Board of County Commissioners - workshop

Commissioners, welcome back and back to you, Chair Harrington.

Great. Thank you. We are back in open session, having returned from executive session. So next, formal agenda item discussion. Does anyone have any questions about we don't have a consent agenda tonight on the Washington County Board of Commissioners meeting packet? Could I ask a question?

How often has that happened?

Rarely. Rarely.

Yeah.

Two times in my six years.

Wow. Okay. Only Kevin would know that.

Okay. So next, why don't we go through leadership communication?

Sure. Can I just confirm that we are doing the meeting? And I intended to bring this up during the agenda item discussion. We are going to be meeting in here.

Staff are prepared to move your meeting in here. So as we end board and leadership communications, we will be changing the setup of the room some. So your board will move so your backs are facing this back wall. So similar to the dais setup, we will replicate in this room. Courtney and I will slide back. We will, we're also working on getting, the team is getting the wall open so that should there be more community members here in attendance, they will have ample viewing spot.

Will that table move back or?

This table. For testimony?

I see that's for testimony.

And also, logistically, I'm assuming we'll, will we still have our iPad things? Or, or will we just have this camera?

Can we get back to that? Let's have staff continue to work through this and we'll come back at the end. But the point I want to make is I don't think we're going to have our display monitors for presentations.

So bring your own monitors. Where you sit may need to be over there and switching seats with your family.

And staff have indicated actually the part that we need needs to be made from scratch and by hand. So it will be seven more weeks for that part. So staff will be monitoring the weather and we will just make a staff level decision moving your board meetings coming up through the month of September in this room should the weather still remain. Thank you. a little hot.

Could we just make sure that this room is available for all those Tuesdays? Yep.

So yeah, because the Planning Commission meets here.

Staff will work on logistics. It's hard for me to remember what goes on sometimes.

I just appreciate this adjustment. The last

A couple of meetings that I've been at in that room at the end of the day have been really challenging. Well, I don't think it's fair to the public, frankly, either.

Well, no. And when you're up and sitting at the dais and the lights are on, too, that increases the temperature as well. So let me continue with an elections.

Just one other thing. Board clerks, if we can also get a sign or something to keep people from approaching the table before and after the meeting, that'd be great. Thank you.

Okay, so elections update. As Assistant County Administrator Marnie Kyle noted in an email to your board yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily stayed one of Massachusetts federal district court rulings that would have blocked planning and the beginning phase of rulemaking by federal agencies to implement Executive Order 14399, which was issued as of March 2026. This executive order concerns federal directives on voter eligibility checks and ballot tracking requirements. It directs counties to remove voters flagged by federal agencies as potentially ineligible. The executive order requires ballot by mail states, sorry, that didn't come out clearly, like Oregon to add unique tracking barcodes to ballot envelopes, which would require a graphic redesign and printing. Oregon is part of a multi-state challenge to this order. The second Massachusetts District Court ruling halting full implementation of the executive order remains in place and was not affected by the Supreme Court stay. So Oregon's vote by mail processes can continue. With yesterday's emergency ruling, the Supreme Court was drawing a distinction between federal efforts to plan for future actions on one hand versus directing or ordering vote by mail states to take actions on the other hand. These various threads of litigation are still ongoing, so more decisions are expected in the coming weeks. These developments have caused confusion among voters and added strain for election officials nationwide, including here in Washington County. implementing major changes of this scale with only three months before the November 3rd general election would significantly disrupt Oregon's vote by mail system. Washington County elections would be facing substantial new costs as essential materials like envelopes have already been purchased and timelines for the electoral process are set. In addition, there are statutory electoral deadlines that are already passed with more coming soon. Earlier today, the Oregon Secretary of State's office instructed all Oregon counties to adhere to all of Oregon's vote-by-mail rules and laws, including the usual practice of designing, printing, and sending ballot envelopes. We will continue to keep the board updated as this litigation unfolds in coordination with the Oregon Secretary of State and Attorney General. In the meantime, we continue to follow Oregon Secretary of State guidance for elections. and Marnie Kyle will continue to keep your board updated in email correspondence. I've also sent this information today to city managers and special district managers as they are getting questions. I wanna touch base on a significant mass casualty incident that happened over the weekend and take a moment to acknowledge this incident and the many staff that responded from the Sheriff's Office, District Attorney's Office, Medical Examiner's Office, and Animal Services Division that put in countless hours over the weekend in rural area Northwest Forest Grove. I am not touching on the countless other colleagues, including those from Washington County Organization and a long list of federal, Oregon, and Washington state and local agencies involved in this response. Our hearts go out to the surviving family members and friends of those who perished at the scene of this incident. Any loss of life can be traumatizing to those who respond to these incidents such as these and has been particularly tough for all that have been involved. In my conversations with Sheriff Massey, the how we approach our work here at Washington County from a one Washington County approach, and including our multi-jurisdictional partners is really what is heartwarming in this to bring safety and security to the community during this tragic incident. I reflect on that moment as I'm honored and appreciate the board's acknowledgement of my six year anniversary with the county as of yesterday. And it's important to just note that how we do our work here at Washington County as partners in service is what motivates me to do better each and every day. So thank you for your continued partnership and commitment to collaboration and service as we move forward. That concludes my update. Wonderful.

