City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the September 14th, 2026 City Council meeting. Thank you all for joining us in this hybrid meeting format. Anyone wishing to access the meeting remotely can do so by watching the live stream available on our website, the broadcast on Comcast Channel 21, or by following the access instructions listed for this meeting on the city's public webcasts and meetings materials page. Tonight's meeting will include a public comment period, and if you wish to speak, please fill out a request to speak form on our public web passing materials webpage or at the entrance to this room. We will accept request forms until 7.35 p.m., and these forms will be used to generate the order of speakers and accurately enter speakers' names into the public record. The public comment period this evening will be limited to 90 minutes or conclude by just before 10pm, whichever occurs first. If the number of speakers exceeds the time that we have allotted, we encourage speakers to consider abbreviating their remarks so that the maximum number of speakers can be heard. And for those joining the meeting remotely, you are welcome to email your comments to City Council, and that is true of anyone who is speaking a public comment tonight. As a reminder, City Council's meeting's rules of conduct apply to all attendees both in the Council chambers and in the lobby, and include no flags, signs, loud or disruptive language, noise or conduct that obstructs the business of the Council. Please keep the room quiet and respectful for all speakers. The person who is giving public comment should be the only person speaking. And you are welcome to wave your hands in silent support. We encourage all those who are ill to join our meeting remotely rather than in person, and we also have masks available in the lobby if you need one. In case of a medical emergency, an automated external defibrillator, AED, is located on the corner behind staff at the west side of this room, and emergency exits are through the double doors located at the back of the room and the double doors located at the front of the room. The doors to the patio can also be used as needed. And with that, I now call the September 14th meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. Thank you. We begin this evening with a land acknowledgement. Since time immemorial, the Kalakuya people have been the indigenous stewards to our region, building dynamic communities, maintaining balance with wildlife, and enacting sustainable land practices. This land acknowledgement is a way of resisting the erasure of indigenous histories and to honor native communities by inviting truth and reconciliation. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapuya people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the Coast Reservation in western Oregon. As we consider the impacts of colonization, we also acknowledge the strength and resiliency of displaced indigenous people. The city of Eugene is built within the traditional homelands known as Kalapuya alihi. Kalapuya descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Selects Indians of Oregon. They continue to make contributions in our communities here and across the lands. We express our respect for the inherent political sovereignty of all federally recognized tribal nations and indigenous people who live in the state of Oregon and across the nation. Our first item on tonight's agenda is ceremonial matters. And I want to share with you that we have six proclamations that have been prepared for the month of September 2026. First, this month, we will celebrate the Eugene Opera and its 50th anniversary. The Eugene Opera was established in September of 1976, and it created the foundation for the artistic director Philip Bales and over 100 volunteer musicians, singers, stagehands, and opera fans to bring opera to our community. As one of the initial companies of the Holt Center for the Performing Arts, the Eugene Opera regularly features stars from great opera houses nationwide and internationally and has helped launch the careers of numerous national and international stars. So please join me in congratulating the Eugene Opera on its 50th year of service to the cultural life of Eugene and Lane County. Second, on September 4th, hundreds of people attended the kickoff of Fiesta Cultural at the Farmer's Market Pavilion on our first Friday Art Walk. Fiesta Cultural began in 2014 and is now Lane County's largest celebration of Latinx arts, culture, and heritage. Fiesta Cultural includes a wide variety of arts, exhibitions, theater, poetry reading, live music, and dance performances, as well as artisan marketplaces, workshops, and hands-on activities. bilingual guided tours and community celebrations including Dia de los Muertos for a total of over 40 events that are already underway across Lane County and will run from September through December. So please join me in celebrating and honoring and lifting up and participating in the extraordinary diverse cultural heritage of our vibrant Latinx community here in Lane County. Third and fourth, this past weekend also included the recognition of the 80th anniversary of the founding of Eugene's Barbershop Harmony Society. You may not have known that we have one, but indeed we have for 80 years. And this society supports both vocal music appreciation and music education in our schools through music scholarships. On a completely different note, next week, from September 20th to 26th, we will recognize Slug Queen Celebration Week. from September 20th to 26th. The Society for the Legitimization of the Ubiquitous Gastropod Slug recently crowned the 44th queen. Many of you might have been there when Mugsy W. Slugsy was coronated in the park blocks and slid into the footsteps of Queen Hilaria Gastronome and joins a storied lineage of old queens and very old queens serving our community. Queen Slugsy and many of those queens will be with us on the 26th of September as we celebrate the Bright Parade lighting up downtown at the conclusion of Slug Queen Celebration Week. Fifth, as we enjoy the abundance of the Willamette Valley food shed this late summer and fall, we also recognize Food Waste Prevention Week from September 28th through October 4th in partnership with Lane County Waste Management and the Waste Reduction Team. Nationwide, up to 35% of food is wasted despite being safe and nutritious and ready to be eaten and needed. And Food Waste Prevention Week is a nationwide effort to raise awareness about food waste and help us to not waste nearly so much of it. Finally, and this is an appropriate transition into our next agenda item, in September we are also celebrating National Recovery Month. As many as 63% of Americans say alcohol or substance abuse has impacted their lives, either personally or a loved one or a family member. and this past Saturday on September 12th I had the great honor of attending our recovery barbecue at Acorn Park for the second time as your mayor and I want to express my appreciation to Restored Connections Peer Center and all of the providers who are present at that barbecue and working to help people within our community feel the connection and have access to the resources they need to recover from substance abuse disorder. These six proclamations and all city proclamations are available on the City of Eugene's website. Thank you for allowing me to share some of them briefly, and that concludes our first agenda item this evening. Our second agenda item tonight is committee reports and other items of interest, and so I will now open the floor to council for committee reports and items of interest. Councillor Kuczynski.

Yes, thank you. One of the committees that I serve on as the council representative is the Eugene Sustainability Commission. The Sustainability Commission wrapped up its previous year's work plan right before we went on break. We'll be getting a report a little bit later on about all the activities and the great work that the Sustainability Commission did last year. But one thing I do want to highlight is that shortly before Either the day before or the day after our break started, we received a memo from the Sustainability Commission regarding policies to reduce embedded carbon in Eugene's buildings and infrastructure. I found this memo to be very helpful, very thoughtful, very well researched. I wanted to highlight it to the rest of you since it came in right as we were going on break and may have gotten lost in the shuffle. So, thank you.

Councillor Keating.

Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to start my council update and items of interest by thanking U.S. Senator Ron Wyden's office for organizing and inspiring and moving personal toward the U.S. Capitol. My wife and I were there on Friday, September 11th, the 25th anniversary of 9-11. There's a plaque at the Capitol that reads, In memory of the flight and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, whose brave sacrifice on September 11, 2001, not only saved countless lives, but may have saved the US Capitol from destruction. I want to thank the Association of Flight Attendees, CWA, AFA, and AFL-CIO for honoring the passengers and crew and remembering the heroes of Flight UA-175, Flight UA-193, excuse me, Flight 93, American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77. May we never forget. I was in the Baltimore area for an annual municipal summit. I attended engaging sessions and one mayor was on the topic of, wait for it, data centers, an emerging issue I suspect we will hear a great deal about tonight. Just to be completely transparent, for my part in participating in this particular breakout session on data centers, I played this. That's the sound that's being emitted by a 30 megawatt data center in a town around the size of Eugene in Michigan. That's recorded from a residence's front porch. I want to thank Councilor Eliza Kaczynski, Council Vice President, for submitting a work session poll on the topic of data centers, a work session poll I proudly voted for, and a topic that I, like a great many residents in this room, are keenly interested in. That concludes my report, Mayor.

Councilor Gropes.

Thank you, Mayor. I would be remiss if I didn't make a couple of comments about September 11th this year. This was our 25th anniversary. This is a very important day, I think, for us to remember here in this country. The day that it occurred, we lost several thousand lives. 443 of those were New York City firefighters who met the call and responded to their last alarm. This last week, on September 11th, our local firefighters held the annual stair climb at Autzen Stadium, where they climbed the equivalent of 110 stories. They do that every year to remember when I was younger. I used to do that as well as a firefighter It's important that we remember it's important that we respect the lives that were lost and Feel for the families that lost loved ones So I just want to share that little piece it certainly is something I live with each year and think about. I was deputy chief of operations for our fire department when that event occurred. We had no idea what was going on. We just went to immediate lockdown of all facilities. All we knew is we were under attack. We didn't know how far it was going to reach or how wide. I remember police showed up and kind of cordoned off the 911 center because the best way to get out of community is their communications. And we wanted to make sure that that was set. So your local firefighters here, your local police officers, all were taking action on that day and for the next weeks to come until we knew the situation was stabilized. But our first priority, of course, was always to protect this community. So with that said, I'll leave that where it is. I know we're all concerned about the data centers We are trying to respond to this. The request for information that came in to the city occurred right as we were leaving on council break. So this is actually our first council meeting since mid-July. We had a work session last Wednesday, but this is our first council meeting. We are going to take this on. I know that the placing question, and there was never really a proposal. It was just questions asked what's allowed in E1. And a data center was mentioned along with about a half a dozen other uses. So it's something I take very seriously. That's in my ward, the Willow Creek, 1830 Willow Creek Road, which is the old high neck, shuttered high necks facility. I don't know anyone up here that's comfortable with a data center. I don't want to speak for my colleagues, but I think we all have grave concerns, and we are going to address this. But there's a process to do that, and that's in our agenda now. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you all for being here. And again, we share your concerns.

