uh but it it was not, so we're grateful for that.

The next category is uh historically appropriate construction or reconstruction, and we chose the Hill Theater for that, which is number 20 on the cultural resource inventory.

Um this is the um antique store uh that we have one of the antique stores that we have here in downtown Hillsboro.

Uh and uh they've did a recent rehab of the sign, the marquee there on the building, uh, which really uh helped to maintain the historic umness of the building and many of the features there, and so wanted to recognize the work that they've done and a lot of the money that has really been put into doing that.

That was not a cheap job.

And the last category is the chairs award.

Uh this is uh the house at 375 Southeast Walnut Street.

Uh I chose this one personally uh because it's been amazing to see over this last year the work that has been done on this house.

Um they've taken off the siding, added in insulation, and put it back on and really done an amazing job of not just trying to fix up the house, but really preserving the historic uh integrity of the house uh on the exterior.

I haven't seen what they've done in the interior, uh, but uh really excited about that.

So these are the uh six properties that we have chosen for the uh awards this year.

We have certificates read the we have for each of these award winners are reached each name.

If you are here, please come up and grab your certificate.

David will present that to you, and then we'll take a group photo.

So once you get it, just stay up here.

And if you want to have family and friends join you, it'd be a great photo.

First one that I'd like to recognize, if they are here today as well, is Catherine Brisby for the McFeeder House.

It's Catherine here.

Yeah, that's fine.

Next for the Ulrich House is Myron White.

For the um is someone here for the Twaldy Lodge for the Masonic Temple Tualdi Lodge.

Here we are.

Next for collective market, Mindi Crossado and John Weiss.

Is John or Mindy here?

Mindy.

And for Hill Theater, Janice and Mike Losley.

Janet or Mike here.

And finally for the 375 Walnut Street, we have Martha Kyle S.

McClain and Kyle McLean.

And the awards to face for folks not here will be mailed to the other recipients.

And the city offers a Hillsborough Historic Heritage Metal Plaque for Cultural Resource Inventory Award winners to be put on the front of your historic homes.

And on a related note, I'd like to invite David Moore to stay up here with me as we proclaim May Historic Preservation.

So let's get the photos and then we'll do the progress.

Yeah, we have other members from the committee as well joining us up here.

Perfect.

Thank you very much.

Yep, move it in.

Sorry.

I don't know.

I guess so.

Can we get there?

David, why don't you stay here for a minute?

In addition, we do this occasionally.

The city will make a proclamation recognizing events, individuals of importance, and this is one of those states.

So I'd like to read a proclamation today.

Whereas May is National Historic Preservation Month established in 1973 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to promote historic places.

And whereas local historic preservation is an effective tool for revitalizing neighborhoods, fostering local pride and maintaining hometown livability.

And whereas historic preservation is relevant for communities across the nation, both urban and rural, and for people of all ages, all walks of life, all ethnic backgrounds, and whereas the tangible cultural heritage of Hillsborough is documented through the cultural resource inventory, but extends beyond that list.

And whereas the intangible cultural heritage of Hillsboro is an important part of the vibrant communities within our larger community, whereas the Hillsborough 2035 Community Plan calls for preserving neighborhood character and a sense of place.

And where it is important to highlight historic preservation in our community and to recognize owners who are outstanding stewards of their properties.

Now therefore be it resolved that I, Rob Harris, Council President of the City of Hillsborough, do hereby declare May 2026 as Historic Preservation Month in Hillsborough and encourage all residents to learn more about the tangible and intangible cultural heritage which makes Hillsboro a place that matters.

Thank you, David.

There you go.

Thank you.

Thanks.

We'll now consider the next item is an appointment to the planning and zoning hearings board.

That's item 2.3 of staff report is included.

Do I have a motion to approve the appointment listed?

So moved case.

Is there a second?

Second Sinclair.

Can we have a roll call?

Councilor Alcair?

Aye.

Councillor Case?

Aye.

Councillor Ambry.

Aye.

Councilor Salgado.

Aye.

Councillor Sinclair.

Aye.

Councillor Harris.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Next item number three is public comment.

Persons wishing to speak will be recognized at this time.

If you're here in person and wish to speak, please fill out a yellow card and hand it to the city recorder.

I think the yellow cards are back on the table.

When I call you, please join us here at the table and speak in the microphone so those on Zoom can also hear your comments.

Because of the translation tool, community members can speak in their own language of choice, and the city recorder can display the translation on the screen.

If you were unable to sign up to speak prior to the deadline, you're always welcome to email your comments to the city council any time of day.

This is called public comment because it's time dedicated to you for you to inform the city council about your views.

Each person will have up to three minutes to speak.

In order to receive legal advice, just for your information how executive sessions work, the special executive session will be uh it'll be held in executive session.

It's not open to the public.

However, all community members are invited to attend the city council work session.

Attend the city council work session on data centers on Tuesday, June 2nd at 6 p.m.

21 days on that.

That work session.

We really need to get through this.

Please have courtesy so we can get through this.

You'll have a not you'll have my line was you'll have an opportunity to speak momentarily.

That work session on June 2nd will be held across the hall, and everyone can join us either in person or through a live stream on Zoom, YouTube, and uh TV C T V on Channel 30.

We're still gonna vote the way you want.

Tonight we're gonna we're pleased to hear from you.

We'll be begin by hearing from the individual that is waiting virtually.

We have Sarah Richman.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead.

Yeah, okay, great.

Hello and thank you.

My name is Sarah Richmond, and I am here regarding the Sky Harbor Hangar project, case number DR 04425, which will establish a private jet hub at the Hillsborough Airport.

This location will be popular as it's close to PDX in the Silicon Forest.

And because of this, a significant increase in private jet activity is expected.