Thank you. And congratulations on six years. Can you believe it? In some ways, it's six more. Right.

It feels like this.

COVID added extra. Let's see. What else?

Tanya, I would say that when I saw an email from Mira, there was... I was like, okay, this is a one Washington County respond. Everybody is impacted. Everybody is dealing with it. So it really did demonstrate. And it's not just a sheriff thing that the whole Washington County, you know, government, local government was hence on.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, I really did. I'm going to give a little update to in my update about being at a toll briefing last night at 11 o'clock and heard from some of the patrol members.

Great.

Thank you, Chair Harrington, board. Touching on some of these themes of One Washington County and trends we're seeing over time, I just wanted to mention that you may be seeing, you may have noticed in our updates and our communication with you, increased talk about public records requests. Over time, it feels like we're getting more public records requests and more complex public records requests and in more circumstances that I will, you know, say are complicated or complex, which requires we take our duties under the public records law very seriously. And we do work in a one Washington County process in doing that very closely with the CAO's office. But as we're starting to see at the departments, every department we work closely with. But as we're starting to see more of these complex requests, we are trying to also, you know, identify trends and where where the big workloads and touch points occur so that we can start to understand how to deliver this service to the public more efficiently and effectively. So committing to working on starting to pull some more of that information together as we move forward. And other than that, nothing from me, Chair.

Are we charging appropriately for public records?

Yeah, it is a process. We do, as consistent with the law, we do a fee estimate. And if it's over $25, which most of them are these days, it seems, unless they're very simple, we give that request and it has to be accepted and we have to be paid before we go further.

Can I ask you a question, Courtney? Are you collaborating with the Clean Water Services legal department when it comes to public records?

The only extent we would do with that is if we get a request that is actually clean water, then we would say these are not records in Washington County's custody control and refer the requester to Clean Water Services.

They're just struggling with some of this. Oh, are they? Well, so...

Surprisingly, I've heard from constituents who have expressed positive interaction with Clean Water Services in terms of record requests in any of their projects. And that question actually came from a constituent that was posed to me. And I was like, oh, I don't know. I'll ask. But it might be advantageous to us to try to see what they do over there. and how they are a bit more receptive. Seems like that's the story I took away. That question was that. So just checking with Brad or if Brad is still there or any of the members.

I'll say that there are two different kinds of requests. Many of the requests that I'm aware of from our executive leadership at Clean Water Services, regarding Clean Water Services, public records requests have to do with projects and permitting and Clean Water Services rule, which is very different than general public records requests. So when Washington County gets questions about permits and processes, LUT handles those as Better, of course. And so that is entirely different than official public records requests that Courtney is talking about. I think the volume is very different.

I would refer the board to an email that I recently sent to you with an overview of Washington County records. In addition, coming attractions, watch for your next quarterly report because there will be a bit more focus on LUTs, public records requests, and diving a bit deeper into that volume and complexity of the records that we get just for that one department and how they are having to reallocate some of their staffing FTE to address the volume needs that they have coming in. So this is a significant issue for Washington County. And we need to be responsive to the records request at the same time.

Thank you. Okay, now over to board communication. Who would like to go first? I would. Okay. Thank you.