Any other items of interest from council? I know that it has been a very busy break. And also we have a very full fall ahead of us. I want to offer just a few clarifying points and following up on what Councillor Groves just shared. One is that when mentioning that we are going to address this, I believe the council is referring to the work session that we now have scheduled in the month of December. And also I think there could be an opportunity depending on where we end this evening with public comment to share a little bit more information. I want to add my appreciation for the clarity of the communications from our city regarding the determination of the data center use as being not allowed at the Hynix facility site, which was the question that we were asked, and also share with you all that as we are gathering more information and preparing for a full work session on this topic, it is not to say that we are stuck in limbo until that point in time, given the clarity that has already been put forward by that determination that that use is not allowed and the answer to that zone verification. So more to come on that front. Very quickly, a few other things that we would be remiss not to say because we have somewhere in many tens of thousands of families and kids who return to school. this past week, so my appreciation and my thanks to all of our kids and families and teachers and staff in Bethel School District, in Eugene School District 4J, our Lane ESD partners, everyone who's working towards education for our children, and a lot of appreciation to our City Recreation Library and Cultural Services team for an extraordinary summer of programming that also supports great educational outcomes and people being prepared to come back to school. Thank you Councillor Groves for offering those thoughts and Councillor Keating about the 9-11 and 25th anniversary. There were a lot of reasons that that was I think a very heavy and poignant day in our community. There's a lot going on right now that I think leaves people feeling as though they are under extreme pressure and the type of grief and the reliving of that tragedy on that day and then all of the considerations of what have sprung since, all of the loss, all of the other aspects that make that such a difficult moment to remember in our community. My daughters were asking me about it because of course they are too young, they don't remember that experience, but I do. I was living in San Francisco at the time, And as Councillor Groves alluded to, cities across the country had no idea with major airports what was happening at that moment. And it was an extraordinarily terrifying and heartbreaking experience on the ground in New York and in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, but it was scary in cities across our country. And it is important to think about what we do when we feel afraid and how we decide to walk into the future with courage and with compassion. And remembering that anniversary and the lives lost and the people who have felt such loss in that time is an important part of that. Many other events and things to appreciate in our community, but I will leave it to you all to also think about how you can do that as our neighbors and community members. And with that, we'll end our second agenda item and move on to our third. The third agenda item on tonight's agenda is consent calendar one, interim appointment to the Human Rights Commission, approval of city council minutes, and approval of the city council tentative agenda. If there are no questions from council, then I will turn to the council president to put a motion forward. Move to approve items on consent calendar one. Second. Any discussion from council? Seeing none, I will now take a vote for this motion. Please lock in your votes on the tablets in front of you. And the motion passes with a vote of seven to zero. Thank you, Councillors, and thank you to our new volunteer commissioners on the Human Rights Commission. Thank you. That concludes our third agenda item this evening. And now we are moving to our last agenda item of tonight's meeting, which is the public comment period. Public comment period is an opportunity for individuals to speak to the city council on any city-related issues except for those items which have already been heard by a hearings official. Speakers should direct their comments to the City Council and the Mayor and not to the audience. And as I mentioned earlier, the person who is at the podium should be the person whose comment that we are able to hear and they should be the only person speaking. Staff, could you please share a list and the number of speakers that we have signed up by 7.35? Thank you, Mayor. We have 72 speakers signed up. 72 speakers. Thank you, staff. As a reminder to all here tonight, public comment period will be limited to 90 minutes or conclude by 10 p.m. or just before whichever occurs first. We encourage speakers to consider abbreviating remarks to allow the maximum number of speakers to be heard. And with that, I will also add that as I'm mentioning, concluding just before 10, that is because I want to leave open the option for our council to respond to public comment and also for us to ask any clarifying questions that may be needed in preparation for that December work session of our city manager or of our city attorney. Staff, will you please announce the first speakers?

Yes. I will announce two speakers' names at a time. When you are called to speak, please state your name and your ward or neighborhood, if known, before beginning your comments. When you are announced as the next speaker, please move to the seat in the front row designated for the next speaker. When it is your turn, you may come to the podium. Please leave any bags you may have with you at your seat. If you have documents to give counsel, please place them in the basket near the podium. You will have two and a half minutes to speak. The timer will flash red when you have 15 seconds remaining to speak. Your microphone will be muted at the two and a half minute mark. And please note that use of profanity is not permitted. Our first speakers tonight are Ralph McDonald followed by Jensina Hawkins.

Good evening, councilors, mayor, city manager, Ralph McDonald, resident of former long-serving councilor Betty Taylor, and currently Matt Keating's ward two. I'm here tonight as co-chair representing the Southwest Hills Neighborhood Association, 3,400 households representing some 5,000 neighborhoods. City of Eugene residents. On July 21st, 2026, Sheena adopted a resolution unanimously on the restriction of data centers in Eugene. I'm going to leave the full text of that resolution here for distribution and just make a couple of comments from it. From the resolution, whereas Sheena finds need for targeted utility rate structures to prevent cost shifts to residential customers, and whereas communities note negative environmental impacts of data centers regarding water, air, noise, ambient EF pollution, and climate detriment, Therefore, Sheena resolves that the city allow no hyperscale data center that counters City Council adopted CAP 2.0 climate ordinance. And also that the city should require review of environmental impact of any large data center project passed and adopted by the Sheena Board July 21st, 2026 unanimously. We applaud the city decision restricting permitting at the former Hynix facility. but not relying on if and when there's a statewide moratorium enacted. We would ask folks here to raise their hands to support a moratorium, a robust local moratorium on hyperscale data centers. So those present here, if you support that, please raise your hand for the council.

Thank you.

Thank you, council.

Thank you, Ralph. Our next speakers are Jensina Hawkins, followed by Thea Abatoy.

I don't know you.

Good evening, Council and City Manager Hariyama. This note was drafted and voted on by our board prior to the city denying the zoning application for the data center at the Hynex location. However, I'm Jensina Hawkins and I am the chair of Churchill Area Neighbors, which is where the Hynex location is cited. Churchill Area Neighbors appreciates our productive working relationship with our Ward 8 counselor, Randy Groves. CAN is closely monitoring the recent application for a possible data center land usage at 1830 Willow Creek Circle that lies within our neighborhood association boundaries. We have heard concerns expressed by many people in this neighborhood regarding the potential negative impacts of a data center. Concerns include excessive energy and water usage, impacts to e-web rates, as well as potential health concerns that arise from living near a data center. Churchill Area Neighbors expects complete transparency from the City of Eugene regarding the application process, applicant, and any subsequent actions. And I'll give kudos to my next-door neighborhood association, Sheena, for being way more prepared than we were.

Thank you, Jensina. Our next speakers are Thea Abatoy, followed by Danny Espinoza.

Thea Abatoy, Ward 7. I'm here to address the foolish notion of regulating these companies that we're talking about with data centers. There is no regulating a mega corporation like Amazon or the others that are building these hyperscale data centers. They do what they want, buy off politicians to create the rules that work for them, and break the rules that don't, because they know that they can take the consequences. But hey, if you don't believe me, let's take a look at some examples. In Texas, fewer than 30% of data center facilities responded to a state-mandated inquiry into water usage, and less than half responded to inquiries about power usage, which could result in them facing criminal investigations. Musk's XAI facility in South Haven, Mississippi, has continued to fuel its data centers with 27 unpermitted gas generators, despite a recent EPA ruling reiterating that doing so requires a state permit in advance. The Microsoft Data One facility in New Jersey, the largest in the state, was caught running dozens of unpermitted gas generators and doing unpermitted construction. They're also in a lawsuit for violating noise ordinances for nighttime sound levels. Many data centers like the one in New Jersey seek to build their own power plants, a move they try to pass off as helpful to communities who are already suffering under the weight of climate collapse and do not need or want more fossil fuel facilities. The regulations they would have to pass mean that they, for E-Web, for the city and for the state, mean nothing if they don't care about the consequences and if the fees are just the cost of doing business. We know these companies will disregard regulations placed on them to attempt to keep them in check because they've done it consistently in the past and because the punishments they face are little more than a slap on the wrist. They can pay the fee and continue profiting while the damage has been done to our city, our environment, our health. Do not gamble our lives on the words of known liars. Thanks.

Thank you, Thea. Our next speakers are Danny Espinoza followed by Andrew Simran.

Hello, I'm Danny Espinosa. I live in West Eugene. I'm here to talk about AI denisators being built in Oregon. As far as the things that we have control over, our local government is the thing that we have the most impact on. So to prevent from being redundant, I'm just going to keep it short with the AI is an insult to my generation, to our future, to our freedoms. No one wants one. No one asked for one. I didn't ask for one, but we're going to have to live with it. Don't forget about the anthropic employee who said that AI could destroy our world in the next decade. Thank you. Good night.

Thank you, Dani. Our next speakers are Andrew Simrin, followed by Darwin Denny.

Good evening. My name is Andrew Surman. I'm a resident in the River Road neighborhood, Board 7. I'm here to speak to you today to support a memorandum on data centers and their development in Eugene. I'm also concerned about the use of nondisclosure agreements in many of these dealings with other communities that happen with data centers. Public business should be conducted in public, and I believe we should also be looking at non-disclosure agreements specifically, not just for data centers, but for other industries and other land use types and other significant decisions. We know that the data centers are not compatible with E1 zoning and To further protect the community, we do need a memorandum on data centers. They could consume a lot of electricity. I've been working in the IT industry for a couple of decades now, and I've worked at small-scale data centers for managed service providers where many businesses rent space in a data center and get the cooling and the electricity and and the monitoring and things like that. And I can tell you that they use an immense amount of electricity. And I have a lot of concerns for the community. And as a rate payer and member of a rural water district, the River Road Water District, we purchase our water through E-Web. So I'm very much concerned. and hope that we can work towards a memorandum and banning of non-disclosure agreements. Thank you.

Thank you, Andrew. Our next speakers are Darwin Denny, followed by Nate Rhodes.

Good evening. I do not believe that 90 minutes does a service to this community.