Using the port's own data and running the numbers through Microsoft Copilot, several concerns were identified.

For example, the multiplier used to estimate jet activity is based on Sky Harbor's lowest airports.

But Hillsborough will be one of the busiest.

Correcting for the multiplier and other issues in the mapping projections in the approach takeoff and downwind corridors.

Approximately 15 to 20,000 residents will experience increased noise and air pollution, and six to eight thousand homes face potential property value impacts.

Yet no agency is evaluating these impacts.

The port is not, and the city is reviewing only land use impacts, even though these land use approval will enable a major increase in jet operations over Hillsborough and the county at large.

Meanwhile, the 15 to 20,000 residents in the affected corridors, including many outside city limits, received no notice and have no voice in this process.

Tonight I'm formally asking you, the city council, to please pause this project until the following occurs.

Require the port to review the multiplier and require clear and accurate jet activity projections for each phase in the city and pub and public so they can understand the true scale of impacts.

Require an air quality and noise impact assessment.

Use an independent firm funded by Sky Harbor.

The port was given the opportunity for FAA analysis, but instead of informing the planning commission, they held the document for over 30 days, significantly impacting the 60-day window to respond.

We lost our opportunity to have the FAA perform an environmental analysis, but we can still require Sky Harbor to fund an independent assessment.

Ensure that the 15 to 20,000 residents in the impacted corridors are informed and given a voice in the process.

Understand the financial consequences this approval will create for Washington County.

The county could face millions in lost property tax revenue every year.

Co-pilot estimates 700,000 to 3.6 million annually.

This couple this with the cost of increased demand for public health and emergency services and long-term costs associated with environmental and community impacts, and this project will become very expensive.

And all of this triggered by a land use approval made here in Hillsborough.

I am asking the city to please pause this project until the true financial burden placed in the county is understood.

The procedural concerns that there's FAA delay in the incorrect multiplier reviewed, and environmental analysis occurs, and impacted residents are informed and given a voice.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Richmond.

Uh the first two speakers are going to be Madeline Brink and Simone Campbell.

Just Ms.

Brink, you can push that button in the center and see the green light go on, and you can begin whenever you're ready.

Okay, thanks.

Um it's my first time doing this.

Um I wanted to kind of come at the ecological and data center issue as well as urban growth from a more philosophical uh point of view.

So I'm gonna read a little bit from um a book called The Art of the Commonplace, which are essays by a novelist, uh poet and author, and essayist.

I think I said that, Wendell Barry.

Um he was uh at NYU before he chose to move to his home, which was very controversial in his field uh that he chose home over success.

Um, and so I'm gonna read some snippets.

They express more or less how I feel.

Um he says, what I am has been to a considerable extent determined by what my forebears were, by how they chose to treat this place while they lived in it, the lives of most of them diminished it and limited its possibilities and narrowed its features.

And every day I am confronted by the question of what inheritance I will leave.

What do I have that I am using up?

For it has been our history that each generation in this place has been less welcome to it than the last humans in general.

There has been less here for them at each and animals.

At each arrival, there has been less fertility in the soil and a larger inheritance of destructive precedent and shameful history.

This also just so you know was written in 1968.

We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world, and this has been based on an even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was even good for us.

We have been wrong.

We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us, and that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it.

We must cooperate, learn to cooperate in its processes and to yield to its limits.

And when he's talking about the world here, he's talking about the earth.

There is an ominous, perhaps a fatal presumptuousness in living in a place by the imposition on it of one's ideas and wishes.

And that is the way we white people have lived in America throughout our history, and it is the way our history now teaches us to live here.

Surely there could be a more indigenous life than we have.

There could be a consciousness that would establish itself on a place with by understanding its nature and learning what is potential in it.

Um man ought to study the wilderness of a place before applying to it the ways he learned in another place.

And I'll just end with this part.

It is not from ourselves that we will learn to be better than we are.

Um I've got 10 seconds, so I'll just say a few things.

I don't love data centers.

If we decide if for some reason they're decided to go forward, can we require guard and solar panels on them?

Can we require them, uh ask them to uh these companies to rewild some areas very last thing, lease lands rather than selling them and the buildings can be taken and then asked them to uh de dismantle, put that into contracts at the end.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And uh Blaine Ackley, you can take the seat over here, and Ms.

Campbell, you can start when you are ready.

I'm sorry.

You can start when you're ready.

Yeah, Simone Campbell, yes.

Mayor Pace, absentee mayor, I should say.

Counselors, my name is Simone Campbell.

Let's rock and roll.

Hillsborough families are getting hit twice on our power bills and by backroom deals.

First, thank you for the pause.

Thank you for calling your lawyer.

You paused new data center tax breaks.

You posted 17 applications online.

May 18th, the city posted this.

Executive session that is not open to the public, related to data centers and House Bill 4084.

Great.

But a closed door meeting is in transparency, folks.

Your QA says these are three to five-year tax breaks.

The five print, the fine print says companies can reapply.

That's how five years become 2051.

Second, this is about bills, schools, lights, and the law.

Counselor Sinclair said it.

These tax breaks still starve Washington County schools and TV F and R.

Your QA proves it.

7.2 billion in data center property taxes, tax exempted this year.

City fire is funded.

County schools are not.

We pay 210 million dollars for data center substations and got 50% rate hikes.

PGE told investors 80 megawatts for data centers in 2026, 400 megawatts by 2029.

That's 300,000 powered homes.

In Monroe, Michigan, DTE told data centers no more to prevent blackouts.

In Lake Tahoe, Liberty Utilities froze connections.

The grid was full.

And here's the law, folks.

House Bill 4084, Section 11B may not be authorized with respect to a data center project before 2027.

So no new deals until 2028.

