The Real Story – A Column
Here is a decompress and summary on what we saw happen at the June 2nd Data Center Work Session and at the City Council meeting that followed. To get the reciord accurate let’s look at how we got to this place. On May 11th, City of Hillsboro Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair called for a Special Session of the Hillsboro City Council to discuss the 18 Data Center Enterprise Zone agreements that City staff had just signed. This was in response to community concerns and anger that spilled out across Hillsboro after Mike Rogaway, and OregonLive reported on May 7th that Hillsboro had pushed through a wave of Enterprise Zone Property Tax Forfeiture agreements. Agreements that would waive Property taxes as far out as 2051. The approvals appeared to have been rushed through just before Governor Tina Kotek’s Data Center Mortararium on any more Enterprise Zone tax giveaways takes effect on June 6th. Sinclair made the case then and continues to argue that there has not been transparency around this issue and that Hillsboro councilors needed to know what the city had done and if it could be undone.
In her official statement of response at that time, Mayor Pace stated she could not hold the meeting because a “majority” of the Council did not support it. In her communication to the community, the Mayor stated that more time was needed to gather information and that a work session on Data Centers would be held on June 2nd. This meeting was highly anticipated, and community members were asked to arrive from 6-7 PM.
With that as background, an energized crowd of locals did show up at the Hillsboro City Hall for the 6 PM meeting. Many came out between 5 and 6 PM for an anti-Data Center rally and for a Recall Beach Pace rally put on by Heal Hillsboro and members of Indivisible. The crowd grew, filling the meeting room and the entire Shirley Huffman Auditorium by the time the work session started.
After the meeting started, the presentation made by City Staff seemed to be a supportive sales pitch for Data Centers. With new slides presented on the overhead that had never been seen before, those in attendance were visibly upset that they were not hearing anything about the tax breaks and the deals that the city had made. They wanted to hear from the Mayor and Council about the possibility of unwinding them.
“We have learned that this E-Zone program, administered by Business Oregon, needs to be continually evaluated and monitored,” Pace wrote in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive on Monday. “I have asked staff to explore all of our options, including outright refusal of approval of applications.” https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2026/05/hillsboro-mayor-orders-halt-to-new-data-center-tax-breaks.html
We will provide all of the slides shown when they become available. Many of them were dated June 1st, 2026, so there was no way anyone could have reviewed the information in advance. Slide after slide, we heard more and more Data Center basics. Some new information about the 3 newly approved campuses was shown, as well as about the 5 additional potential data center sites. Those paying attention heard the council ask questions that need further answers. Councilor Olivia Alcaire, who is ending her time on Council this year, was on record as saying she has been waiting weeks for answers to her questions and that the Hillsboro staff have not provided them.
A crucial fact about where the city is at right now is that 5 more big campuses can be built and are “potential,” but not approved yet. The Council has the authority to stop those campuses by adopting language and rules already in Hillsboro’s Community Development codes and applying them to all remaining industrial land in the city. This would effectively end all future Data Centers and or make them a Conditional or Special use that the Council could review one by one. As it is right now, if the Council fails to act, those future sites will take Hillsboro’s Data Center campuses to 26 and the total number of buildings to around 50-something, the Herald has said for over a year now, and that we proved with our Data Center map we released months ago.
Before discussing the Public Comment that occurred, the Herald reports that the Work Session ended without discussion of the Enterprise Zone deals. The Council went into a 10 PM second session and debated continuing, but there were 4 more areas of the Data Center presentation to discuss, and after about 15 minutes of debate, it was clear the evening was done. As a result, there will be a Special Work Session (imagine that) on June 9th, 026 at 7:30 PM to finish up. According to the staff, the Enterprise Zone will be discussed at the end of that meeting. By now, those deals are all done and past their 21-day review window. Let’s hope that next week, those who come out will hear something more and hear our City Council take definitive action. As of now, we have not heard much of anything about what they intend to do.
Special City Council Work Session on June 9
All community members are invited to attend the special City Council Work Session on Data Centers on Tuesday, June 9, at 7:30 pm at the Hillsboro Civic Center.
The June 9 work session will continue the data center discussion from the Council’s June 2 work session. Watch the June 2 Council work session video on the YouTube.
