The Real Story – A Column — The Inside Operation (Part 2 of 4)
Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a 4-part investigative series examining municipal tax abatements, local agreements, and campaign finance networks across Hillsboro and Washington County. Read Part 1: The Hundred-Million-Dollar Tax Shield here.
A hundred-million-dollar tax shield cannot survive in a political vacuum. In Part 1, we showed how the City of Hillsboro signed Resolution No. 2558 (Enterprise Zone) in April 2017—granting sweeping staff-level authority to abate property taxes across 7.6 square miles of industrial land and bypassing public school rolls. That 10-year exemption clock runs out in 2027.
To protect these massive tax abatements (like those given to many Data Centers and AI facilities) and ensure “The Machine” had friendly faces on both sides of the table when the 2027 Enterprise Zone renewal time comes, the system needed more than quiet bureaucratic approvals. It needed institutional armor, public subsidies, and regional legal cover.
Today, in Part 2, we follow the paper trail inside the machine: how Hillsboro’s historic 91-year-old Chamber of Commerce was legally quarantined, how over half a million dollars in city tax funds began flowing to a private commercial association under municipal contracts, and why a private tech league set up its corporate headquarters inside Hillsboro City Hall itself.
The Restructuring: How the Hometown Chamber Was Replaced
For 91 years, the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce (originally chartered on June 28, 1930) was an authentic local institution supporting hometown retail, downtown festivals, and neighborhood services. It was truly the hometown Hillsboro Chamber that proudly supported small business owners as the backbone of our community. I supported and belonged to that Chamber.
That local identity ended in 2021. The Herald covered that transition when it happened.
After a failed two-month bid by director Deanna Palm to jointly manage both the Hillsboro and Beaverton chambers, the organization engineered a regional restructuring. Using corporate filings with the Oregon Secretary of State, the historic 1930 Hillsboro entity (Registry #3406816) was stripped of its standalone municipal identity and renamed the Washington County Chamber of Commerce.
By filing an Assumed Business Name amendment with the State (Registry #1847447-96), the new regional chamber secured exclusive statewide rights to the name “Greater Hillsboro Area Chamber of Commerce” across all 36 Oregon counties through July 2027.
The practical legal effect was immediate: the original nine-decade-old municipal brand was effectively locked down, preventing any independent group of downtown merchants or local shopkeepers from organizing under their historic hometown title.
The regional machine effectively consumed the hometown chamber whole and locked the door behind it. It appears unlikely that a genuine Hillsboro Chamber, focused exclusively on what is best for local Hillsboro storefronts, will ever return.
Your Tax Dollars at Work: Subsidizing Private Business Advocacy ($520,000)
To understand how influence operates at the ballot box, one must follow the money trail between City Hall and the Chamber. The Washington County Chamber of Commerce does not finance its operations solely through corporate dues; it relies on substantial, ongoing public subsidies.
At the center of this pipeline is the Hillsboro Economic Development Partnership (HEDP), a multi-year municipal collaboration funded directly out of the City’s General Fund.
Internal municipal agreements authored and executed by Hillsboro Economic & Community Development Director Dan Dias document $520,000.00 in public taxpayer dollars directed to the Chamber:
- $300,000.00 (HEDP 2024–2027): Approved by the Finance Committee on August 13, 2024, committing $100,000 per year through June 30, 2027.
- $100,000.00 (HEDP FY 2023–24): Executed by Dan Dias on October 10, 2023, as an annual contractual allocation.
- $120,000.00 (Visitor Information Center, FY 2023–24): Approved on October 10, 2023, to transfer a portion of municipal transient lodging tax revenue to operate an information desk at the Chamber’s Elam Young Parkway facility.
To be fair, much of the work outlined in the HEDP contract provides genuine value to local merchants, and they do a great job. In the August 13, 2024 staff report and attached agreement, substantial resources are dedicated to grassroots small-business assistance:
- Direct merchant outreach along commercial corridors, including Downtown Hillsboro, Tanasbourne, Orenco Station, South Hillsboro / TV Highway, and SW 10th Avenue / Calle Diez.
- Support and back diverse entrepreneurship, including convening the Latino Business Advisory Council (LBAC), the Black Advisory Business Council, and the LGBTQ+ Business Council, while partnering with Adelante Mujeres on initiatives like Empresas and Cocinemos.
- Direct technical assistance: business counseling, EIN registration, COBID certifications, and referrals toward legal and lending clinics.
KEY POINT: This neighborhood-level support represents the best of what a local chamber can do, and small business owners throughout Hillsboro benefit from these programs.
However, buried inside that very same municipal agreement is an entirely separate operational mandate. On page 8 of the contract, under Task 4 (Business Engagement, Outreach, and Representation), the City explicitly requires the Chamber to:
“coordinate with the Department and represent City business interests at regional and state level policy and program development conversations including but not limited to the Regional 2040 Growth Concept Update, Regional Transportation Plan, Westside Multimodal Corridor Study, taxing initiatives, and urban growth considerations.”
Here lies the structural contradiction. While the public-facing narrative centers on supporting neighborhood storefronts and diverse entrepreneurs, public taxpayer funds are legally bound to regional policy advocacy. The contract obligates the Chamber to advocate on tax policies and urban growth boundary expansions—the exact issues in which regional tech giants and industrial developers stand to gain the most, and where neighborhood protections and farmland preservation are often compromised.