Don't vote June seventh June 2nd on 17 applications that break the law.

Third, this is how you lose trust.

Festus, Missouri voters recalled four council members for a six billion data center behind closed doors.

Maine passed the first statewide data center moratorium last meet last month.

We're not against business, we're against free rides.

You require $14 and 75 cents an hour for three years.

Oregon minimum wage is $15.95.

Nobody voted for that.

You have the pause, you have the lawyer with the meeting May 26th.

You have state law, you have June 2nd.

So do three things.

Vote the moratorium.

One year.

Let them speak on the 7.2 billion dollars in 400 megawatts.

Release the city attorney's findings of May 26th is closed, and the legal opinion can't be.

We use Amazon, we want jobs, we won't pay with our bills, schools, grid, and trust.

Festus waited.

Maine didn't.

Hillsboro doesn't have to.

Thank you.

Uh Antonia Lopez, if you could take the seat here, and Mr.

Ackley, when you are ready, push the button in the middle.

The green light will go on and you could begin.

Okay, good evening.

Um President Harris and Counselors.

My name is Blaine Ackley.

I'm resident here of the city for the past 36 years.

I am here tonight to highlight the growing unease here in Hillsborough and around the country about the growing influence of data centers.

These centers take up land, offer few jobs, and often, as isn't the case in Hillsborough, pay little or no taxes.

People from all walks of life and all political persuasions oppose these corporate giveaways that take away our water, our electricity at reduced rates and take away irreplaceable farmland forever.

In other words, they provide little benefit, but they take up valuable resources for the sake of billionaire corporate profiteers.

Now I have voted for city councils and mayor in the past elections, and as I understand it from the city charter, the mayor and the council make these decisions through ordinances, resolutions, leases, contracts, and other things.

Then the city administrator carries out these decisions and puts them into action.

So imagine my surprise when I read in the Hillsborough Herald and the Oregonian that a city bureaucrat, Mr.

Diaz, has taken over the job of the mayor and the council in signing contracts with the developers that for more job killing, resource eating data centers with tax breaks lasting for 25 years.

Now, I don't recall Mr.

Diaz's name on the ballot.

Now the city charter also states that the city council is the contact contract review board for the city.

So I think it is quite appropriate for the mayor and the council to review the contracts signed by Mr.

Diaz and void them.

I applaud the mayor and the council for reviewing the whole data center issue, and I urge you to gather all the information.

Jobs, water, electrical loot usage, and rates.

Thank you.

Um, after Ms.

Lopez Brown will be speaking.

If Brown was to take the seat over here, Ms.

Lopez, when you are ready, just push the button and the green light will go on.

I'm gonna tell you from the start that I'm gonna go over my three minutes because if I had to endure days of abuse from an appointed public servant that feels like they are a person in authority, you are going to hear me out.

Ma'am, it's three minutes you will get.

You're going to hear me.

You will be given three minutes.

You, sir, have reduced my work to political games.

I will remind you, Councillor, I am not a politician.

You are.

I am a community member who has been forced into the public eye due to your failure, along with most of the people who sit with you, except for Council Sinclair and Council Alcair.

You slandered me in public and engaged in trying to start a campaign to garner support from the community members by privately messaging them and accusing me of a crime.

Counselor, two weeks ago me diciste que yo tenia webs parabla, pues también los tengo para defenderme.

Your behavior caused my children consternation.

They fear being targeted because you are a thin skinned, insecure, inadequate man.

You chose to try to manipulate the narrative in an effort not to have to answer a direct question from the community, because doing so would make you either fall out of line with the white savior that appointed you.

Or to be a seat filler, or the community you need to manipulate to continue in your spot and to continue to be useful.

I'm sure Mayor Pace is thrilled since she loves a sale.

That with you, she got a two-for-one deal, a seat filler, and someone who would attack his own community for her.

You continued your abuse even after you involved the city attorney in an effort to intimidate me.

You lack the basic knowledge that he represents the city and not you.

You made yourself a liability for them.

Your behavior is beneath the office of a public servant.

All of you, except for Councillor Claire and Councillor Kiplin, have a misguiding understanding of your responsibility as public servants.

Councillor Case, I am demanding that you recuse yourself from any vote, any decision making on the data center nightmare that has been unleashed on our community because you are the campaign manager for the immoral senator that is championing this and is clearly going to benefit from it given all of the campaign donations she's received from corporations that have an invested interest.

That's a conflict of interest.

Do none of you know the definition of the term?

Should I frame it for you so you can reference it?

I would go as far as to ask that Mayor Pace also recuse herself, since she is Janine Stolman's right or die.

Councillor Harris, you hide behind being an attorney to have to be guarded in your responses.

As an attorney, you should know the legality, you should know the policies and the procedures, and that the mayor is running out the clock to make her statement true to make this legally binding.

I don't care.

And if you if you continue, I'm going to adjourn the meeting, so you can stop in the next 50 years.

So you're going to punish them because your counselor abuse me.

Why trust me if you don't even know me?

Brown can begin.

So tenemos que tener una conversation and reconocer la realidad that the system in the quality notes or community son was affectados for lasion decisions of leaders.

No devery dependent on esas personas can you conosce nuestros retos.

No saben lo que es tener miedo, y amar for ayuda in una emergencia because no saben si les van a pedir la ciudadanía.

No conocen el miedo and not si la familia todavía stará in la casa or si han sido sequestrados inconstitucional para mandarlos aserviolados in centros of detention donde serán tratados como animales.

No saben la ansiedad de no querer llamar la atención de la policía para notarnos in problemas con ellos andas porque es cara para comprar ando capacidad de obtener una.

No saben lo deficiency otro idioma sin ayuda oral limitada.