I have a statement I'd like to read, and then I have some updates that I'll give as well within my timeframe. Commissioner Fai has stated publicly her interest in forming a data center task force. I concur that we do need to have a robust, well-informed, and factual public conversation about the future of data centers in unincorporated Washington County. Whether we like it or not, data infrastructure, including access to broadband for everyone, is now a necessary part of almost everything we do. From our 911 systems and financial systems to how we stay in touch with friends and family, and frankly, our own constituents. This is not going to change anytime soon, but we also need to remember every time there is a leap in technology, we have to make adjustments and put safeguards in place to be sure that the interests of our residents, including financial interests, environmental, and other factors are not only represented, but get priority. I asked Chair Harrington to form a group that Commissioner Fai and I will co-lead. This collaborative approach will ensure that our next chair can continue this work past the upcoming November election. I look forward to working on this with Commissioner Fai, diverse community leaders, environmental and industrial experts, and more to make sure we find the right balance for unincorporated Washington County. So with that, I'd like to go on and give you my updates. You mentioned the event in the unfortunate event in Forest Grove. Last night, I attended a patrol and jail briefing with Command Deputy Chris Elias. I'm back to my regular program that I've done over the years. And it was brought up, they were discussing the situation. And one of the things that was pointed out was that there were staff from the Sheriff's Office that went out and there were pictures taken of them assisting the goats and feeding the goats the next day and the chickens. And so to your point about this is a community that we live in and support, it was refreshing to see. I will also tell you at the end of the patrol briefing, they asked for jokes. Deputy Lucero won the best jokes from my standpoint. And it was, what did the coffee say to the cop, I've been mugged. For a patrol briefing, somehow that seemed to be true. Friday evening, I made it out to Cornelius for their rescheduled National Night Out event. I was there with Commissioner Willing. It was at the new Mariposa Park, which is absolutely beautiful.

It was a great event.

Tomorrow, I'm excited to head over to Tualatin for the Lamb Research groundbreaking event. Thursday evening is my regularly scheduled August town hall. And on Friday, I look forward to the tour of the Elections Department with Congresswoman Bonamici. Apparently, Secretary Reid may be joining us as well. as well as all of us appreciate the Congresswoman's attention to the elections process and learning how hard our teams work to ensure election security and how we conduct our elections. Tonya, to your point, I think that she has made statements about her support of the elections process. LET'S SEE. I ALSO PARTICIPATED THIS MORNING IN A FOCUS GROUP WITH WORK SYSTEMS INC BOARD MEMBERS ON HOW WSI HAS BEEN WORKING AND WHAT OPPORTUNITIES THERE ARE FOR ECDEV WORK IN THE REGION AS WE TIE ECDEV AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT TOGETHER. YESTERDAY I ATTENDED THE FOREST GROVE AND CORNELIUS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATIONAL LUNCHEON. THAT WAS WELL DONE. And last Tuesday evening, I made it over to the Cornell Road Recovery Good Neighbor Agreement meeting. Truth be known, I was out there to attend the Lemonade with a Lieutenant event and only to find with MEDA, we had the wrong night. But as it turns out, I was there in time for the Cornell Road Recovery Good Neighbor Agreement meeting, and they were discussing the names of the facility and other things. And it was a very good meeting. So that's my report. Cool. Thank you. Who's next?

I could go. As I do typically every three to six months, I'm visiting the Tigard City Council in the next week and BOY, WE GOT SOME INTERESTING COMMUNICATION BEFOREHAND. THEY WANT TO TALK A LOT ABOUT SHS AND HOUSELESSNESS. WE'VE GOT A LIST OF VERY FOCUSED AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS. THE HOUSING TEAM IS HELPING BRYN AND I COORDINATE AND THE DIRECTOR ROGERS WILL BE PRESENTING WITH ME. I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE THAT TALK WITHOUT OUR STAFF LEADS THERE. I had a prep meeting about that. There's another prep meeting next week now getting organized. Tomorrow, I'm going to be at the Lamb Research Groundbreaking. Thursday, I have a lunch with Andy Smith, an urban services framework interview, and then my one-on-one with the county administrator. Friday is the HB 2017 Transit Advisory Committee meeting. And then I will be involved with filming my state of the county video at the sheriff's office in court on Friday in the afternoon. I think that's while you're at the, I think it might be while you're at the elections office. And then next Monday, I have a one-on-one with our Clean Water Services General Manager. I'm also meeting with the representatives from PCC that just want to talk to me about what kind of workforce programming they can offer for the county. I think we're already using them for things, so I'm just going to learn more. I connected with one of them and they wanted to talk, so I'm doing that. And then next Monday also is an ESPD levy steering committee meeting. That's what I have going on.

