The Real Story – A Column
HILLSBORO, OR — Your Clean Water Services Rates Are About to Go Up By As Much As 105%! This Tuesday, April 14, the Washington County Board of Commissioners—acting as the Board of Directors for Clean Water Services (CWS)—is set to vote on a financial plan that will fundamentally alter the cost of living for thousands of local residents. And here we are again- Rate Increase after Rate Increase after Rate Increase– in 20 years at this rate CWS utility rates will be like a house payment- this can not be sustained!
See the meeting information at the bottom of the page
If approved, this Resolution will trigger a 21% annual explosion (159% In 5 Years) in local fixed charges for customers in unincorporated Washington County, King City, Durham, Metzger, Aloha, Bethany, Cedar Mill, and Gaston. While the agency frames these hikes as a “technical necessity,” a Hillsboro Herald investigation has uncovered a spidersweb of interpersonal conflicts and a massive “shell game” that appears to favor data centers and industrial giants over the families who pay the bills.
The “Tainted” Rate Study: An Insider’s Game
The bedrock of these proposed rate hikes is a “Cost of Service Study” that fails every standard of independent oversight. The Herald has confirmed the study was conducted by Bartle Wells Associates, a California-based firm whose lead consultant, Kim Boehler, is a former CWS rate analyst and the spouse of former CWS Operations Manager Logan Olds. This “interpersonal capture” is evidenced by public records showing both Boehler and Olds present in the same leadership meetings as recently as April 2023—one pitching the financial strategy while the other oversaw utility operations. By hiring a former staffer’s spouse to validate doubling the capital budget to $130 million, CWS management has traded true independence for a “confirmation bias” deliverable that justifies the very 10% to 21% increases this duo has reportedly championed for years, prioritizing a billion-dollar war chest over the financial survival of local families. More on the duo and some whistle blower accusations dealing wit financial iregularities soon.
Question: Why is a California firm responsible for our rate study?
Clean Water Services management relies on Bartle Wells Associates because the firm specializes not just in technical rate design, but in “building consensus” and “gaining public acceptance” for multi-year rate hikes. Based in Berkeley, California, the firm bills itself as an expert in helping agencies successfully adopt increases in “challenging political environments,” providing the professional “cover” needed for boards to approve aggressive revenue targets. For a management team looking to nearly double capital spending, a firm that openly promotes its “strong track record” of helping clients navigate public hearings to achieve their financial objectives is an ideal partner to validate its billion-dollar budget.
When the people who want to spend the money (CWS staff) hire their former colleague’s wife to tell you they need the money, it isn’t an audit—it’s a pre-ordained deliverable.
The Shell Game: Subsidizing Big Tech
In 2025, Oregon passed the POWER Act to prevent residential energy customers from being crushed by rate hikes caused by data center expansion. CWS is currently running the exact opposite play. The jobs in thei County have been reduced by thousands, the economy has retracted, and new home communities pay massive Systems Development Charages and pay their way for stress on our storm and sanitary sewer rates. There are no growth factors, except for the massive Data Center build up in our County (Hillsboro) that can be responsible for these rates increases. NONE! And yet CWS in this rate study has not recognized those impacts and is dumping the costs of new systems needed for these uses onto all of us. That is an absolute fact.
By reclassifying massive new industrial sewage and thermal cooling infrastructure as “Regional” assets, CWS is effectively socializing the cost of North Hillsboro’s industrial growth.
- The Disparity: “Regional” rates (paid by everyone) are climbing by 4%.
- The Target: “Local” customers (residents) are being treated as the “soft targets,” hit with 21% annual spikes for 5 years (105%) to fund a system being pushed to its limits by industrial “heat islands” and millions of gallons of data center wastewater.
The $130 Million “Sheepdog” Problem
Under the previous CEO, Diane Taniguchi Dennis who left under a cloud last year, capital spending was held to a $61 million average. Today, Acting CEO Rick Shanley and CFO Kathleen Leader are proposing to nearly double that to $130 million annually, all while sitting on an unprecedented 900-day cash reserve.
Critics argue that without a “shepherd” to hold them in check, staff has prioritized vanity projects like the RIPL Lab in Forest Grove—a renovation that has reportedly ballooned from a $15M plan to a potential $50M–$100M money pit.
A Challenge to the Board: Show Up Tuesday
The Board of Commissioners faces a moral imperative: Will they stand with the families of King City, Banks, Gaston, Durham, Metzger, Bethany, Cedar Mill, and the rest of the unincorporated county, or will they rubber-stamp a billion-dollar bureaucracy’s war chest?
VISIT https://www.friendsofsmartgrowth.org/ to learn more about these candidates
Blayne Soleymani-Pearson for Washington County District 2 –
Nafisa Fai for Washington County Chair
Kipperlyn Sinclair for Washington County District 4
Myrna Muñoz for Senate District 15
Susan McLain for House District 29
Tammy Carpenter for House District 27
The Herald is calling for:
An Immediate Pause: No vote until the new CEO, Rahim Harji, can conduct a truly independent audit.
A Hard Capital Cap: Forcing CWS to return to its $60M historical baseline.
End the Subsidy: A new rate class for Data Centers to ensure they pay the full 50-year cost of the infrastructure they require.
ACTION REQUIRED: The public hearing is this Tuesday, April 14. Residents are urged to send emails to the Board and testify at the start of the meeting. If you don’t act now, you are signing up for a 5-year compounding tax designed to keep the “management fantasy land” alive.
When will this insanity and gravy train end? Will anyone ever consider ways to cut costs or be more efficient and this out of control aganecy? It certainly does not appear it will ever happen.
GET TO THE MEETING – Call, Email, Write your County Commissioners and do it NOW! https://washingtoncounty.civicweb.net/portal/members.aspx?id=10
Agenda – Regular Business
Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 9:00 AM
Board of Directors for Clean Water Services (CWS)
Charles D. Cameron Public Services Building Auditorium
155 N. First Ave., Hillsboro, OR 97124
Five years of 21% increases is a cumulative 159% increase (2.59X), not 105%. The increases compound, not add.
Ohh— well I was trying to be nice. I will fix that- thanks for your help!!
You’re welcome. Since they show another 21% for FY2032, I’d say the 213% increase (3.13X) in six years shows the devastation even clearer!
And with three years of 5% increases after that, the final total is a 263% increase (3.63X) in nine years of their proposed rate increases.
Dirk
Where is this meeting being held? I read through the article and seem to be missing the address of it.
Thank you.
It is at the bottom of the article –
Thank you.
Dirk I am told, by someone who called CES, there is not a vote tomorrow but May. What’s the truth?
Edie
There is a Vite on the Agenda – I assume the pressure of my story and in people calling Politicians, has caused them to state they will wait – the New CEO is coming in. I am making calls- I will be in touch!
Thank you!!0
Dirk, did you fined out any other information about the vote?
Thx, Edie
They are voting on the rate study and agreeing to the methodology and findings. Then in May the new rates will be officially adopted. So this a two step process at thia point.
Here is the email for the Board of directors
cwsboard@cleanwaterservices.org.
Ok thank you again Dirk. Always appreciate you reporting on Hillsboro issues.
Edie