Aunque hemos visto a los policías travando con ice.

Ahora vemos que aunque nuestra gente by assimilando para que nuestra gente are assimilado porque tienen más probability creature para sus familias.

Tiene que cambiar.

It's tempoke exigmos dignidad, libertad y equalidad, porque si lo pedimos amablemente lo toman como debility.

My name is Jana, and I've lived in Hillsborough for uh over thirty years.

I come before you tonight to talk about uh the school funding and in respect to the enterprise zone abatements that have and could continue to give massive out-of-state corporations property tax breaks for years to come.

In the state of Oregon, K through twelve education funding comes from three sources.

Sixty-seven percent of that comes from the state general fund.

Thirty-three comes from local sources, as in property taxes.

An additional ten percent may come from federal sources.

All the data centers combined in Hillsborough have an estimated real market value of eleven billion dollars.

The total property tax revenue that has been wiped from the tax rolls via the enterprise zone property tax abatement has reached approximately sixty-seven million dollars a year.

This is tax revenue that would have gone back into the state general fund and redistributed to our schools throughout Oregon.

Because of this, Hillsborough School District, that's a loss of over 900,000.

That's just from the local data centers.

If you include all the data centers in Oregon that are tax exempt, we are actually losing out on five point eight million dollars a year.

Imagine what we could do with our schools with that kind of money.

I want them to succeed.

Due to the loss of federal funding and decreased enrollment, many districts across Oregon have faced budget shortfalls in recent years.

Between 2024 and 2026, Hillsborough School District has faced a 20 million dollar shortfall, which resulted in 131 positions being removed.

This has led to larger classroom sizes and less support staff.

Fixing the tax abatement problem for data centers will not solve our school funding issues, but it could make a big difference.

Oregon ranks eighth worst in the country for student to teacher ratio.

These data centers have found a rolling contract loophole by applying for enterprise zone tax abatement stacked in five-year chunks for decades.

The City of Hillsborough Department of Economic Development has been more than happy to indulge their corporate overlords by signing them without consulting the city council, attorneys, and without doing impact studies on the local economy.

And I'll stop because my three minutes are up, but I'm gonna say Dan Diaz should be fired.

Thank you very much, City Council and uh Council President.

I'm going to read from four different sources that uh to me speak to the most important part of this whole data center fiasco that we're going through, and that is the environment and our climate.

We are in big risk of more and more degradation to that.

So I hope that this touches your hearts and that you go forward with this.

I brought copies, I will leave them so that maybe you can take them back to your desks and put them in front of your screens or something to remind yourselves.

Okay, first one what did you do once you knew by Drew Dellinger from Love Letters to the Milky Way, written in 2011?

It's 3 23 in the morning, and I'm awake because my great grandchildren won't let me sleep.

My great-grandchildren ask me in dreams.

What did you do?

While the planet was plundered.

What did you do when the earth was unraveling?

Surely you did something.

What were the reasons that it started failing?

As the animals, reptiles, and birds were all dying.

What did you do once you knew?

Next one is two lyrics from a song by Stevie Nicks from the 1977 rumors studio album, Gold Dust Woman.

Rock on Gold Dust Woman.

Take your silver spoon, dig your grave.

This is from David Suzuki.

He is a Canadian academic and an environmental activist, very well known.

We are in a giant car heading towards a brick wall, and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.

And finally, this is by a woman I don't know what, but I wish I did.

Carol Wicker.

She wrote uh an inscription that's on a monument to McKay Creek, somewhere out in the north part of Hillsborough.

I've never seen it.

Here lies the future of McKay Creek.

Cold water once ran here.

Salmon returned.

Wells were not yet deeper than memory.

Industrial water demand arrive upstream.

Rezoned quietly, permitted incrementally, deleted cumulative.

This was a choice.

Thank you.

Sorry, Jacob Roloff, you could take the empty seat up here.

Ann Sandra, go ahead.

I'm here again tonight, and honestly, I didn't think I could be any more disappointed in the lack of leadership this city continues to show.

But somehow, every time this community thinks we're we've hit the lowest point, there's always another decision, another action, another excuse that proves just how disconnected some of the leadership is from the people you are supposed to serve.

Tonight, I want to speak directly about Beach Pace.

And the other members of this council, Olivia and Kipperlin, this does not include you.

You guys have advocated for this community, and I deeply thank you guys for that.

Pace and the other counselors are making decisions for us behind closed doors while our community pays the price.

We see what's happening.

We see the clock being run down so that data centers can continue to be approved for tax abatements.

While everyday residents struggle more and more just to keep up.

While corporations receive tax breaks and special treatments, our families are dealing with rising utility costs, rising housing costs, rising environmental issues, all on top of the other community issues we are still facing, like immigration enforcement.

And while those deals are being protected, our schools are being forced to cut front-facing staff.

School counselors, prof paraprofessionals, teachers, and mentors who make a real difference in whether a student feels safe, supported, and capable of succeeding.

These cuts affect our children, especially children who are already vulnerable, already underserved, and already fighting to receive the fair and just education they deserve.

What message are we sending our children when corporations are prioritized over classrooms?

What message are we sending when tax breaks matter more than our quality of life?

Leadership is supposed to protect the community first, not sacrifice it for private interests.

I recently found myself in a very public back and forth exchange with Cristian Salgado, someone who is not an elected official, but an appointed one.

Who was placed in position of influence and trust by this leadership.

What I experienced was not professionalism, not accountability, not respect, but belittling behavior, dismissiveness, and the kind of treatment that too many Latina women know too well.

The assumption that we are disposable, that our voices are inconvenienced, and that speaking passionately somehow makes us less worthy of respect.