Great. Thank you. Who's next? I can go next, Chair. Just a quick update on some of my work over the past week. I had my regular check-in with our county auditor. I had a great humanity for a staff briefing on flavor ban, the tobacco flavor ban. And then I also had my regular one-on-one check-in with undersheriff Cook. I also met with a community member from Care Oregon who is interested in serving on the Community Action Board. Kim Shuey suggested we connect so I could share some background on community action and my experience with the organization so far, I always appreciate seeing community members interested in stepping forward to serve. In terms of the two policy issues took a significant amount of my attention this past week. First, vehicle registration fee. I continue to have concerns about increasing costs for residents at a time when affordability remains one of the biggest challenges. facing families in Washington County. Because I wanted to make sure I could fully participate in the public discussions while complying with Oregon ethics law, I submitted a written request to the Oregon Ethics Commission for guidance. Board Clerk, please publish that for the community to see. Specifically, I asked whether the class exemption discussed in its recent City of Beaverton advisory opinion applies to the commissioners considering ordinance 917, where an elected official is affected in the same manner as other members of the public. My goal is straightforward, transparency, full compliance with the law, and ensuring residents can hear from their elected representatives on an important financial decision. Second policy was data centers and AI computing facilities. I have been developing a request for the board to consider a temporary pause on new development within the county's legal jurisdiction and for us as the Clean Water Services Board to consider what is appropriate within CWS's authority. The purpose isn't to oppose technology or economic development. It is to give us time to establish clear guardrails around infrastructure, water, and energy demands, environmental impacts, farmland, and who ultimately pays for the cost associated with this growth. I appreciate, Chair Harrington, the email you sent letting us know that there might be a board bandwidth in September for that discussion. I'm happy to bring it back then so we can have a thoughtful conversation as a board For me, both of these issues come back to the same basic responsibility, making sure growth is responsible, government is accountable, and we aren't unnecessarily shifting additional costs onto Washington County residents. And Commissioner Teresa, I I will send an invitation to you to the Washington County workgroup, data center workgroups that I requested to create that. So I'll expect an invitation for that so there will be no duplications. Now, I want to pivot back to some good news from Community Action. Obviously, I'm the board member attending Community Action Board of Directors meeting monthly as your representative here. I received an update on their eviction prevention work. Get ready. Drum roll for good news. In July, they received approximately 4,200 calls from 455 unique callers and scheduled 45 appointments. In August, they received about 1,700 calls from 432 unique callers and scheduled 95 for appointments. I commend their work. What really stood out for me from that meeting and the report the executive director was given is that their phone line is currently open just one day each month and available appointments filled within minutes. So community actions. And then I have a larger request from community actions. I think many of you are aware the The Federal Administration is sort of overhauling government as we know it. And one of that program they're trying to change is also Head Start. There's a rulemaking in the next 60 days happening. And I think a lot of people are sending in letter of concerns, just like we did with the OMB rulemaking. So I will... the request was for the Board of Washington County Commissioners to consider sending a letter of support, or just to say, leave Head Start alone. Anyways, I summarize that in a short way, but I will send a letter to you all for us next week to consider and support. But basically, the Office of Head Start announces its intent to change the national performance standards governing much of that program. And Chair Herrington, I don't want to just, because I ran out of my time, I want to be respectful of your presiding officer role. So I'll stop unless you give me permission to continue for one more minute.

Well, first on your last thing with Head Start, such a request and letter response needs to go through review by our county council's office.

Okay. Courtney. May I connect you with Kim Shui to see what letter of support he would need or do you want him to develop? No. Okay.

How would you go about it, Chair? You have a staff assistant who can help you compose a letter for consideration that any letter that we consider as a board needs to also get reviewed by COUNTY COUNCIL AND OUR SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU FOR THAT GUIDANCE. BRYN AND I ARE BOTH NODDING. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. SORRY.

NEW SPEAKER OKAY. COMMISSIONER WHEELY.

