Hillsboro City Council Work Session and Meeting: DEIB, Bond, and Public Comments – September 15, 2026

The September 15, 2026 Hillsboro City Council session opened with a DEIB work session and then moved into the regular council meeting. DEI Manager Eunice, joined by Simone, presented a high-level update on equity work, including an equity toolkit, language access, staff training, community engagement grants, and survey results. Staff also presented the upcoming November 2026 Capital Construction Bond. Public comment and council discussion covered the Sky Harbor development and data centers, surveillance cameras, police practices, sanctuary city provisions, library internet filtering, and eviction prevention funding. No agenda was available in the source transcript.

Consent Calendar

• The meeting noted there was one item on the consent calendar; the transcript does not identify the item.

Public Comments & Testimony

• A speaker urged the council to keep the public aware of the Sky Harbor application and permits before decisions are made, not after, saying the public would not otherwise know about the conversations affecting the project.
• Another commenter said that if the current public-safety baseline is accepted, it is imprudent to rezone 470 acres for 221 data centers that PGE has said will be among the largest power and water users in the country without a full accounting of public-safety impacts.
• A speaker noted that the last new transmission line permitted and under construction in Oregon took 20 years.
• A speaker described the city's sanctuary-city codification, saying police officers must document if they see a detainment but not interfere.
• Concerns were raised about Flock license plate readers; a city official said they did not know the exact image-retention time frame but would find out.
• A speaker asked why, at a filmed incident with two officers present, the other officer did not ask the officer to slow down and read the Miranda rights correctly. The responding official said they knew of the incident but not the details and would look up the information.
• A speaker referenced Council Member Harris and said comments about respecting politicians and 'attitude coming toward the dais' did not match what Harris experienced when she raised questions about council members meeting off site.

Discussion Items

• DEIB Work Session: Eunice explained the city's DEIB approach: building internal capacity through tools, training, shared language, and structures. The Equity Leadership Council meets monthly with two to three representatives from each department and is advisory rather than decision-making. Staff developed ISP Hillsboro language-access cards and presented the equity toolkit and community engagement framework to boards and commissions.
• DEI grants and survey: The largest engagement investment was just under $958,000 in community-engagement capacity building grants across 10 organizations over two years; the figures did not include small-business grants. The employee survey had an 84% response rate from full-time employees. Staff said they use a consultant for the survey and moved to roughly a three-to-four-year cycle to allow meaningful progress.
• Council training request: One council member welcomed a DEI trainer for council decision-making and votes if time could be arranged.
• Eviction prevention data: A council member asked for a future staff report in the advice-and-information section on how eviction-prevention funding has been used, with statistics.
• Equity toolkit story: DEI staff described the community engagement framework as a multi-page tool for large projects and said equity toolkit examples were being posted on the city's internal DEI web page for staff reference.
• Digital navigators: Staff noted that two digital navigator positions will become full-time City of Hillsboro employees in the next fiscal year.
• Capital Construction Bond: Staff presented the November 2026 Capital Construction Bond proposal, including a five-year implementation plan if passed. The tax rate estimate dropped from about $1.97 per $1,000 in 2020 to about $1.52 last year, leaving a $187 million gap and requiring choices about what to include in the final proposal. August polling showed similar results to February with slightly softer support. Staff proposed monthly reports from an owner's representative/construction management overseer on each project's status and spending. A staff member also said there is zero nexus between the bond and surveillance, and no license plate readers.
• Library internet filtering: Staff presented a library internet filtering policy that would filter content at the least restrictive adult-filtered level. Enforcement would start with a conversation with the patron and then follow the rules-of-use rubric after repeated issues. A council member summarized that patrons could arrange ahead of time or use a space that would not be threatening to other patrons.
• City Manager Report: Robbie Hammond reported two items: council members could have up to three minutes for comments without deliberation, and he wanted to address an incident from that morning at the Washington County Commission work session. The transcript does not include the substance of the incident.

Key Outcomes

• No formal votes were captured in the source transcript.
• Staff committed to follow up on the Miranda-rights incident, Flock image-retention time frame, and eviction-prevention funding statistics.
• A council member requested DEI training for council decision-making and votes.
• Staff plan to share additional equity toolkit/community engagement framework impact stories later; no date was given.
• The November 2026 Capital Construction Bond remains scheduled for the ballot; oversight reports from an owner's representative would be provided, most likely monthly.