There are obviously more people who would like to speak than will fit into 90 minutes.

But I will say that the Willow Creek should be a major wake-up call for all of us in Eugene. We need the City Council on record with definitive yeses or no votes on their position towards data centers. I can confidently say that there is no community trust that an important decision like this will be a fair and democratic process where Eugene residents will have any say over multi-billion dollar corporations who want to expand into our communities and use our resources. I demand that no city council member or elected official be allowed to sign any NDAs Not being able to discuss the terms of an agreement with the public should be disqualifying for anyone in public office. I asked the city of Eugene to block any and all future data center projects on public or private land, and I asked the city to put pressure on the county and utility suppliers to do the same. Just to speak to the energy usage of data centers in this state alone, Currently in Oregon, it is estimated the completed data centers have a capacity of 5,400 megawatts, along with currently under construction data center projects, bringing that total up to 7,800 megawatts. Now those numbers may sound abstract, but that capacity is the same as 4,600,000 Oregon homes. There are less than 2 million homes in Oregon. I'll say that again, more than twice the energy usage of every residential home in Oregon is going to feed data centers already. Enough is enough.

Thank you, Darwin. Our next speakers are Nate Rhodes, followed by Michael Crater.

And I'll just remind our audience, silent support. We can see that, and it is very clear to us. Thank you.

Good evening, Council. Thank you for your time this evening. I'm here like many to tell you I don't want an AI or hypersonic data center in Eugene. You shouldn't want an AI or hypersonic data center either. My clerk, I know that your name is going to be on the ballot soon. it would be in your best interest to be tough on data center regulations. We're completely against large scale data centers because according to NPR, there are only two things Republicans and Democrats both agree on. One, Dolly Parton was a saint. And two, according to NPR, the majority of Republicans and Democratic voters oppose data centers in their communities. I know to an extent that you want Eugene to thrive and to grow, but this won't do it. It won't provide new jobs to anyone, and it'll be costly to the taxpayer. According to a Brookings study, and I quote, data centers are among the least labor-intensive structures in this economy. For instance, large data center projects often promise only a dozen permanent workers, while the associated construction jobs are temporary and the tax incentives are costly. In Virginia alone, the data center sales tax exemption costs an estimated $1.6 billion in the fiscal year of 2025. Large data centers do not provide enough jobs to warrant the sacrifice of our tax money, our environment, and frankly, counselors, your jobs. Look, I'm just a tired office grunt, and you guys are just tired civil servants. Weirdly, you're more important than me, but yet somehow I'm your boss. I pay you to do your job, and sometimes I have to pay to park in order to talk to you. As one of your many bosses, I am telling you, just say no to large-scale data centers. There will be less work in it for you, and I won't have to come back here. Thank you for your time, and again, no large-scale data centers in Eugene, and Mike Clark, we'll see you in the ballots.

Thank you, Nate. Our next speakers are Michael Crater, followed by Flora Booker. Is there a Michael Crater in the room? All right, I will call for Michael one more time, but our next speaker will be Flora Booker. No Flora Booker. Mary Calhoun. Oh, we got one. Are you Flora? Yes. Fantastic.

Hi there. Thank you for providing this space for public comment, and thank you all for showing up. My name is Flora Booker, a recent UO graduate working in ecology and wildfire resilience. I'm here to encourage the city to establish a moratorium on hyperscale or AI data centers, which pose extreme risk to the health of our communities. Data centers notoriously contribute to expensive energy costs, climate change, and air pollution. One of my biggest concerns as a biologist is the effect of data centers on the basis of all life. Water. As we are all aware, data centers pull excessive amounts of water to cool their servers. Most of the water used for this purpose is clean drinking water that's pulled directly from the surrounding watershed. One data center typically uses around 110 million gallons of water per year, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. According to E-Web's public access data, that's equivalent to what over 1,000 Eugene single-family households use in a year for basic necessities. The data centers don't just use excessive amounts of fresh water. They also contaminate the watersheds essential for our survival. Though data centers have only been around for a few decades, they have already been found to be linked to nitrate pollutants and PFAs, as well as increased water temperatures within the waterways that everything from salmon to humans to all other life within our ecosystems rely on. The science is very clear. Data centers pollute waterways and endanger community health. Please join us in protecting the well-being of future generations by rejecting the development of hyperscale or AI data centers in Eugene and everywhere.

Thank you. Thank you, Flora. One last call for Michael. I'm going to see if Michael Carter, perhaps we had a typo. Okay. Our next speakers are Mary Calhoun followed by Jim Nen.

Hello, my name is Mary Calhoun. I've never done one of these things, so bear with me. I'm from the Bethel area. I just wanted to add my voice in abject opposition to AI data centers, as many of the more well-prepared voices you'll hear tonight can give you many, many reasons as to why. I did just want to acknowledge my community and say that we are all very passionate about this and very vigilant about this, and any sort of underhandedness will not be tolerated. We are very observant, we are very attentive, and we will fight back on this with every possible thing we can possibly do. Thank you for your time and thank you to my community.

Thank you, Mary. Our next speakers are Jim New followed by John Bridges.

Thank you for catching that. My name is Jim New, Ward 7, Mayor, Council, City Manager, and Staff. Aside from the obvious concerns with data centers, such as energy and water sourcing and air pollution from diesel generator systems, several other aspects must be considered in making decisions on the technology's future here in Eugene. The most recently discussed and primary concern is recursive self-improvement, which is where AI itself improves the process of building new models without human control, leading to the threat of human extinction. The creator of Anthropic and other innovators in the business just announced this threat. Along that line is an unsustainable process where requested AI data stored generates the need for requiring more data and storage that grows with every demand. The growth of memory requires hardware that uses seven scope, one fluorinated gases in their cleaning process that emit high global warming emissions. The more data required, the more greenhouse gases emitted. A data center can use copious amounts of water for cooling, stressing municipal water supplies, but also creating massive amounts of wastewater that the Eugene Waste Management District facility may not be able to treat readily. Data center wastewater discharge impacts are from heat loading, increased volume, and effluents, potentially adding further treatment processes at the municipal level. at the municipal plant requiring more infrastructure and costs. Another concern is the Hynex plant site itself. It was a semiconductor dynamic random access memory chip manufacturing plant from 1997 through 2008. which use massive amounts of fossil fuels, toxic gases, acids, and PFAS contaminants in the manufacturing process, making the facility as possible Superfund site. Any new tenant of this facility would have to address and mitigate any environmental pollution found at the Hynex plant. I urge the Mayor and Council to weigh these concerns when formulating a future decision on allowing data centers of any type in the city of Eugene. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Jim. Our next speakers are John Bridges followed by Nasheen Scott. I will call for John Bridges one last time. Our next speaker is Nasheen Scott. Are you John? Fantastic.

Great place to stand? All right, thank you. I'm woefully unprepared for this, but here I am to speak to you. Thank you for your time. This AI bubble has already popped. Google has had their first earnings report turn up negative. The AI visionaries of our time are already calling for a pause in its development. The thesis of what I'm trying to express to all of you is that this is not for us. Yet the hyperscaling continues. While data centers continue and While data centers have been a necessary infrastructure for our modern internet, what we are looking at now is very different. AGI is purported to require unfathomable amounts of data to become smarter. The world is running out of data to make these smarter models. However, to feed all of these data centers with all of the data that we cannot, we keep shoveling into this thing, it is a big business continues to take the data that they already have monetized. We are all familiar with surge pricing and the, sorry, I will try to keep on point. Like I said, woefully unprepared. To cut to the chase, this data that is being collected in pretty much all of our waking moments, either through our phones or through flock cameras that we all like so much, these are being used to, this information, they've already got their golden goose. It is in surveillance. They already, excuse me, I am just speaking all over myself at this point. Looking at that time. We have many other infrastructure projects that we should be spending our money on. This infrastructure is not for us. It is to maintain a panopticon ultimately. That is where this is going. There is not going to be better jobs. There is not going to be some god in the jar that's going to solve all of our problems. It is just going to extend a walled garden that they're creating for themselves, and it's not for us, and it's not for you either, because eventually they will close the gate.

Thank you, John. One reminder to the crowd, anyone who signed up to speak, if you're called as the next person, there's a seat in the front row designated for you. It just helps keep the flow really smooth. Our next speakers are Nasheen Scott, followed by Lisa Levison.

My government name is Nashay Scott, and I go by Soleil. I didn't come here to share more facts. There's plenty of people who can share that with you. I came here as a steward of the land, as an Afro-indigenous person, and as someone who represents many stewards of the land across this community. I'm not from Eugene County. I came here from Bonita County. But this land has helped me for four years since I came here from California. I am here to advocate for the land. I am here to advocate for the natural world. I am here to advocate for the waters. Water is life. Water is sacred. First and foremost, it should be treated as living intelligence that is more important than any one of us because we are one molecule of what she is. So I'm here to say that it is all of our duty to protect her. It doesn't matter if you're spiritual. It doesn't matter if you're Republican. It doesn't matter if you're Democrat. It matters that you are a person and a living being, and we can't survive without her. We should all treat this land as our home. and us all as nature. We are all nature. We are not separate from her. And we have a duty as speakers, as two-legged people, to advocate for those who cannot speak. for all of the animal and the wildlife that is already suffering because of us. I'm here as a grief tender, as someone who is consistently picking up the animals on the side of the road who have been hit. I'm the one who watches it happen and nobody stops. I'm here to bury them and to speak for them. Water is life. Thank you for hearing us all. Thank you for every person that has shown up. Thank you for every person who is working that was not able to come today but wanted to. Thank you.

Thank you, Soleil. Our next speakers are Lisa Levson followed by Robin Bloomgarden.