KEY POINT: This is how the system operates: public money flows from City Hall to a regional Chamber of Commerce, and in return, municipal growth policies, industrial tax structures, and expansion initiatives receive assured institutional advocacy and policy support.
The 501(c)(6) Inside City Hall: The Silicon Forest Partnership
During our research following the river of public funds, we uncovered an arrangement we knew very little about until a longtime resident named Denise Caire called it out during the City Council’s three-minute public comment period about two months ago.
Through an organization called the Silicon Forest Partnership, we found a tech-focused private entity directly addressed at City Hall. This is something you must see to understand, so please review this organization’s public presence directly at siliconforestpartnership.org.
To be fair, the founding concept behind the Silicon Forest Partnership was encouraged by the state through Business Oregon as an informal, collaborative initiative—a public-private advisory effort between universities, state agencies, and high-tech manufacturers to coordinate workforce training and pursue federal CHIPS Act funding.
Then came the pivot.
Rather than remaining an open, state-supervised public economic initiative, the entity was incorporated as an independent, private 501(c)(6) non-profit business league (Registry #232063396). Under federal tax law, a 501(c)(6) is the exact corporate classification used by private trade associations, real estate leagues, and chambers of commerce to engage in targeted industry advocacy and legislative affairs.
And where did this newly formed private corporate league set up its official headquarters? Inside the City of Hillsboro municipal offices at 150 E Main Street.
That is right: Hillsboro City Hall is the legal registered headquarters of a private tech-industry trade group—an entity not owned or operated by the City of Hillsboro, yet functioning from inside the municipal building built to serve the general public.
A review of the partnership’s leadership and state corporate filings exposes the depth of this municipal-corporate interlock:
- The City Official at the Helm: State of Oregon corporate records list Hillsboro’s top municipal economic development director—Economic & Community Development Director Dan Dias—not just as the individual who registered the entity and serves as corporate Treasurer, but as the partnership’s official Registered Agent operating directly out of City Hall at 150 E Main Street.
- The Corporate Counterpart: Aligned with Dias as corporate Secretary is Lucian Shifren, Senior Director of External R&D Engagements for Intel Foundry, registered directly at Intel’s Hawthorn Farms Campus (5200 NE Elam Young Parkway).
- The State & Supply-Chain Pipeline: Seated on the board with them are Shannon Carney, who oversees semiconductor tax credits and CHIPS funds for Business Oregon, along with executive representatives from multibillion-dollar supply-chain giants, including Siemens EDA and Lam Research.
Having transitioned from a state-sponsored initiative into an independent trade association, the Silicon Forest Partnership openly solicits corporate memberships ranging up to $5,000 annually. In exchange for those private corporate dues, the organization’s own materials promise members a “direct line to policy discussions” and involvement in regulatory advocacy.
In its own membership prospectus, the organization guarantees paying corporate members:
“involvement in advocacy, lobbying, or regulatory initiatives related to the semiconductor industry in Oregon” and “a direct line to policy discussions on infrastructure and manufacturing.”
KEY POINT: When planning staff develop land-use frameworks and infrastructure policies governing industrial compute campuses, high-voltage utility expansions, and battery facilities, the City’s top economic director shares private trade-association officer duties with an Intel Foundry Senior Director.
How can the public be assured of complete institutional independence when the municipal administrator and an executive of the city’s largest corporate employer govern the same private business league?
And when broad industrial policies reach the Council dais, seated councilors—including Saba Anvery, an Engineering Manager at Intel Foundry—deliberate on land-use and infrastructure policies that directly affect the operational landscape of the city’s largest corporate employer.
In my view, the public agency’s essential boundary has been compromised. When a private trade organization is officially registered at municipal City Hall, the traditional separation between municipal administration and the commercial interests it oversees is severely eroded.
I want you to think about this and reflect. Who is truly running our town?
This is highly unusual. This does not sit well. A private corporate association has an official address inside City Hall.
Given the distrust and transparency issues facing our community, this arrangement demands the City Council’s immediate attention. It needs an independent municipal review, an outside audit, and complete public disclosure.
Coming Tomorrow in Part 3: The Land Grab & The Star Player
Now that the corporate machinery is housed inside City Hall and financed by taxpayer dollars, what happens when industrial appetite runs out of zoned urban dirt?
In Part 3, we take a deep look at the City’s Economic Development Director, Dan Dias, the aggressive municipal development apparatus operating under non-disclosure agreements, and the high-stakes battle over 1,700 acres of prime agricultural farmland along Jackson School Road.
Editorial Note & Policy:
The Real Story is an investigative commentary and analysis column published by Dirk Knudsen. While all contractual records, corporate filings, budget allocations, and meeting minutes cited are drawn directly from verified public records, the interpretations and civic conclusions represent the editorial perspective of the author.
The Hillsboro Herald is committed to fairness and factual accuracy. Representatives from the City of Hillsboro, the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, and the Silicon Forest Partnership are invited to submit official statements or responses. If you identify a documented factual error, please contact HillsboroHerald@gmail.com for immediate review and correction.