And what made this all even more interesting was learning that the Chamber of Commerce, this same chamber that Christen Salgado happens to be staffed at, donated $2,500 to Janine Solman.

Even more interesting, even more interesting is that his name is on the list of supporters for Janine Solman on Instagram.

People in this community are paying attention to these relationships.

They are asking valid questions about influence, priorities, and who exactly is being represented in these decisions.

From where we are standing, it certainly does not feel like the working families, students, or everyday residents are being centered.

I want to make this very clear, Christian.

Latina women in this community are not disposable.

We are not here to be silenced, dogged down to, or treated as though your our concerns are less valid because they make you or anyone else uncomfortable.

We are advocates, workers, students, leaders, mothers, and members of this community who deserve dignity and respect every single time when we step up to speak.

This community deserves leadership that listens instead of dismisses.

Leadership that protects the people instead of corporations.

Leaders that value transparency instead of political maneuvering.

Leaders that won't be complicit and leaders that understand public service is not about power or authority, but about responsibility.

Because right now, too many people in this city feel unheard, disrespected, and abandoned.

Too many people have their livelihood on the line.

And whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, the community is paying attention.

All right.

Then it's are you Ms.

Jackson?

Okay.

What's that?

Oh shit.

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Roloff, go ahead.

Good evening, Council.

It's bittersweet to read about the planned executive session set for May 26th.

Um bitter because by that late date, almost every single new enterprise agreement will be passed the 21-day public notice period.

Uh and presumably much harder to challenge or annull, which uh should still be done.

And also bitter because it is once again behind closed doors.

And one wonders if any of these meetings, including the June 2nd work session, would be happening at all if the public did not pressure you all to make it so.

It's sweet because you are feeling pressure, and you should.

Uh some of you have elections coming up, um, and some of you may have recalls coming up.

Uh but in an executive session that is too little, too late is not going to cleanse the record uh that most of you have built lately.

Uh there are only two counselors present and zero mayors uh that attended any public community-oriented gatherings uh in the past four or so months regarding data centers.

Most of these have been educational and trying to brainstorm ways to get our elected officials to listen to our concerns.

At the same time, as some know and some may not, the mayor has met with the Northwest Hillsborough Alliance, uh, a group that at least uh she's met with them at least once, and it's the group that lobbied so hard for the 1700 acres um to be included in the EGP.

Uh they're also lobbying for a larger swath of land in the long session, and that was a discussion that the mayor was present for.

Uh it would be extremely easy for you all to call a public emergency session to gather more information, even now.

Uh I'm not sure what or who put the fear of God into the majority of council and is preventing you from sharing that sense of emergency about data center expansion and tax evasion that your constituents are feeling.

Uh as a non-constituent who's affected hugely by the decisions of this council and the county, I am feeling that sense of emergency.

Uh Hillsboro is being incredibly selfish with these agreements using data compiled by tax uh fairness Oregon and others.

It appears that Hillsboro is applying these city fees like community service fees on the total value of abated taxes and not simply the proportion that Hillsboro would get on regularly gathered taxes.

Uh and and uh, you know, uh if the Enterprise Zone agreements weren't in effect, and that's about thirty thirty-three percent uh the Hills Hillsborough would get.

For just the QTS site at 4951 Huffman uh uh after five years uh of the uh uh enterprise zone and assuming tier two CSF rates, the city has a net gain of almost 18 million above what they normally would have received, which is about sixty-three million, um eighty-one million total.

Meanwhile, uh, and this is over five years, Hillsborough School District will receive just twelve million of the seventy-five that they would receive without enterprise zone tax breaks, which is a net loss of sixty-three million.

Um, likewise, the county will receive a net loss of thirty-four and a half million with nothing received, and the same for other districts like PCC and Metro.

Net loss of thirty and a half million.

Um while the city makes policy to achieve an outsized uh healthy budget, benefiting their own political aspirations.

I still hear themselves calling themselves an economic hub of the county as they systematically defund it.

One counselor recently let the game go and said to me when I asked him to treat these agreements like the emergency they are.

You're not my constituent, you don't live in the city.

Why should I answer to you?

I think whether you want it or not, you all will inevitably answer for the decisions you have made and will make regarding the future of this county and deferring to billionaire companies for short-term budget windfalls.

If Denise Kerr is here, she can take take the empty seat here.

She will be speaking next right now.

Diana Jackson, Ms.

Jackson, go ahead.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Diana Jackson.

I live and work in Hillsborough.

My two teenage children attend school in Hillsborough.

I've lived in Hillsborough or just outside of it, but within the school district for 13 years.

I also sit on the planning commission for our great city.

I am not a familiar face to most of you, but I have been watching and listening and paying attention.

Like many others in our community, I have had a growing concern over the number of data centers sprawling out into our farmlands.

Excessive water and power usage in other parts of the country are impacting those living in proximity to data centers.

I recall at the beginning of my time on the planning commission being taken by City of Hillsborough staff on a tour of what had recently been built and what was coming.

One of the things mentioned was the massive upgrades that were being done to our power grid, and large part due to the incoming data centers that our current grid would not be able to handle.

That was in 2024, and I couldn't help but notice the timing of these upgrades and the rate hike in which our power bills have had.

As a single income household, well, rent is 76% of my take-home pay, and groceries and gas prices have skyrocketed.

$250 uh $255 power bill during this time of year with moderate temperatures for my small home is just one more economic devastation to me and others who have not just been living paycheck to paycheck, but have been choosing which bills will be paid each month.

Not to mention my concern for what the environmental impact will be for my kids and future generations.

These decisions seem to be made with only monetary gains in mind, not our health, not our natural resources, not our vital economic markets like farming and agriculture.

As a concern has grown and been brought to this governing body's attention, I've been greatly disappointed at the response.