Good evening, Mayor, Councillors, City Manager. I am the Board President of Neighbors Feeding Neighbors, and not that I'm in favor of the whole data center thing either, but I'm going to switch the topic and talk about serving the food insecure and hungry people in our community. We've been serving in Washington Jefferson Park as Eugene Catholic Workers and Neighbors Feeding Neighbors for 24 years. The numbers of homelessness and food insecure people in our community continues to grow with few resources available. We serve Wednesday through Saturday, breakfast, take away to lunch, full beverage menu. We host a free medical clinic every Saturday and we serve on every day that the Food for Lane County dining room is closed because there is no other food downtown for our hungry people. In the last three years, In 2024, we served 38,764 meals. In 2025, we served 52,489 meals. We are projected to serve 70,000 meals, all of the food and supplies that we cannot access. We continue to have, we have a First Amendment right to serve. under freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We are a faith-based group. We continue to have EPD in the park giving people tickets for smoking cigarettes. One woman got a ticket for littering because she picked up pebbles and made a shrine under the tree where her friend had died. I think that we need to have a conversation about community policing and about the appropriateness of that. We have people who are afraid to come for meals because they don't want to be arrested. So I would like to have a continued conversation about how we can take care of our most fragile citizens and keep our city safe at the same time because I know sometimes the police are doing us a solid and taking care of things that we need help with. Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa. Our next speakers are Robin Bloomgarden, followed by Bella Dee.

Oh, I can't even see. Okay. Eugene City Council. My name is Robin Bloomgarden. I'm in Ward 8. You all may have dodged a bullet this week regarding rulings against the Hynix plant, but hyperscale data centers will keep coming. You need to be ready. The rapid expansion of these large load facilities will necessitate significant public investment in grid infrastructure, electric substation upgrades, and water treatment capacity. E-Web may or may not be able to accommodate the expanded levels of water, electricity, and wastewater processing by any large data centers coming on board. especially as drought and climate change continue to stress Oregon despite what E-Web has to say about their capacities. There will be legal ramifications if the city and E-Web cannot provide the levels of infrastructure guaranteed long-term in data center contracts. In that case, who will be liable? Will this be one more local government legal morass to deal with? First, I suggest that the city never works with any company demanding an NDA in order to do business. It's very undemocratic. Second, Eugene should enact a permanent ban or a three-year moratorium against data centers coming into our city. And third, the City of Eugene must create rules now that will help to clearly delineate what we expect from any large new energy intensive uses in the E1 and other mixed use and industrial zoning before you make any huge unprepared mistakes. Do it now, not later. Thank you.

Thank you, Robin. Our next speakers are Bella Dee followed by Sarah Roby.

Hi, my name is Bella Donna Diocegi. I'm in Ward 1. I also want to see EPD out of Washington Jefferson when neighbors feeding neighbors are feeding our neighbors. However, what I came to talk about was the data centers. There is a persistent narrative that data centers are necessary, that they're inevitable, that, of course, we need somewhere to store our cloud data. We need a generated AI response to every single search on Google. But we don't need any of that. We need clean water, unpolluted air, and soil. We need to stop laying concrete over our wetlands. City Council claims to equally prioritize economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental health. If that were true, why did you let Amazon build over our wetlands? I'm really tired of people thinking they can engineer the world. You can't say you care about community or environmental health while also pushing through industrial development. There was a land acknowledgement at the beginning of this meeting, so you recognize that this is stolen land. Are you going to back that up with any serious plans towards land back, or are you going to keep auctioning off land to the highest bidder? Thank you.

Thank you, Bella. Our next speakers are Sarah Robey, followed by Sandra Bishop.

Hello, Council. My name is Sarah Roby, Ward 4, and I have been a resident of Eugene for 19 years. I'm also standing in front of you as a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I am here to urge the City Council to pass a moratorium on any and all data centers in Eugene. Eugene residents have spoken out over and over, voicing their concerns about the possibility of a data center in our backyards. I have not met a single Eugene resident in favor of building a data center in our town. The concerns with growing AI usage are too many to note in a short address, but one of my top concerns is privacy, especially in regards to mass surveillance. Many concerns with AI come from how much personal information it can collect, analyze, and ultimately use against us. The data AI collects often happens without our knowledge or consent. This creates risks like data breaches, hacking, surveillance, and the misuse of personal information. AI makes existing privacy problems bigger, and current laws are not prepared to keep up with the new challenges. One example is Clearview AI, who collected billions of facial images from public websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram without user consent. Then they built a facial recognition database that was sold to law enforcement. Collecting biometric data requires explicit consent, and that was not obtained. Also, the Federal Trade Commission found that Amazon had retained children's voice recordings through Alexa even after parents requested deletion. Amazon also allegedly used children's location data in ways that violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. And these are not even the most horrifying examples, but I would rather not discuss what AI is doing in regards to CSAM. Eugene should have absolutely no part in this. And although stopping a data center from being built at the Hynex plant is a small win, We cannot stop at blocking a single data center. The city of Eugene has the power to stop any more data centers from being built and operating in our city. So again, I am urging the city council to pass a moratorium on any and all data centers in Eugene. Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah. Our next speakers are Sandra Bishop, followed by Hava Cronin.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, and our new City Manager. My name is Sandra Bishop. I'm a former E-Web Commissioner. I'm from way back. I reside in Ward 2. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here to ask that the City Council institute a moratorium on data centers within the UGB of Eugene. There's very practical reasons for this. There's already more than 130 data centers in the state and I think over 3,000 in the country. There's a gold rush type mentality that municipalities are having a hard time keeping up with. What's not being talked about is that there's not enough electricity to power these data centers. There's not enough electricity to electrify the things that we want to electrify for some of the environmental reasons. Eugene's very attractive. We've got relatively cheap power and abundant water as long as it lasts. So if I have time, I'll give you another example of not only do you have enough power, even if unlimited number of renewable projects were built, you can't get them to where the power is needed because it's so expensive and takes decades to expand the transmission lines. So the potential and actual environmental harm and the skyrocketing real-world cost of providing power to data centers is absurd. All of these costs are going to be passed through to your local utilities who are going to pass them through to us the customers. So one quick example, there's a transmission line being proposed coming out of the Wanapum Dam. It's a 31-mile extension. The cost is $86 million, and they've been talking about it since 2007. So please put a moratorium on data centers. Thank you.

Thank you, Sandra. Our next speakers are Hava Cronin, followed by Alejandro Garcia-Iboa.

Hello, my name is Chava Cronin and I live in Ward 7. Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts which concern a perceived lack of transparency by city leadership. First, I am incredibly upset by the lack of a robust public comment period before the Amazon warehouse deal went through. One sign in the middle of a field indicating an opportunity for public comment, a process which otherwise was surrounded by secrecy, is disingenuous. Why weren't postcards sent out to residents within a two mile radius of the proposed location? The public wasn't given a heads up and once we were, it was too late. Who from the city negotiated this deal? Jeff Bezos is an oligarch, a multi-billionaire. Did we demand that as part of the cost of taking fertile farmland that this oligarch also build us a few schools, homeless shelters, fully fund our library? In this time of budget cuts to precious public resources, what are we getting out of the deal? with one of the richest men in the world besides very few jobs, air pollution and traffic headaches. Secondly, I am still waiting for a response from city staff regarding a policy regarding non-disclosure agreements which I requested on July 31st. I wrote an email to city council, the mayor and city manager. As of September 1, I have not received a definitive answer. I expected to get a loud resounding, no, staff will not sign NDAs because that is essentially lying to our constituents and taxpayers. Councilor Leach did reply to me on 9-1 with this, city councilors don't interact with NDAs and we aren't informed when there might be one unless there is some interaction slash decision on the part of the council. Well, if that's the case, how is the public notified? Lindsay Seltzer, communications and engagement manager for the city, emailed me on 9-1 after I resent my inquiry. She wrote, thanks for your questions. I am looking into this for you. So question for the city attorney. I have been waiting for one and a half months for an answer. Did Ms. Seltzer reach out to you? Is there a clearly defined NDA policy available to the public?

And if not, why not?

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Hava. Our next speakers are Alejandro Garcia-Iboa, followed by Jacob True.

Mayor Knudson, Eugene City Council, and City Manager Haruyama, thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Alejandro Garcia-Iboa, and I live in Ward 8. I lived in Eugene my whole life, and as embarrassing as it is to say, I can count on my hand the number of times I've come to listen to a city council meeting, let alone testify. For a long time, I thought my voice didn't matter. That would be drowned out in a sea of testimonies from experts with more technical knowledge than me. I couldn't have been more wrong. My voice matters. The people who came here today, thank you so much for being here because your voice matters too. On September 8th, the Eugene City Planning Department announced that data centers do not meet the requirements for E1 zoning. This is one win in a much larger battle against AI hyperscaling data centers. They pose a threat to the environment that we know and love. AI hyperscaling data centers and their high demands on the grid could leave us at the mercy of rolling blackouts in the near future. The noise pollution that they create is shown to increase headaches, vertigo, nausea, and much more. They also come with a whole host of air and water pollution issues that we could spend hours talking about. The first on the top of my mind is specifically diesel generators, since data centers use them to generate backup energy, and those diesel generators are going to constantly pollute the air that we breathe. And if it's not bad enough that the creation of these data centers And if that's not bought enough, the creation of these data centers will not only derail the Climate Action Plan 2.0 that the city adopted, but will completely obliterate any chance we have to hit any of our climate goals for the foreseeable future. We must take action. With your help, Mayor and Councillors, we can and must protect what matters most to us in our quality of life, clean air. clean water, a livable climate future, and an equitable and just energy system that does not shift the burden of corporate interest onto the backs of the communities they are actively harming. We need a moratorium now. In light of these points, I strongly support the council's adoption of a 120-day moratorium with extension on AI hyperscaling data centers in Eugene and Linn County to allow for adequate analysis of the potential impacts and guardrails to protect our community. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Alejandro. Our next speakers are Jacob True followed by James Kimball.