NEW SPEAKER LAST TUESDAY I WENT TO MEET WITH THE GASTON CITY COUNCIL. THEY WERE CONSIDERING OPTING OUT OF THE CDBG CONSORTIUM. And I couldn't convince them not to do that. So they have issued a letter, a formal letter to Washington County opting out of the CDBG program, which means that their residents are no longer eligible for it. And yeah, I think that's unfortunate. Wednesday, I attended the Banks Trailhead portion of the Salmonberry Trail. So in the city of Banks at the trailhead of the Banks-Vernonia Trail and subsequently will be the very trail. There's a portion of property that that we need to vacate and turn over to the city of banks and then there's a portion surrounding that that they need to annex into their city so they can add all the dishes a lot of additional parking spots for cars and people facilitating those 2 trails. So that's the process that AUT is working on and working with OPRD and the Port of Tillamook Bay because they are the owners of the surrounding property. Thursday I had an executive, the Statenberry Trail Executive Council meeting. You heard all about all the many things that we are going through at this time and continue to deal with. The acting mayor of North Plains, all of you know, resigned on Friday. So North Plains had to have a special city council meeting on Thursday to interview two interim city manager candidates. And I don't know if they made a decision or not.

How many people remain on the council? I think they're down to two. Two people on the whole city council?

Yeah.

Well, Krista Ugarte and I'm not sure who the other one is.

And one of them is under recall.

Yeah, but still active. Yeah, still active. But I don't know by law if two can constitute a required state quorum, but that's not ours to decide. That's per their legal counsel to help advise them. But it's a really sad situation. It's very unfortunate.

Well, and COPAC helped North Plains get a million-dollar brownfield cleanup grant.

Mm-hmm.

that now there's some question as to whether or not they're going to be able to facilitate that. So COPAC is going to step in and has been also helping on that. And so I believe COPAC is going to step in and help make sure that North Plains actually can use that money on the property that was approved. Also, I attended the Forest Trust Lands meeting on Zoom with ODF, of course, and there was a lot of discussion. It was a two-hour meeting presentation regarding the forest management plan that continues to be a concern, obviously, for the Trustland counties, and so we continue to try and work out a solution with ODF. That's not going so well. I also had a meeting with CWS GM Rahim. Last week it was my first one meeting with him and it's always good to talk to him. Yesterday I attended the luncheon with Forest Grove and Cornelius on their legislative luncheon with Senator Janine Salmon and representing Susan McLean. They both talked about Susan talked about of course coming attractions and Janine talked about just where things that she was working on are currently. And then later, I went to Library Foundation of Hillsborough at the Brookwood Library. A person has donated a bronze sculpture of a young girl reading. It's been put on a rock right outside the front door, and it is beautiful. It's very cool. I've got a picture of the mayor and I on that, and it was very good. I'm going to be at LAM as well, a ROMAC meeting Thursday morning, and then I'm having an interview with GPI, the consultant for GPI for Tom Reinhart. They have appointed an interim president. Friday I will be working with COPAC,

the iq director on putting together a budget for the next year that's all i got impressive good so for me i'm looking forward to the lamb groundbreaking uh tomorrow i have a ANOTHER PERSONAL LONG WEEKEND, JUST AS I HAD LAST WEEKEND, BUT THIS TIME I'M TRAVELING OUT OF STATE. THANK YOU TO VICE CHAIR WILLIE FOR BEING AT THE READY FOR BOTH OF THOSE LONG WEEKENDS.

NEW SPEAKER YOU'RE SPEAKING IN FRONT, CORRECT?

NEW SPEAKER YES. NEW SPEAKER NEXT WEEK I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE DISTRICT ONE SPARK MEETING. MS. ANGIE AND I WILL BE JOINTLY AUTHORING A MEMO TO ALL OF THE SPARKS SO THAT THEY KNOW WHAT IS ON THE COUNTY PLATE AND POR. THEN THE ROUND TABLE FOR SEPTEMBER 10TH, THE AGENDA IS SLIGHTLY CHANGED. ONE OF THE TOPICS BOARD GOVERNANCE IS MOVING TO Hopefully, I said the September 10th roundtable is now moved to the October roundtable. I also had my one-on-one with CWS GM Rahim Harji and followed up with him yesterday since Commissioner Director Fai let us know that she's reneged on attending. WEFTEC, as you know, we'd previously had extensive conversation about that. And since she said she would be attending it, that took me out of the running. But now her reneging on that has not come soon enough. So I won't be attending that. I will not be.

Who's attending?