I have only seen two counselors here at events where our citizens have come together to have these discuss discussions.

This was not my first time seeing a lack of urgency or care in our city leaders.

This is the same lack of urgency shown by the same body of elected leaders who did not move to protect our community members until they were pushed when our city was raided by ice.

And I vote accordingly.

Thank you.

He'll be next right now, Ms.

Kerr.

You're up.

Good evening, Council President Harris and Counselors.

My name is Denise Kerr, and I've lived in Hillsborough for about 40 years.

Last week, a person posted on the uh COH's Facebook page that they were glad that Mayor Pace had reconsidered her possession on tax breaks for enterprise zones, or words to that effect.

This is my reply to hear to her.

This is a little bit tongue-in-cheek.

Go team Intel.

Keep meeting with the Northwest Hillsborough Alliance secretly, whose noses are bent out of shape from the grand bargain of 2014.

That decision is valid until 2065.

Maybe their grandchildren will get rich after the spoil sports die.

Go Intel, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, TikTok, Facebook, and on and on and on.

We're tired of all the pristine green peaceful vistas.

Please fill in that wasted empty space with blocked, blocky, flat gray, ugly concrete structures.

No one goes outside anymore.

Sunlight is overrated.

What's it matter?

Look at that empty, useless land.

Fill it up with sprawl, sprawl, sprawl.

We want to be gentrified with a more affluent community.

Who cares if the real locals who have lived here for decades and generations generations get priced out and displaced?

They just need to get used to change.

Think of all the tax revenue.

The COH is always angling for more.

They want to leave it in During Mark on Hillsborough, good for their resumes.

Climate change?

We don't worry about that dumb hoax.

Build, build, build.

It's not true that maximum speed building and overdevelopment are key contributors anyway.

Fake, fake, fake.

What's it matter that all our friend food will be imported?

Tariffs?

Who likes fresh food anyway?

It's overrated.

Not me.

There's plenty of fast frozen and canned food.

And remember, there's DoorDash.

Who wants clean air, water, and soil?

We're all gonna die.

So what if the exposure to all kinds of toxins from IC fabrication lines and data farms take four or five years off of your life?

Modern medicine can remedy health problems like infertility, birth defects, loss of vision, cancers, lung diseases, and more.

Plus, it takes 20 years or more to develop.

Don't worry about it.

AI will solve most of the minor bumps, hurdles, and potholes.

Some folks will live a privileged life of uber exact extravagance and luxury.

The pet the peasants can make do with the crumbs.

The peasants, also known as workers, don't need living wage jobs.

The corporate executives need to make more profit.

Workers will be grateful for the COH to pays a bit more than minimum wages.

Way to look out for the peasants, Hillsborough.

The way you pay them make me make them feel happy and appreciated.

Bravo.

Isn't it wonderful that we have so much to look forward to?

Bring it on.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Persley, it is your turn.

Hi, thank you.

Um my original goal was to come uh this evening and talk about some more data center stuff, but uh some things came to my attention where I've got to uh address some voter housekeeping issues uh with the council, unfortunately.

Um for starters, if people don't understand um management versus leading and city versus community, uh they shouldn't be in these roles.

Okay.

Uh just getting getting that out of the way.

Um again, I seen some similar comments uh that um uh Jacob uh addressed, and I'm extremely disappointed, uh very disappointed, uh I have much higher expectations.

For a hundred and eighty years, the community now known as Hillsborough has relied on people living in the outlying areas to feed us.

Even today, nonvoting members of our community that live in these outlying areas are present in our community throughout most of the year selling on the streets.

Uh uh local produced foods, arts, crafts, etc.

The city charges them for rent and booth space goods for their rural farms to a greatly appreciative customer base.

Again, nothing's better during the summer than to get fresh locally grown food.

I mean, that you that's why our streets are packed.

And if you guys aren't going down up and down the streets every Saturday and thanking every one of them, uh you're missing a great uh human uh connection opportunity.

These same people living outside the City Lits also bring their money inside the city to pay for doctors, dentists, grocery shopping, automobiles, farm supplies, and the list goes on.

Their children take swimming lessons, martial arts classes, dance lessons, etc.

While also attending many of the schools like I went through in the 60s and 70s here, uh born and raised here.

Um and again, I had lots of friends who lived outside the city limits.

Even though they live outside the city outside these imaginary lines that define our city, many of them are born and die inside the city limits.

Even though they live outside the city limits, they are very much what all of us, including all the people behind me call community.

We're community.

These non-voting members of the community that live outside the city limits are impacted, are impacted by many things going on within the city limits, and they have earned a right to be heard.

When we have city council members telling some of our community members they aren't constituents when engaged in public debate, they are crossing a line.

It doesn't matter where that is.

They're crossing a line.

They're representing the community, not just the city.

This is an unnecessary and disappointing behavior and doesn't represent our community and the values that we cherish.

Please do better.

Thank you.

That completes public comment.

Thank you all for showing up and sharing your um thoughts to us.

Um the next item is number four on the consent agenda.

The minutes were removed from the final agenda, so we only have one item to consider today.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved case.

Zero second.

Second, Sinclair.

Is there any discussion?

Can we have a roll call?

Councillor Salgado.

Aye.

Councillor Amvery.

Aye.

Councillor Harris.

Aye.

Councilor Case.

Hi.

Counselor Alcair.

Counselor Sinclair.

Aye.

Public hearings are none.

So under five public hearings, there are none.

Six unfinished business none.

Ordinances, first reading none, but we do have a second reading or 7.2.

The Hillsborough Comprehensive Plan Amendment 003 but 23.

Parks and Recreation Section Update.