Hello, City Council. My name is Jacob True. I'm from Ward 1. Good to see you all again. I'm here to speak about community safety and specifically that we need real community response back in Eugene. Since the loss of cahoots in April of 2025, our community safety has suffered. Community response is less expensive and more effective than the one-size-fits-all response that we have right now. After 2025, we've seen a 53% increase in criminal trespass charges and a 36% increase in arrests and citations citywide. When we have community responders, they addressed 35% of all Eugene calls for service, such as wellness checks, while costing less than 3% of the police department. We have a clear and evident gap in public safety that needs addressing. I'd also like to draw your attention to the study that was put out by the University of Oregon folks about how things, what the calls that used to go to cahoots, what's happened to them. So about, of the 235 calls the cahoots got each week back before April of 2025, about 53 calls per week are handled by police. About 55 calls per week are now been absorbed by MCSLC. And the other 126 calls per week are now just being undressed. You can see that in the stats. The arrest rates post closure have gone up quite a bit. But what we need to do to address this is that the Eugene City Council needs to fund real 24 hour a day, seven day a week community alternative response. What I suggest you do is pass an ordinance allocating a percentage of the community safety payroll tax to fund real community alternative response with mental health professionals and trained medics. The community safety payroll tax is coming up for renewal, and I know you have a couple of... work sessions addressing that in a couple weeks and a few more weeks after that. So I'll be looking forward to what ideas you have towards increasing and promoting real community safety here in Eugene. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Jacob. Our next speakers are James Kimball, followed by Venus Odessa.

Hello, I'm James Kimball. I do not appreciate AI. I do not appreciate AI data centers, and I will not appreciate any AI backroom deals regarding them. That'll be all.

Thank you, James. Our next speakers are Venus Odessa, followed by Theo Milligan. I will call for... I will call for Venus one more time. Our next speaker, Theo Milligan. Next speaker, Chris Case. I'm going to give it a moment and see if anyone's coming from the lobby. Are you Venus, Theo, or Chris? I'm Chris. Fantastic.

Hello, City Council. My name is Chris. I am an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I am a member of SEIU Local 085, and I live in Ward 7. I will be focusing on the labor impact of these hyperscale data centers. Many of their proponents of their construction point to the abundance of trade jobs that are created when the contracts are approved by the city. They speak of the jobs created once they are complete and the benefits to the communities they are placed in. All of this is said out of one side of their mouths, while the other side points to how AIF will fundamentally change labor in this country. Several of them even go a step further and are fully honest and transparent by admitting that these large language models seek to eliminate entry level and mid level white collar work. Furthermore, the trades jobs these data centers create last until they're finished, and the data has shown many of those workers then live in the communities these data centers are placed in, and they are subject to all of the hazards that they create. Critically, it is the builders and the advocates of their construction who do not live in these communities. They do not have to listen to the noise they make 24-7, they don't have to drink to the toxic water, and they don't have to see their energy bills rise 300%. It is this framing of data centers that exposes how anti-worker they truly are. The only option we're being presented with is these data centers will be built, they will lead to an AI rollout, and this AI rollout will involve rendering your job obsolete and replacing you. Why is this the only option we're presented with? What would a worker-friendly AI data center rollout look like? How about real environmental studies to look at how these things affect our communities? How about the actual impact that it would have to labor and jobs in those communities? We know why, though, because whether it's AI or any other technology foisted on us by the rich, it's never towards our emancipation as working people, but it's always towards extracting even more out of us. A more democratic decision-making process as it relates to these issues would ensure that workers are prioritized and that the people who live in these communities are not being sacrificed so someone else can make a buck at our expense. I reiterate the call for the City Council to place a necessary moratorium on data centers. Thank you for your opportunity to reaffirm your commitment of shepherding this community by putting that moratorium in place. The people here and across the city, your constituents, are watching very closely to see how you proceed. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. One last call for Venus Odessa. Our next speakers are Theo Milligan, followed by Dylan Plummer.

Hello, my name is Theo. I live in Ward 5. While I want to commend you guys for barring the initial plans for the Hynix facility to turn into a data center, I must emphasize that more has to be done. If we want to stop these centers from continuing to appear next to vital habitats for wildlife and humans alike, a complete moratorium must be put into effect. The clear consensus that we do not want nor need them. Eugene is a beautiful city. Nature surrounds us completely. It's what made me want to move here years ago. A data center would be the antithesis of our entire community. The fact that the one at the Hynex facility was left open for debate for so long is laughable. The Willow Creek Reserve is right next to it. Pulled directly from the Nature Conservancy site, the reserve is the ecologically richest remnant of native wet prairie in the Southern Willamette Valley. The data center would have poisoned that land. We cannot let this happen. If you want to continue enjoying the trust and the votes of your constituents, pass the moratorium. Thank you.

Thank you, Theo. Our next speakers are Dylan Plummer, followed by Marlee Annett.

Mayor Knutson and City Council, my name is Dylan Plummer. I'm a resident of Ward 2. I'm testifying today on behalf of the Sierra Club and our over 15,000 members and supporters in Eugene to call for a data center moratorium and a prohibition of NDAs related to data center development here in the city. I want to specifically highlight the significant air pollution impact associated with data centers and their use of backup diesel generators. These are highly polluting facilities that have localized air pollution impacts far beyond almost anything else that we have in our city. In light of their huge air, climate, and noise pollution, the city must act to prevent hyperscale data center development here in Eugene. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Dylan. Our next speakers are Marlee Annett, followed by Jennifer Davis. Hi, council.

My name is Marley Anna, and I'm from the South Hills area. While I acknowledge and am thrilled about the decision to not move on with the Hynex plant slash data center in the Willow Creek area, I am here to question the necessity of an AI data center anywhere in Eugene. I want you to consider the environmental and health consequences of this, as those before me have highlighted so eloquently. I find it funny that Eugene prides itself on its greenery and outdoorsiness until any sort of money comes into play. The fact that I, as an educator, have to sit and watch as these plans are being made near loads of housing and tons of families, many low income, and they basically get zero say as to what happens near them, zero say against something that will cause massive harm to our communities. The fact I have to sit and watch this happen while our children's education gets the short end of the stick over and over again, while families go hungry and lose their access to water and power to their homes, I have to stand here and convince you that, hey, maybe this isn't a good idea after all, What reality am I living in that my own City Council may not prioritize the community it should be building up and instead prioritizes whatever makes the big guys the most money? There's so much more I'd like to say, but I'll leave you with this. This is a slippery slope, and I'm begging you to think of people, your community, first. That moratorium better be coming. Thank you.

Thank you, Marlee. Our next speakers are Jennifer Davis, followed by Athena Aguiar.

Good evening, City Council members and Mayor Knudson. My name is Jennifer Davis. I'm the Executive Director of Beyond Toxics Environmental Justice, or based here in Eugene. And I'm here today to speak on the behalf of our organization and membership here in Eugene and across Oregon who are deeply concerned about the speed and veracity at which these large-scale artificial intelligent data centers are popping up across the state. across the country and most recently with the zone verification request for the Hynex site on Willow Creek Circle in Eugene. We applaud the City of Eugene's Planning and Development Office for upholding the intent and integrity of that E1 zone by denying the request for the data center as a prohibited use. I'll refer you to the letter I submitted on August 31st which almost 250 organizations and individuals signed on. which go into the details of the impacts of the surrounding communities, including the air, water, noise, thermal pollution concerns that data centers pose. I urge you to read that letter if you haven't already done so. With the immediate threat of these AI data centers now potentially knocking on Eugene's door, this is no longer a hypothetical threat that we can ignore. We are working with different coalitions across the state to address the real threat to the communities and the environment that these data centers pose, but putting proper legislation in place at the state level is just going to take some time. We simply cannot sacrifice any other community here in the state, especially here in Eugene, with these known impacts in this interim period, which is why I'm calling on you to enact a temporary moratorium immediately. We need to pause the planning of any potential data center until these proper safeguards are put in place to protect people from the real health and environmental impacts from this type of development. We need this moratorium to start immediately as data center developers have been shown, have been known to speed up their application processes ahead of these types of moratoriums. I want to remind you that Eugene residents are not asking for more AI data infrastructure or products. This type of technology is being forced upon us, often without our consent, under a shroud of secrecy and non-disclosure agreements. We demand a pause to hold these corporations accountable for the real impacts they're having on the surrounding communities and environment. We are seeing countless other communities across the country and here around Oregon deal with the serious ramifications of these data centers. We are asking you to step in, protect the health and well-being of Eugene residents and our natural resources. We need a moratorium now to ensure that we have time to put the proper protections in place before Eugene is put at risk. Thank you for your time this evening.

Thank you, Jennifer. Our next speakers are Athena Aguiar, followed by Caitlin Owen. Hello, I'm Athena.

I'm a resident of Ward 5. First, I just wanted to share how many people came here today. When I first got here, I was just standing outside and chilling because I thought there's no way like I'm definitely going to be able to get in. And yeah, no, there was a bunch of people outside. There was probably like 50 or 60 people and we all couldn't, we weren't allowed to come in to the building, not even to the overflow area. So that was crazy. But I just wanted to add my voice to those asking for a moratorium on large data center development. I'm also asking the council to prohibit non-disclosure agreements in cases related to data center permitting or development because those non-disclosure agreements allow developers to skirt public input because they know the community doesn't want these projects. I just want to keep it short so everyone else has a chance to speak. Thank you.

Thank you, Athena. Our next speakers are Caitlin Owen followed by Angelique Orman.