- All the info is here: https://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/community/data-centers
It was 90 degrees when the Public meeting started. It was also the First Tuesday Art Walk. Parking was hard to find. Many Seniors were in attendance, including two ladies who told us that this was their first time at a City Council and that they had come to hear about the tax deals. By the time the work session ended, they were frustrated and left upset, saying, “This was a waste of our time”.
At 7 PM, the Council opened the public meeting, which started with about an hour of presentations and reports from the Hillsboro Youth Advisory Council Students. As great as that was, the delay to allow public comment only caused things to boil. Three Councilors were in attendance– Council President Harris, Saba Anvery, and Olivia Alcaire. Sinclair, Case, and Salgado were in attendance remotely. Mayor Beach Pace was excused.
Almost 40 people took the time to talk. There were tears, great ideas, passionate pleas, and technical information presented. An undercurrent of anger was palpable. By the end of the meeting, there was no indication that the Council is going to act. And with everyone in that room wanting action and reports of 75% of all Americans demanding it on this issue, one has to wonder if they ever will. The Council is going to have to take action before the end of this month if the rest of this year is going to be anything other than turmoil. Three council seats are opening up, and many people at the meeting indicated that they have lost all trust and want new leadership.
Anyone in this current Council who wants to remain better stop saying “Our Hands are Tied” and start leading; and it has to happen now. No more excuses. And all of the information that was supposed to be ready June 2nd better be ready next week. Councilor Alcaire and Sinclair are leading and have called for this to be an Emergency, a Moratorium, and action. Concerns are also percolating about who in this Council group works for Intel, who worked for or aligned with PGE, who might be aligned with large landowners outside the City, and who works as a political consultant or campaign manager for other politicians. Any of these ties might indicate why someone would not take action. Many of our current leaders are closely aligned with, or have served in leadership roles at, the Washington County Chamber, which has been pro-tech and pro-Data Center. At this point, Council President Harris, a very astute attorney with deep ties to Hillsboro, seems to be the only one who can come through to galvanize the Council to positive action. We are pulling for him to do that by the end of next week’s meeting.
This story is becoming more and more about those in our community who benefit from these forces and Data / AI players and those who want our residents represented first. It appears there is little tolerance or room for leaders that will not choose the people.
The best way we can share the flavor of the meetings is to show you. Below are some videos of those who came forward to give testimony; they are worth watching. We hope to see you all next week at the Work Session and will keep you updated on news as it rolls out this week.
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I don’t know why it is constantly glossed over who actually voted for the annexation of data centers back in 2023. Conveniently the only two sitting councilors who were on the council in 2023 that unanimously voted yes, are now the two being championed as ‘anti-data centers’? It’s not to say they can’t change their position or mind, but to take no accountability for your actions and then ALSO think this makes you qualified for another elected position? Don’t get me wrong, we need actions to be taken, but it’s frustrating to watch this play out as two of them created this mess and now are sitting back acting like their hands are clean and they’re leading the way.
I don’t think it is that at all. They did not vote on them as you say. The projects are all approved by staff without a hearing – period. This all started in 2017 and the Mayors since then have done most of work to set us up where we are. And I have not heard you say anything about our Mayor who has been around much longer than Alcaire or Sinclair.
QTS posting up at the Downtown Insomnia seems oddly reminiscent of the strategy energy companies would use in Western Pennsylvania when they wanted to get fracking operations going and would put people on the ground to give the population a little nudge in their direction. There are a few strings attached to that morning of free coffee.
The 6-7PM presentation felt like a dog and pony show to me. No mention of sweetheart tax deals. A pie chart showing power and water use as of now, not the projected usages when these data centers get rolling.
When this area of the country has all the ingredients to make the billionaires want to plant their data centers here, why in the world do our elected officials give away the store with tax breaks? It’s contrary to common sense. Is the fix in somewhere?
Meanwhile the Citizens Utility Board is fighting to make the data center builders/owner pay their fair share for resources used. Why does it take a watchdog outfit to expose these sweetheart deals?
I encourage the Herald to talk with CUB and see what they have to say.
And why are city people in the presentation saying “I don’t know” about how data centers elsewhere are being treated or how they are or will operate? Isn’t that info they should have found out well before this? Maybe other cities play their cards close to the vest like Hillsboro?
This smells a lot like money talks first last and always.
Thanks for keeping on this story. Don’t quit.