Just Jason and Rahim and staff. So at this juncture, that's all I have to contribute to board communication, but I would like us to use the remaining time to come back to data center discussion to allow Commissioner Snider, myself, and Commissioner Willey to discuss the ITEMS THAT ARE ON THE TABLE. I FIRST WANT TO MAKE SURE IT'S CLEAR TO THE PUBLIC, THERE IS NO SANCTIONED WASHINGTON COUNTY DATA CENTER WORK GROUP FROM WASHINGTON COUNTY NOR FROM THIS BOARD. COMMISSIONER FI HAS CONVENED HER OWN PERSONAL DATA CENTER WORK GROUP AND AS IS HER RIGHT AS AN INDIVIDUAL TO DO SO USING NO COUNTY RESOURCES. That's including our county meetings. I would like, since the two of you are proposing...

Since the county said, since you all didn't agree when I proposed that, I am convening it with Metro, specifically with this counselor for District 4.

So it's just a data center work group IN THE AREA OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, BUT IT'S IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH US AS A WASHINGTON COUNTY GOVERNMENT. SO SINCE WHAT YOU'RE PROPOSING, COMMISSIONER FYE IS PROPOSING A MORATORIUM IN THE LETTER, A PAUSE IN HER TEMPORARY PAUSE IN HER LANGUAGE, AND COMMISSIONER TREES IS OPPOSING A MOVING FORWARD WITH THE TWO OF THEM CONVENING A COUNTY BOARD EFFORT FOR A ROBUST AND WELL INFORMED DISCUSSION ON DATA CENTER INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE UUA'S. I AS ONE OF FIVE WANT TO SAY THAT THERE IS MUCH confusion in the public about our role as a county government and what we do. And as we've covered before, we only have land use authority in the urban unincorporated areas and the rural areas. Data centers don't make any sense for rural areas because they don't have any industrial and commercial land, right? So, but really what I'd like to suggest we do is come back to this topic at a work session next Tuesday to cover two particular things. One is to have our county council inform us about what such a moratorium might involve per Oregon requirements and Washington County code. with regard to any moratoriums because it makes no sense for us to be propagating the idea of a moratorium if we have no such authorities or we don't meet requirements to do any such things. We already know from our voter approved charter that we have no policing role in the city. So it's up to the cities to decide for their jurisdictions. Additionally, the second part is what questions might you have as commissioners so that we can draw up a potential set of questions that we might have. But I think the other thing that is pivotal, so this is a third but different thing, is if we are sponsoring any such effort, it would mean that there would need to be staff support either to us as a board or to whatever effort we might potentially wish to organize, which means something has to come off of the plate because with as much work as I do as chair, supporting our executives and staff, I know that our staff is maxed out just upon, just on our plan of record projects that we have as a work group endorsed. So I think we need to do and have an eyes wide open conversation about what if anything we consider or take off of the table towards any sort of effort because otherwise we are misleading our community and not operating under care aspect of our board governance. This is a very politically charged topic. And towards that end, I think the proposal that you've made, Commissioner Treece, in light of where we are, has some interest to me as ONE OF FIVE. BUT I THINK THERE'S FURTHER IMPACT THAT I WANT TO MAKE SURE WE HAVE THE BENEFIT OF BEFORE WE MOVE FORWARD WITH ANY POTENTIAL NEXT STEPS. SO COMMISSIONER WILLIE AND COMMISSIONER SNYDER, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

NEW SPEAKER I GUESS I NEED maybe some more information on process from Commissioner Fai about how, I mean, my understanding was there was going to be a work group that she was going to be convening that might then make a recommendation for a moratorium, but now we've, or whatever it was going to make a recommendation for, but it sounds like that group either, and I'm curious, has that group met?

Commissioner Fai? Not yet.

not yet okay so i'm i'm not maybe at some point you can explain the relationship between the group and then the request for the moratorium and i would just i thought the group had maybe met that's where this was coming from but i'd want to know you know who's participating what conclusion like okay so this is the recommendation what is that based on i'd also want to hear from our staff about from land use and transportation about how much, like if we're going to put resources to this, how much of the urban unincorporated area even could have a data center on it? I know we don't have any pending applications as we got answers, I think, before. So if we don't have any pending applications and we don't have a lot of ripe land for it, I would just question whether no disrespect to Commissioner Treece or to Commissioner Fye about whether that would be a good use of diverting resources to a staff effort around um there may be some benefit to just you know if it's not if it is something we're allowed to do to maybe just continue or use the timeline that the city of hillsborough is set up and and consider that i guess as a AS A WAY OF MOVING FORWARD IN THE SHORT TERM WITHOUT USING A BUNCH OF STAFF RESOURCES. THOSE ARE MY THOUGHTS. I DON'T KNOW. COMMISSIONER WHITLEY, YOU GOT OTHER? NEW SPEAKER SOME OF THE SAME QUESTIONS.