My name is Caitlin Owen, and I am a teacher, artist, and resident of Springfield. I reject all current and future proposals of data center development in Eugene and everywhere. Today I not only speak for the humans, but also for the deer, the possums, the bears, the squirrels, the owls, the chickadees, the otters, the frogs, the snails, the bees, the trees, the grasses, the waters, and anyone who calls this place home. I stand here as a protector of this earth and everyone in it. Let me be clear. I do not consent. I do not consent to the harm proposed to my body. I do not consent to the harm proposed to my neighbors. And I do not consent to the harm proposed to my home. I am disgusted by the depravity, destruction, and lack of humanity that data centers have already shown this world. Now, if being a humanitarian just isn't your speed, know that supporting this development will not make you immune to its consequences. You too will go thirsty. You too will go hungry. You too will be left with aching lungs and a hollowness knowing you brought this upon yourself. The people of Eugene will not go quietly. The money you think you may save yourself will come back to bite you and damage bills as you are forced to make endless repairs. There are consequences to betraying your community. In conclusion, I call to permanently ban all data center development in Eugene so that we might be an example of resistance to the rest of this earth. Our future depends on it. Thank you.

Thank you, Caitlin. Our next speakers are Angelique Orman, followed by Nancy Onert.

Hi, everybody. Angelique Orman, Ward 7. And I have a very short message, and that is for all species and all future generations, not one drop of water to data centers. Without a habitable planet, nothing else matters. Thank you.

Thank you, Angelique. Our next speakers are Nancy Onert, followed by Ellen Bridges.

I'm Nancy Honnard, Ward 2. When I open my new Samsung cell phone, I'm often greeted with an ad telling me about Gemini, the artificial intelligence on my phone. It says Gemini AI can help me with several tasks, even making my grocery list. I didn't put this application on my phone. It was just there. Turns out, though, it's very difficult, maybe impossible to remove. Then I learn that Samsung is a leading manufacturer of HBM chips, the kind of chips necessary to run artificial intelligence, or AI. To manufacture these chips, seven fluorine gases must be used. The gases are very potent greenhouse gases. ranging from 4,000 to 16,000 times as potent as carbon dioxide. And they are stable in the air, enough to last for hundreds of years. This greenhouse gas problem adds to the vast electricity use required for AI, now often accomplished by powering data centers with fossil fuels. So data centers for AI are adding to an already crisis-level climate emergency. We need to stop the fast proliferation of data centers. Please issue a moratorium on data centers in Eugene, and please do it as soon as possible. Excuse me. We don't have the luxury of debating about this for a year. Oh, and I think maybe I will forego my use, forego using Gemini AI to help me make my grocery list. Thank you.

Thank you, Nancy. Our next speakers are Ellen Bridges followed by Shelly Devine.

Hello. My name is Ellen Bridges. and I'm a lifelong person that's lived a long time here in Eugene and all along the Pacific Northwest. I'm a resident of this city, and we live in the Bethel-Danebo area. And I have a song to sing, and I'm gonna sing it out loud.

I'm gonna sing out danger.

I'm gonna sing out warning. I'm gonna sing out the love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land. I'm gonna sing out for love of clean water. I'm gonna sing out for the love of clean air. I sing out for the freedom of silence. to be able to sleep well at night. Sleep is a human right. We don't need all this extra noise. So I speak up for our Earth because data centers are not necessary. We need clean air, clean water, and a quiet for a healthy city. We're in a drought. The water used by data centers is not usable. It's wastewater. It's full of chemicals. I've already heard people say these things. And where does it go afterwards? Into the ground? They've already taken it from all of our lakes and rivers and everything, and when they return it, it's not usable anymore. It's also too much energy use. The energy use is 1,000 kilowatts is a megawatt, and most data centers use 25 megawatts. An average home uses only 1.5 kilowatts. No, we don't need that. Air pollution. The Bethel area has the highest level of childhood asthma, and some of our elders have heart disease and other issues. Jobs, yeah, they'll be here when they're building it, but they're not going to be here in the long run. Water is life. And most of the areas that are using the water here, we need it. We need our clean water. And I want to thank you all for listening and being here tonight and for all the people that showed up. And let's set a good example. The only data center that I want is a library.

Thank you.

Our next speakers are Shelley Devine, followed by Sue Pelegi.

I'm really glad someone sang, because I was thinking about doing an interpretive dance, but not tonight. Shelley Devine Ward III, I thought about y'all during summer break, which feels really awkward to say, and I really like your haircut, Lindsay Leach, and I still think it's weird that this is how we're getting to know each other, but that's fine. So let's talk about the secrecy playbook. The abuse of NDAs is an abuse of democracy. The people and our government should not be governed by billionaires and corporate interests, but that is just what the abuse of NDAs is doing. Giving billionaires and their corporate connections the ability to develop where they want and how they want with no consideration for the public interest. So state and local governments need to respond with a sense of urgency, right, to the growing public outrage and listen to us, not to big tech, big oil, or any other corporate class. So again, the abuse of NDAs is an abuse of democracy, and democracy is a verb. Now, were I to be doing something shameful and nefarious, which would never happen, I prefer for others to be wildly ignorant, okay? But I also cruise around with a lot of paperwork. So speaking of inappropriate behavior and lack of accountability, Something, something, insert comment about Chris Skinner's employment status here. Didn't Amazon start construction on their distribution concentration center prior to their permit being finalized? I think that's weird. Consider playing offense in this fight against techno-fascist, corporate, broligarchy, white, christo-fascist, Christian nationalist takeover. Instead of incessantly responding to the onslaught from a defensive position, get out front. It would behoove us all to see and hear offensive language and action from all of you. Get out front.

Thank you, Shelley. Our next speakers are Sue Pelleggi, followed by Misty Strawberry Bowman.

Hi City Council, Mayor, and City Manager. My name is Sue Pileggi and I live in Ward 6, the Bethel neighborhood. I was really excited to see so many people from Bethel testifying tonight. I'm here to ask you to immediately pause, that would be a moratorium, on the planning of any potential data centers in Eugene and to continue to extend that moratorium until something permanent happens. Current regulations are simply inadequate to prevent the lasting harm that today's new hyperscale data centers cause to the environment, our water and air quality, and to our health and quality of life. Hyperscale data centers are massive cloud and AI facilities that draw between 100 to 500 megawatts of power and house tens of thousands of servers. To put it another way, A single hyperscale data center uses between 50 and 100 megawatts of electricity continuously, which matches the power demand of a small city like Eugene. One hyperscale data center. Please note that E-Web's projections for Lane County without factoring in the resource strain of building modern scale data centers is already grim. Their 2025 projections for Lane County, and I quote, include increasing drought correlated with increasing rates of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and suicide. Promotion of accessible mental health care and supportive services for the impacted populations contributes to effective drought preparedness and mitigation. Those are E-Web's words. This is just a bite of their projections. I am concerned. We are not doing enough to plan and prevent serious harm to our community and state. Climate change is a global threat and a moratorium on building new data centers in Eugene is a tangible step that you can take. I know that Governor Kotek has created a data center advisory committee that has been meeting this year to study this issue. They have reproduced... Thank you, Sue.

Yes. Our next speakers are Misty Strawberry Bowman, followed by Richard Green.

Misty Strawberry Bowman, Ward 7. I'm going to be doing a spoken word version of a song. It's an oldie but a goodie. Sing along if you know the words. Hello, light pollution, my old friend. I've come to talk about you, again, because the LEDs are harshly blinking, left at seeds and I'm not sleeping, and the blue light that was planted in my brain still remains within the light pollution. Hi, Misty Bowman. I've come to talk about darkness, my old friend. The U.S. National Forest Service is proposing to rescind the roadless rule, a rule that for over 25 years has limited development on 44 million acres of America's wild land. Over 44% of these roadless lands retain pristine natural darkness. Rescinding the roadless rule could put more than 179,000 square kilometers of dark sky land at risk. as well as expose delicate ecosystems to environmental hazards. I encourage everyone who cares about the environment and our forests to submit a comment protesting or objecting to rescinding the roadless world. Public comment closes in a week. I encourage everyone to also particularly join Dark Sky's letter of opposition. While I'm on the subject, fall bird migration is occurring. Please turn off outdoor lights when not needed or no longer being used. Switch your porch or outdoor lights to a warmer color correction temperature, please. I'd like to also echo the calls for a moratorium on data centers, as well as those who have raised concerns about over-policing. And I'm not going to step away with saying one last thing. Councillor Leitch, I love the new haircut. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Misty. Our next speakers are Richard Green, followed by Daphne Metcalf.

Hello, I'm Richard Green, and I'm here to talk about an issue affecting the homelessness in our city. I volunteer with Neighbors Feed the Neighbors and with other agencies to work with the homeless. It's a heartbreaking thing, a situation that there's really no solution, and it manifests its ways in so many kinds of different suffering. And one thing we hear often at direct suffering is that people say, the police took all our stuff, everything. They took our blankets. We have nothing to sleep with. You hear that often. And you see guys, they come out from the jail. They come up, I have nothing. I just got out of jail. I haven't eaten. Can you help me? But they don't have a blanket. Now, I want to read something that's from the Bible. And I'm not trying to put an Old Testament message. spin on things. But if you ever take your neighbor's cloak, this is from Exodus 22. It's just after the Ten Commandments. There's a section called Laws Concerning a Just Community. If you ever take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall not keep it overnight, but you shall return it to him because he has nothing to sleep with otherwise. And if he cries to me... I will hear it, for I am compassionate. And I'm just bringing up this definition of compassion. It's an ancient one. But do you know the motto of the Eugene Police Department is integrity, compassion, and courage? It's not compassionate to send someone out without a blanket into the cold. Do you want to do that to your dog? You wouldn't. You wouldn't say, bad dog, I'm taking away your bedding. I'm putting you out with nothing. You would not do that. So it's compassion we're talking about. We can agree upon a simple compassionate thing that the police, when they send someone out of the jail, they give them a blanket. And it might be a cost thing. I tell you, the advocates for the homeless would supply the blankets to you, supply the blankets to the police department if it's a money issue. I don't think the policies and the logistics that keep the police from giving people blankets and taking their stuff and not returning it is meant to be cruel. But it is cruel. And if it's not cruel, it's certainly not human kindness in any kind of form or manner. And we can do better than that. And you, Mayor, it's probably your responsibility. You can tell the police, don't do that. Give the people their blankets. Because God will hear. And he says he is compassionate. Thank you.