Considering the planning commission's recommendation to adopt an ordinance approving a Hillsborough Comprehensive Plan major amendment to update goals and policies in Section 6, Parks and Recreation to correct the reference to Parks and Recreation System Plan 2025 and Section 33, Public Facilities.

This is ordinance number 6514.

It is available.

Do I have a motion to adopt 6514?

So moved case.

Is there a second?

Sinclair, second.

Is there any discussion?

May I have a roll call?

Councilor Alcair.

Aye.

Case?

Aye.

Amvery.

Aye.

Salgado.

Hi.

Harris.

Hi.

Sinclair.

Aye.

Ordinance number six five one four is adopted.

Under 7.3, the community development code amendment 001-26.

Child care, residential treatment, and MHLD revision.

Consider the planning commission's recommendation to approve an update to the community development code in order to be in compliance with new and existing state regulations regarding child care facilities, residential treatment facilities, and middle housing land division.

Ordinance number 6516 is available.

Do I have a motion to adopt ordinance 6516?

So moved case.

Is there a second?

Second, Sinclair.

Any discussion?

May we have a roll call?

Councilor Salgado.

Harris.

Yes.

Sinclair.

Hi.

Alcare.

Hi.

Case.

Aye.

Ambery.

Hi.

Ordinance number 6516 is adopted.

Moving to Section 8, New Business 8.1.

Consider the Parks and Recreation Commission's recommend recommendation to adopt a resolution authorizing the Parks and Recreation Department to apply for Metro's large scale community vision grant to secure funding for the acquisition of the property leased by working theory farm and enter into a memorandum of understanding with working theory farm.

Resolution number 2920 is available.

Do I have a motion to adopt resolution 292?

So move case?

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second Sinclair.

You can second.

Yes.

Is there any discussion?

Yes.

I will be recusing myself from this vote.

I am a board member with Working Thury Farm, very proud member of this board of the most beautiful agriculture, food access, and empowering place of belonging within our urban growth boundary.

I will be recusing myself due to the grant opportunities.

Thank you for that.

Council President.

Yes.

Sorry to interrupt.

If I can just clarify for everyone, um Council Sinclair is recusing herself, not because there's a legal conflict, but because serving on the board, it creates an appearance issue, and it's consistent with what uh members of the council have done in the past, for example, with our community grant program when they serve on our board, they recuse themselves.

So I just want to clarify that by since she seconded the motion.

Um that is kind of participating, but she's gonna recuse herself from the vote just to make sure that there's no appearance issues, but there's no legal conflict, so that the her second would be valid.

All right, thank you.

I appreciate the clarification and instruction on that.

May we have a roll call?

Oh, excuse me.

There is a question.

Councillor Salgado, go ahead.

Yeah.

Councilor Sinclair, how long have you been on the board for a weekend on?

Uh I believe I've been on for four years now.

Four years?

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

May we please have a roll call?

Councilor Alcair.

Hi.

Councillor Anvery.

Aye.

Counselor Salgado.

Hi.

Councillor Harris.

Aye.

Counselor Case.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Excuse me, resolution 2920 is adopted.

8.2.

Consider approving a resolution of support authorizing city staff to pursue a 2040 planning and development grant from Metro for consult consultant support in developing a concept plan for residential urban growth boundary expansion request.

Resolution 2921 is available.

Do I have a motion to adopt resolution 2921?

So I moved case.

Is there a second?

Second Sinclair.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none.

May I have a roll call, please?

Counselor Harris.

Yes.

Counselor Case.

Aye.

Counselor Salgato.

Aye.

Counselor Amvery.

Aye.

Counselor Alcair.

Aye.

Counselor Sinclair.

Aye.

Resolution 2921 is adopted.

City Manager Report.

I'll turn the time over to Acting City Manager Simone Brooks.

Thank you, Council President.

So I have uh two brief items tonight and then one longer item.

Um, first, this past weekend we had two big events in Hillsborough in downtown.

We had the Public Works Day on the plaza.

Thank you to our public works, water at Parks and Recreation Departments, and our economic and community development departments building division for making this year's event another great connection point with the community.

Seeing kids climb into the driver's seat on large equipment and playing games to learn about the services we provide is fun for their caregiver and for the staff.

It's also great to see community members talking with our staff, asking questions, and sharing feedback.

So thank you to everyone from the community, including city staff who came out to be part of Public Works Day on the plaza.

Second, we had the Oregon International Air Show at the airport.

Thank you to our police and fire and rescue departments for their support of this year's air show.

Their preparation and readiness to respond to any kind of emergency, including medical emergencies, is essential.

They also support the air show through managing traffic flow and closures to ensure a safe space for the event.

The air show brings many visitors to Hillsborough and raises a lot of money for local nonprofits, and we are grateful for the partnership and support from our community.

And I don't know that we have a slide.

Okay.

So I'm going off script.

So tonight will be the last meeting for Raheem Harj, our deputy city manager.

And I want to say just a few words that were, if I can find it, that were brought up by staff when they thought about Raheem.

Strategic, thoughtful, authentic, witty, clever, honest, teammate, friendly, friendly, integrity, and maybe even pickleball.

So these are just a few of the words that describe Raheem.

His contribution to the city has been immense.

He's been here since 2020.

He was chased across the country in his truck by COVID during the pandemic.

Started off in the civic center on the fifth floor pretty much by himself because the rest of us were at home.

So he started right away making a contribution.

He became close to many people throughout the city and in our community.

And I just want to say thank you, Raheem.

And that's it.

Thank you, Simone and Raheem.

We'll now move on to City Council comments, which is a new section of the agenda outlined in the recently adopted council rules.

Council members have up to three minutes to provide comments if they have any.

The council should not engage in any deliberation or debate over any comments andor topics raised during this portion of the agenda, other than expressing general support for adding uh a topic to a future agenda.