I THINK THERE'S A LOT OF MISINFORMATION THAT'S COMMUNICATED OUT THERE, ESPECIALLY IN A PARTICULAR MEDIA PERSON. I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE all the factual information communicated, and certainly so that everybody would be on the same page. Clean Water Services is working with their permit system on this. They have not come back with their recommendations, or if there are any recommendations.

There aren't. It's just in the FAQ.

Well, and also what I found out is that, you know, if you listen to the public meetings, they're dumping, they're using a lot of water and they're dumping it back into our system. And that's just not true. Every one of the data centers in Hillsborough are closed system. So, you know, they're not completely consuming water every day on those things. But anyway, that's just one of them. And so there's a lot of misinformation out there, and I would be encouraged on that. But I kind of was hoping that Hillsborough's moratorium would bring out this kind of information. And so since we really don't have a dog in that fight, we could sit back and let them take the lead on this. And you're right, not use staff to do what everybody else is doing. And the fact that we don't have any we don't, and to get this confirmed, we don't have any urban unincorporated land that would qualify for a data center.

So that's part of what Commissioner Snyder said we need to make sure we verify. And so I think that's a piece of information, Ms. Angie, that I'm hoping our staff can bring forward to us next Tuesday. Could you or Maida WORK TOGETHER TO BRING US ANY CLARITY THAT MAY EXIST ON WHAT THE CITY OF HILLSBORO PROCESS MIGHT BE. BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE WHAT YOU HAVE.

NEW SPEAKER Yeah, they have a moratorium, and it was 120-DAY MORATORIUM, AND I DON'T KNOW WHEN THE DATE OF THAT IS.

NEW SPEAKER COULD YOU GUYS SECURE THAT AND GET US ANY BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT WHAT THE CITY COUNCIL MAY BE GOING THROUGH, WHAT THEIR plan within that timeframe might be, that's all. Because I've not had, with all the other things I've been doing as chair, including business for next Tuesday, I've not had the bandwidth to follow the City of Hillsboro process.

All right. Then probably we should put together just a little bit of an understanding as to why we would or would not support moratorium. OR PUT TOGETHER A STUDY GROUP ON DATA CENTERS FROM THE COUNTY'S PERSPECTIVE.

NEW SPEAKER Well, I WAS JUST ASKING FOR SOMETHING ABOUT THE CITY OF HILLSBOROUGHS.

NEW SPEAKER I CAN FIND OUT SOME INFORMATION.

NEW SPEAKER THAT'S ALL I WAS ASKING FOR. NEW SPEAKER SO COMMISSIONER FAYE AND COMMISSIONER THERESE, THE THREE OF US HAVE NOW HAD THE OPPORTUNITY to share our thoughts. And so you've each had the benefit of hearing them. This is a proposal for us to just start a conversation and have a discussion next Tuesday about if we do anything, what might we need to do or have support for and what does having a moratorium involve for us at Washington County and to invest any further staff resources, what is on the plate and what for us to determine with Ms. Angie's involvement, what would need to come off in the ramifications of doing for us to discuss and be aware of doing such a thing. Understood. That would be separate from what any such moratorium would actually get into.

And I think I want to state that from my perspective here, we've all said or many of us have said that what's important is factual, sound information, whether it's about the Crane Center in Forest Grove, whether it's about the Hillsborough situation or what exists or does not exist under our purview. My concern is about creating anxiety in our residents over this issue and how we help others understand what the current state of affairs is what the future looks like. And that's important to me. That's why when I talked about forming this group, I talked about community leaders, industrial leaders, others that have, that stakeholders that can provide factual sound information, whether it's closed loop cooling and water use or whatever it might be.