Thank you, Richard. Our next speakers are Daphne Metcalf, followed by Amy Farrell.

Hi there. My name is Daphne Metcalf. I'm a resident of Ward 3 here in Eugene. Thank you, counselors, mayor, managers, for your time. I work in a library, as some people have already said, the original data center. I understand that many of us are here about the inquiry of the data center at the former Hynex factory, and I was very relieved to hear that the city of Eugene said no. I'd like to take this moment to thank the city for doing this. Thank you for reflecting your residents' values. Now I encourage you to take it a step further. The reason it was no was because of existing zoning regulations. I would like to strongly encourage, no, demand the city of Eugene create a temporary moratorium banning the building of data centers until we can have a longer term legal solution to completely ban data centers in Eugene. I understand there's a meeting in December to discuss data centers where much more details will be discussed. I appreciate the city council hosting this and I want to again thank you. Please keep this momentum going. and make positive change that our future generations will be thankful for. My second point, we live in an era of mass surveillance. Flock cameras are popping up everywhere. Grocery stores are beginning to use your data to track your location in the store and change prices. I am on the tail end of the last generation to know what it is like to have an unplugged life. A life where you could ridiculously fall off your skateboard and there's no footage of it. Where you could ask someone to a dance and it won't end up on social media. I invite you to think back to your childhood and reflect on how free you were. How you could live in the moment with your big brother and not be worried about big brother. I am encouraging you to do the responsible and respectful thing to use everything in your power to keep mass surveillance out of Eugene. Life is meant to be lived and not recorded. And I hope everyone goes to their local library and reads 1984 by George Orwell. Thank you.

Thank you, Daphne. Our next speakers are Amy Farrell, Kyle Pivarnick.

The City Council Mayor, it's very nice to be here. I've only been here for four years, and this is not my first time speaking to a City Council. I moved here from a small city where small change seemed possible, but unfortunately, they time and again put forward policies, said they were going to look after the little guy and consistently moved on to things like allowing giant corporations to take over things, allowing real estate to push prices of affordable to $2,000 for a studio apartment in a new living situation where they would put, and I was watching your work session earlier to put working and stores below and city above. Believe you me, that does not work unless you make these housing affordable, and I mean actually talking to the realtors and making that an example. Because otherwise, no one's going to be able to afford it, period. I'm also here to speak against the proposed data center. I live in Ward 8. so it is in my neighborhood. And I love Eugene, and I'm so happy to be here, but this is going to disproportionately affect everyone, but specifically the environment, people of color, people of lower income. It's something that's happening everywhere. I don't want it here. I don't want it in Springfield. I don't want it anywhere. Nobody wants it. I agree with what everybody else is saying, and you definitely should listen to them like you did not listen to them for the Amazon. Also, I think it is very cruel if the police are ticketing people just for getting food, and I've seen that myself in other places too. I know they have a lot to do, but maybe if there was more distribution of their budget and your budget to things like that, we could get back cahoots so they could have more time to go back and do what they need to be doing to help us and to maybe we can get a refund for the EUG artwork that just went up in front of Holt Center, and that could be better put to use for that. I love public art, honestly, but I really honestly am asking, perhaps you can get a refund for that and put that in a different place. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Amy. Our next speakers are Kyle Pivarnick, followed by Irvania Lopez Toledo. I will call for Kyle one more time. Our next speaker is Irvania Lopez Toledo. What about Jer C. Rosemeyer? Trevor Cummings.

Hi, I'm Trevor Cummings from Ward 7. I've only been in Eugene for about six years now, but I know how special this city is, or can be. I've seen how the community comes together, especially when facing the city's failures. I love paying my taxes, honestly, I really do. I would love it more if it meant my community members didn't have to step up to feed the hungry. Students are losing teachers due to budget cuts and shortfalls. Families are losing homes to ever-rising rents. And you've already heard the stats on what happened when we lost CAHOOTS. Thank you to that speaker. You can understand why just the threat of more of Eugene's limited resources going to massive corporations' private interests we'll bring this very politely raucous crowd out. And I want to join with them in calling for and imploring you to enact a moratorium on data centers immediately. Thank you.

Thank you, Trevor. One last call for Kyle Pivarnick, Irvania Lopez Toledo, or JRC Rosemeyer. Chris Johnston. After Chris, I have Emily Sawyer.

Hi, I'm Chris. It's good to be here. This is my first city council meeting in Eugene, and this is such a beautiful city, and I appreciate all of you and your efforts to try to protect our city and our environment. Each of you has your own story and your own perceptions about where you live and how it is. And I'm going to chuck all the information that I spent doing research yesterday, because everyone's already said all of it. And I just want to say that our planet is currently run by malignant narcissists. And they don't come in the form of just one person, but a lot of them. A lot of them are sickened, and hopefully maybe some of you are, by the Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon tech bros who are lining their pockets with our resources, wanting to come and take our electricity and our water, drop our water table so our farmers won't be able to give us the crops that we need to eat, because they don't care. Their relationships are strictly transactional. And we're not for sale. And our land is not for sale. And our water is not for sale. And so if we can think about the other creatures, as many in here have already mentioned, if we can think about that. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that we're on the land of the Kalapua Indians. And in that light, just the AI center, the light pollution that's continuous all night, disrupting local ecosystems and nearby residents. The bright lights alter the migration, navigation, and foraging behavior of birds, bats, insects, and turtles. And we know what it will do to the city. And if you give an inch, they're just gonna keep coming back and coming for more. So I'm asking for a permanent moratorium on AI centers. I challenge you and everyone in this room to ditch your phone for a day. And you know what? look around, read a book, talk to a human, get their story, understand where they're coming from, and understand that you have a power, and the power to the people. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Our next speakers are Emily Sawyer, followed by Deborah Magee.

Good evening. I'm Emily, a Eugene resident in Ward 1, Chambers Westside neighborhood. Time and time again, the people have spoken out against AI data centers with concerns of public health, impact to the local environment, increased cost of living, and concerns of government officials nationally allowing for data center construction despite loud outcries of opposition from the people. The Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to remove the requirement to notify and receive public comment from the process of issuing air pollution permits. This is simply an attempt at removing required government transparency and eliminating the power of the people to speak out and decide what happens in their own communities. The Public Citizen reported that in Virginia, 80% of localities with proposed or existing data centers are hiding data center efforts behind non-disclosure agreements. Closer to home, the City of Salem, Oregon, and the tech company Veris signed an NDA that obscured public knowledge about the proposed data center project from April 2025 to July 2026. These efforts show systemic efforts by tech companies and government officials to hide information of these dealings from the public. These are clear examples of taxation without representation by the people. Tech companies and government officials are hiding these initiatives from the people who will be footing the bill for these data centers through tax subsidies for tech companies and through cost of living increases. Those same people who are footing the bills for these AI data centers are the same people who will never see a drop of the profit. All the promised profit from these AI data centers would land directly in the pockets of these tech companies. Thus, I'm calling for the City Council to implement a local AI data center moratorium and a ban on the use of NDAs for all data center inquiries to ensure government transparency to the people.

Thank you, Emily. Our next speakers are Deborah McGee, followed by Cameron Stringfield.

Good evening, Mayor, manager and counselors. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Deborah McGee. I've lived rurally for the last 45 years outside Eugene. I am opposed to the technological cancer known as data centers, but I want to tell you about Liz Porter, Lisa Bouchot, and myself. All of us women of a certain age who have brought a contested protest against the Department of State Lands for issuing a permit to Amazon to destroy seven acres of our last remaining wetlands in the valley. These lands matter to many more than human species. We believe Amazon should not have been allowed to build there. They could have built on the other end of the 80 acres, but it was cheaper for them to destroy the seven acres of wetland. And they did it first thing without their final legal permit being issued due to our protest. It is their pattern to begin work before their permits are final. It's illegal. The goal stated in the Clear Lake Overlay Zone is to create an economic development zone of various acreages for corporations to purchase with a lens toward jobs with fairness and equity with a focus on environmental concerns. Does environmental concern include filling seven acres of wetland with concrete and asphalt? Amazon has published that their goal is to replace 600,000 workers within five years with robots. Amazon employee turnover rate is 150%. Why? 70% of employees leave within 90 days. Why? One reason, Amazon warehouse employees report three times the warehouse worker injury rates. And my favorite, delivery drivers have such production requirements that they carry bottles in their truck cabs to urinate in because there's no time for a bathroom break. Is that what the Clear Lake Overlay Protection Zone meant by employment that's fair and equitable? Would you encourage your child to seek employment? The hearing of our protest is open to the public. Anyone can listen on the administrative call. The next one is October 1st. There are four Amazon lawyers on the call. Finally, I understand non-disclosure statements are standard, but if it is good for the community, why hide it? It damages trust. Thank you.

Thank you, Deborah. Our next speakers are Cameron Stringfield, followed by Joshua Korn.