If a majority of a council supports moving an item forward, the item will be referred to the city manager for scoping.

Uh do any counselors wish to provide comment?

And I think I'm going to go online to the to Councillors Anbury and Salgado first to see if they want to go.

So it looks like uh I'll recognize uh Councilor Salgado.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah.

Um I guess I don't really have any anything to direct the city on any any policy, but you know, I would like to see if there's any opportunities for us as a city or just me as an individual city counselor, we can have the staff look into some of the work that the uh county DA's office is doing around child abuse uh prevention.

You know, that child abuse is something that um has a really long impact on individuals.

You know, for anybody that's interested in understanding the long-term impacts of child abuse, uh, there's a book called The Body Keeps the Score.

And so, you know, I just noticed that there's a lot of uh culturally we we make light of that.

I I watch a lot of stand-up comedy.

I like watching comedy because you know I like laughing, but I noticed that there's this like just general kind of like uh people are okay with uh making light of it, and there's real like serious consequences, right?

There's a lot of research out there that shows that uh children that are reviewed whether it's physically, sexually, psychologically, um, they end up having really uh you know uh really uh horrible lives in a way.

Uh a lot of things a lot of people can repeat themselves, but you know, there's a lot of real serious issues that happen with that.

So if there's any way that I can contribute to what the county is doing, I know there's been a lot of a lot of good work there.

They're convicting a lot of people that are accused of these crimes, and I'm really happy to see that personally.

Uh so if there's any way for us to contribute, even showing up to an event or being involved in any way in any campaign.

I would really welcome that um as a city councilor.

So that's it.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Is Councillor Annvereed would she like to comment?

She has not raised her Zoom hand.

All right, thank you.

Anyone here?

I would.

Council Sinclair.

Thank you so much, President Harris.

I was um absent due to a family um urgency on May 5th, and in seeing the testimony, and as many of my colleagues here, uh fellow counselors, um, and I'm sure the staff here have received extreme amounts of input, and it hurts me for our community because they want to be a part of the process, and this is their home.

And to not be empowered deeply infects them because they invest their everyday lives here.

To council president, colleagues, and residents of Hillsborough, the public and this council have the right to be fully involved in any decisions to give away public funds.

I do not support tax abatements for data centers that fail to create long-term local jobs and that deprive Washington County partners of essential property tax revenues.

Thank you for our sketch.

Thank you for scheduling the emergency executive session for May 26th.

At that meeting, I will ask our legal council to identify precise options to halt the pending data center applications and to establish permanent transparent public oversight.

I want to consider three actions.

Rescind delegated signature authority, move final approval of all multi decade tax abatements from administrative staff to this public dais.

Move final approval of all multi-decade tax abatements from administrative staff to this public dais.

Exclude data centers from the enterprise zone.

Amend our local criteria and zoning to permanently disqualify data centers from these tax exemptions.

Ensure meaningful public process.

Require public hearings and council votes before any commitment of public funds or tax expenditures.

These rolling tax holidays violate the core intent of the Enterprise Zone program, in my opinion.

When we stretch these laws, we deprive the county public schools and potentially public safety agencies of the property tax revenue they need to serve a growing community.

We have a moral and fiduciary duty to stop this.

We must avoid a serious legal trap.

If these applications are approved administratively, the corporations may vest rights that lock Hillsboro into an unflexible 25 year financial commitment.

Every city in Oregon and every tech corporation is watching what Hillsboro does now.

We must set a precedence of accountability, not exploitation.

This is about common sense, shared responsibility, and protecting the long-term well-being of a unified Hillsboro.

Thank you for your time.

Any other comments?

Counselor Case.

Yeah, so um over the past couple of weeks, I've had conversations with multiple city employees about their disappointment and concerns with council behaviors.

So tonight I just wanted to take a moment to thank city staff for all the work that you do on a daily basis and acknowledge your concerns.

To the staff, I promise to model behavior of mutual respect in our conversations with each other, you and with resident our residents.

As we head into our work session on June 2nd, I plan to show up with the expectations of a respectful workplace for my fellow counselors and with our staff who are in the room and who are preparing behind the scenes.

I think it's been a it's been difficult on everybody, particular, particularly our community, um, things that have happened over the past 12 months.

Uh and we are aware of that.

I I think we're all aware of that.

We don't directly feel many of the impacts.

I acknowledge that as well.

Um sometimes it comes down on staff.

Uh sometimes it comes down on us, sometimes it's on the community.

Um, and so we will I promise to do as good as I can listening and making the best decisions that I can for the for everyone in this community.

And second, I wanted to really thank uh Raheem Harji for all the work you have done.

Um I would agree with almost every single one of those uh adjectives that was describing you.

It was a joy to work with you uh for the last year and a half or so.

Um ironically, uh about a week ago, he and I got into a little bit of a not a disagreement, we had a misunderstanding.

Here's the thing.

I knew that it was an honest misunderstanding.

And uh and so it's nice to be able to know that the team that you work with you can trust like that.

Uh there's always gonna be miscommunications uh or there will be miscommunications quite often.

Uh but it's nice to know that you're working with the team you trust and uh Raheem, I trust you uh 100%.

I think you're gonna do great job.

I'm sort of glad to see uh that you're going to clean water services, so you will still be serving this community.

So I'm very happy for that.

So congratulate and congratulations on the job, Regin.

All right, thank you, counselors.

Uh finally, advice and information items.

Community members who want to be informed and engaged on council matters can sign up to receive the happening in Hillsborough email newsletter.

Spanish language updates are also available through our Coracian de Juntos email newsletter.

With that, City Council meeting is adjourned.

You did a good job.

No, you did.

You did.

You did.