So if you could, YOU READ A STATEMENT, I COULDN'T TAKE NOTES FAST ENOUGH, SO IF YOU COULD SHARE THAT IN WRITING WITH US FOR NEXT TUESDAY, THAT WOULD BE USEFUL. NEW SPEAKER Absolutely.

NEW SPEAKER Can I ask one more question?

NEW SPEAKER Sure.

NEW SPEAKER So, Nafisa, you said that it wasn't in conjunction or in partnership with Washington County, which we emphasized that you couldn't do that. Why is Metro one of your

METRO AND DISTRICT FOUR, IF I UNDERSTOOD CORRECTLY, IT'S JUST DISTRICT FOUR. SO IT'S NOT ALL OF WASHINGTON COUNCIL. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER SO I ASSUME THAT MEANS THE NEW METRO COUNCILOR FOR DISTRICT FOUR AND HIS STAFF PERSON? NEW SPEAKER I THINK SO. NEW SPEAKER PARDON ME? NEW SPEAKER I THINK SO. and you haven't had any meetings yet is what I've heard.

As a group, yeah. Okay. And I'm a thumbs up what you're for next Tuesday. I just want to say a temporary pause actually will give the opportunity to our community to provide her with greater certainty to understand the impacts. And I really do think that it would also give us an opportunity to establish clear, practical guardrails before any future development can move forward reasonably with that. There's a lot of talk about the cost and shifting the cost onto residents. So this is actually in the best interest of the residents of Washington County to sort of just give room for everyone to breathe about this topic. And then us insist on, personal affections aside, insist on our moral responsibility as a local government. But I say all that to say I'm thumbs up.

Commissioner Fai, I have to ask you one more question based on what you just said there. I want to clarify whether you are specifically like the discussion and the pause that you're talking about applies to the urban unincorporated areas, the areas that the county has direct planning responsibility for, or whether you are expecting some sort of a moratorium to apply to everything in the county, including the cities?

That would be practical, obviously. Cities do have a home rule, but I think the letter that I've asked Kevin to publish, which was the request for the moratorium, the second part of that is encouraging cities to follow through. So there's that encouragement because we can't tell other local government what to do and how to conduct.

I don't think we can either, but I wanted to know what your...

Thank you for checking. I appreciate that.

Chair Ford, if I may. So staff are here. You are the governing body and you set policy for the county. It is my responsibility as county administrator to share what it will take to resource such efforts you bring forward. In this case, it's various kind of components of a data center conversation. So that will be the lens that I will be coming to that conversation with is the resourcing to whatever your board decides. I want to underscore, as I look at the county and the organization, there is not capacity. So this conversation will result in what else do we pause, slow down, stop, given, given this. I'm not saying that to be a barrier to your discussion. It just is the reality of prioritizing with the resources that we have. So the clarity of scope will be incredibly important to me. And those will be the questions that I will be asking of your board.

So I'll just say that I don't think we're going to come to a firm resolution next Tuesday about any potential work plan, okay? Because I think that discussion needs to help inform first, do we want to have any such work plan to be developed or not? Because I'm hearing different things like certainty involving local jurisdictions, CBOs, so on and so forth, which then gets into something of the scale of the Washington County 50-year transportation effort that was before I was on the commission. It goes back to when I was a Metro counselor. Commissioner Treece was on that in her former life. I think you were involved with that as a mayor. And so I know I'm not even referring to the right committee. So, but it, takes a lot of time and a lot of resources, which means we might also be making a commitment for the future board, which I'm not yet comfortable in considering either. So I think we'll have a discussion and then decide if we want to go in any further next steps. And by then, I'm hoping we'll Given the risk involved, Ms. Angie, I think I'm going to need to ask you to work with the board clerks to see if we can have an updated rolling agenda, one that maybe isn't quite as fully-throated as we would have for the September 10th roundtable packet, but will give us something more more known beyond what we had from the August roundtable version. Great. Thank you very much. We do have a hard stop now at 5 p.m. for our half-hour dinner break. We'll reconvene at 5.30 for the CWS Board of Directors meeting, which I assume will be in this room. I THANK ALL OF STAFF IN ADVANCE FOR SETTING UP THIS ROOM FOR US TO HAVE OUR BOARD MEETINGS HERE TONIGHT STARTING AT 530 AND THEN 630 FOR WASHINGTON COUNTY. WE'RE HEREBY ADJOURNED. THANK YOU.