Cameron Stringfield, Ward 7. I'm with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. And before I get into my speech here, I just want to say, I know we're probably coming up on the end of the speaking period. I would please ask that one of you make a motion to hear more people here tonight. You have a record number of people here. Our city, our state, our country, and our planet are all facing existential crises, budget crises, the water crisis, the cost of living crisis, aging energy infrastructure, climate change, the growing AI bubble, right-wing terror, mass surveillance, global warfare and genocide, et cetera. These are the defining crises of our age. Data centers are facilities that exacerbate these problems. They consume vast, growing amounts of electricity, water, and taxpayer money to power things like artificial intelligence, mass surveillance, and military and police systems and weapons. I want to focus on just two elements of that to put it in perspective how bad these data centers are. First, the water. Globally, the water crisis is getting worse every year. The UN stated earlier this year that the world is in a state of water bankruptcy, meaning human demand and depletion of natural water systems exceed replenishment rates. While data centers make up a small amount of water usage globally when compared to something like agriculture, the massive consumption of water is increasing year by year and places heavy strains on local water resources. In the Dalles, for example, Google's data centers used 550 million gallons of water in 2025, nearly 40% of the entire city's water usage and a 26% increase from 2024. In 2025, Google globally used 10.9 billion gallons Billion gallons of water, a 34% increase from 2024. These numbers are only expected to increase, and in recent years, Oregon has faced statewide drought and the worst wildfire seasons on record. We cannot afford to be using up what little water we have to line the pockets of billionaires. There's also the staggering consumption of energy. U.S. data centers use around 4.4% of electricity nationwide and are expected to reach 9% by 2030. The breakneck pace at which these data centers are being built for AI means pushing climate even further into catastrophe and pushing our energy infrastructure to a breaking point. We cannot be contributing to these existential crises as a city. Please stop these data centers.

Thank you, Cameron. Do we have Joshua Corn?

So clearly, with all this support against data centers, you guys need to pass a moratorium against these AI data centers in the Eugene area. But as someone that has been speaking out against surveillance technology for over a decade to this council, not all of you are the same, and I haven't been here for a while, but Let's zoom out and put a little perspective on this push for AI data centers and what it really is because this is not about using your chat GPT. They have plenty of data centers and less in China, yet they fully support all the needs of all the human consumers of AI, yet why are they pushing for this onslaught of development of data centers using all our water? This is surveillance technology, and this is an anti-human industry. and surveillance agenda to track, trace, and database our entire population and monitor and basically just surveil us forever. And we need to stop it. Obviously, The humans are speaking out here, and we need the water and even electricity for our farmers. It's like people compare how much water you need to grow food versus a data center, but these data centers are not needed, and we need the food. Do you guys support this anti-human agenda just to support all the Palantirs and all the surveillance companies? Because this is not about your chat GPT and your Claude subscriptions. They don't need that for this. So... Just pass the moratorium and give the people here what they're calling for and stop these data centers. Thank you.

Thank you, Joshua. Mayor, that was our final speaker for the 90 minutes.

Thank you, staff. I now close the public comment period and that will give us, I think, a little bit of time to discuss this evening's public comment and also maybe share a little bit more information with full awareness that our longer discussion about this topic is currently on the council's agenda. and I really appreciate the comments this evening. A lot of passion and concern shared about the future and development in our community, but also a request to do a good job, take time, and make decisions deliberatively, and that is currently the process that we have laid out. I do also want to share a little bit of background and then also maybe ask a few questions and if council ask questions of our staff, create opportunity for that as well. So when last week Eugene determined that the data center use described in the application for the Hynex Hyundai facility was not allowed in our E1 campus employment zone, a sigh of relief, a sense of some reprieve, but I think it's also important to follow up on some of the details of that because this is where our context locally is very different from Virginia or West Virginia or Texas or even other cities within the state of Oregon. The absence of data centers as a use within our code means that they are not a use permitted in our city. They're not currently allowed in our zoning, which means that it is our position based on what has gone forward with this zone verification process is that any other building permit or request for development in any other zone would also not be an allowed use. Data centers, certainly hyperscale centers, those described, we're not talking about a server room or the capacity to run your engineering firm or support GIS information, you know, with so many local agencies rely on to do really good deliberative community work, that's not what we're talking about. And data centers, as described and in our current national conversation, are not anything that are captured as a use in our existing local laws. And so for those in the room who have expressed, I think, very clearly a concern about the possibility that this would be something that might just happen or that there are NDAs in place in our community because that has been in the news in other places, that is not the context or the circumstance here. And it is not a use that is outlined in our code. So for our conversations going forward, I'll offer that as a component. That does not mean there isn't still an important work session for city council to have this fall. And that is currently scheduled for December. There's a lot of other work that is coming in front of this body, including several touch points that we know our community cares deeply about with regards to many different areas of community services. and community needs and the building of our budget over these next several months, but it is on the schedule. And it is important that we gather more information and I think have a full work session conversation about this topic. But to just underscore, data centers are not an allowable use in our city. That is the current context of our local laws, and applying others' laws to our city, again, not a relevant necessarily circumstance, but important for people to know about where we're beginning this conversation from. With that said, other comments and questions from city council, if councilors would like to ask any questions or follow up on discussion that was heard from public comment this evening? Councilor Yeh.

Yeah, thank you. And thank you for sharing that information, Mayor. I think that's really important to get out into the community. But I did want to follow up on, I'm wondering if the city manager could get us some more detailed information about our policy around NDAs. I can understand people being curious about what our decision-making process is, if someone brings one to us, and how we would determine whether that was appropriate or not appropriate, and how that would be communicated to the community as well. So I just appreciate some more information.

Councillor Kuczynski.

Yes, thank you and thank you to everyone who came out tonight. I share many of the concerns that were brought up surrounding AI and data centers and non-disclosure agreements. And just to be clear, I have not signed a non-disclosure agreement and I will not sign a non-disclosure agreement. To emphasize, I think, what the mayor just said, we heard a lot of requests for a moratorium tonight. My understanding is that a moratorium has a very specific definition under Oregon land use law, and it's a very temporary pause that can happen for an allowed use in a situation where an attorney and manager, correct me if I'm wrong, in a situation where you need to pause something so that you can figure out how you need to regulate it. And it's a temporary pause. There are very strict time limits on it. My understanding is that a moratorium is not relevant for us in this situation, because as the mayor said, data centers are not an allowed use now. and so they already are not allowed and so we don't need to pause them in order to look at new regulations because they aren't allowed right now. And so I look forward to the conversations we'll be having in the fall surrounding more detailed and non-temporary regulations in our codes surrounding data centers. And thank you again for everyone who came out tonight.

Councillor Keating.

Thank you, Mayor. I, too, have not or would not sign an NDA, a nondisclosure agreement, but it doesn't Point is moot, as has been articulated. That being said, I would be very interested to hear what city managers' opinion or what our council or our municipality's position is when it comes to non-disclosure agreements. The issue was brought up at the symposium that I attended this last week as to why certain communities are signing these NDAs. I'm not justifying it, but I understand it. One of the reasons why you're seeing communities in Virginia sign nondisclosure agreements are related to national security. obviously based on their location. It just doesn't apply to Oregon, or at least to Eugene or the southern Willamette Valley, of course. Again, I'm not inserting or editorial my opinion. stating what was brought up at our symposium last week in the D.C. and Baltimore area. I mentioned my trip earlier, and I'm bringing it up again. I hope Misty Bowman is still in the room. I don't see Misty. But I thought of Misty and the Dark Sky organizers on my recent trip to the D.C. area. If you get a chance to visit the Natural History Museum, the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, There's a powerful lights out recovering our night sky exhibit that I highly recommend and it features a dark sky simulation of a dark sky park. I think we're long overdue for a dark sky work session or to see what we can do as a community to codify some of the powerful points made by the dark sky community. I look forward, as I mentioned at the top of this council meeting, to our December 14th work session on this matter, and I appreciate everyone who came to provide testimony tonight. If you didn't get a chance to speak with us, please email Mayor and City Council, and I thank you for your attendance.

Councillor Clark.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate everyone coming and everything that they had to say tonight. I certainly understand the passion. I have concerns just like everybody else who lives here. So I'm looking forward to the discussion that we'll have at council. I'm a little bummed that my colleagues stole my thunder because I wanted to say in all my years in council, no one has ever asked me to sign an NDA and I plain and simply wouldn't do it. And the reason is because when you're elected to sit up here by the people in your ward, you're their representative, period, end of story. And to agree not to tell them something that you were debating is nonsensical at its base. And I absolutely wouldn't do it. So I don't think that's an issue for us. I feel fairly certain that all of my colleagues feel similarly about that. For those of my colleagues that I'm looking forward to this discussion with you, this may be a little out there, but if you have the chance to do some listening to podcasts and research, I would recommend Ed Zitron. He has a very interesting perspective on AI data centers that I tend to think is... worth listening to and understanding his idea about we shouldn't be building them because it's a waste of everything involved. And we'll get into the details of that later. But I highly recommend listening to his thoughts, especially his interview on Diary of a CEO. So thank you very much.

Councilor Groves.

Thank you, Mayor. I think I covered how I feel about data centers on the front end of this meeting, but I did want to address the nondisclosure agreement. I've never signed one as an elected official, and I don't think it's appropriate for an elected official to sign one. However, going back in my career in the fire department, there were times, for example, Secret Service security details where we could not disclose, for obvious reasons, what the protection was going to be for the president and the vice president and the Dalai Lama and others that came into town. But with the exception of that, I don't think there's really any reason Public officials should be involved in that nondisclosure. Public has a right to know. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillors, for those thoughts and feedback. Thank you again to all of the people who gave public comment this evening and have also written with information about data centers. This is a topic that had a lion's share of attention at public comment tonight. I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that there are resources on the City of Eugene website that speaks to this detail in the specific and technical language. And for some of you who also are looking for more information and researching, those are very useful resources and appreciation to our staff for building those FAQs. With that said, I will also now close the September 14th City Council meeting, and we are adjourned.

Thank you.