Board of County Commissioners - workshop

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

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

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

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

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

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

So yeah, because the Planning Commission meets here.

I just appreciate this adjustment. The last

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

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

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

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

Are we charging appropriately for public records?

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

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

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

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

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

I could go. As I do typically every three to six months, I'm visiting the Tigard City Council in the next week and BOY, WE GOT SOME INTERESTING COMMUNICATION BEFOREHAND. THEY WANT TO TALK A LOT ABOUT SHS AND HOUSELESSNESS. WE'VE GOT A LIST OF VERY FOCUSED AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS. THE HOUSING TEAM IS HELPING BRYN AND I COORDINATE AND THE DIRECTOR ROGERS WILL BE PRESENTING WITH ME. I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE THAT TALK WITHOUT OUR STAFF LEADS THERE. I had a prep meeting about that. There's another prep meeting next week now getting organized. Tomorrow, I'm going to be at the Lamb Research Groundbreakin

Great. Thank you. Who's next? I can go next, Chair. Just a quick update on some of my work over the past week. I had my regular check-in with our county auditor. I had a great humanity for a staff briefing on flavor ban, the tobacco flavor ban. And then I also had my regular one-on-one check-in with undersheriff Cook. I also met with a community member from Care Oregon who is interested in serving on the Community Action Board. Kim Shuey suggested we connect so I could share some background on community action and my experience with the organization so far, I always appreciate seeing community

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

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

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

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

NEW SPEAKER LAST TUESDAY I WENT TO MEET WITH THE GASTON CITY COUNCIL. THEY WERE CONSIDERING OPTING OUT OF THE CDBG CONSORTIUM. And I couldn't convince them not to do that. So they have issued a letter, a formal letter to Washington County opting out of the CDBG program, which means that their residents are no longer eligible for it. And yeah, I think that's unfortunate. Wednesday, I attended the Banks Trailhead portion of the Salmonberry Trail. So in the city of Banks at the trailhead of the Banks-Vernonia Trail and subsequently will be the very trail. There's a portion of property that that w

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

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

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

that now there's some question as to whether or not they're going to be able to facilitate that. So COPAC is going to step in and has been also helping on that. And so I believe COPAC is going to step in and help make sure that North Plains actually can use that money on the property that was approved. Also, I attended the Forest Trust Lands meeting on Zoom with ODF, of course, and there was a lot of discussion. It was a two-hour meeting presentation regarding the forest management plan that continues to be a concern, obviously, for the Trustland counties, and so we continue to try and work ou

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

NEW SPEAKER YOU'RE SPEAKING IN FRONT, CORRECT?

NEW SPEAKER YES. NEW SPEAKER NEXT WEEK I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE DISTRICT ONE SPARK MEETING. MS. ANGIE AND I WILL BE JOINTLY AUTHORING A MEMO TO ALL OF THE SPARKS SO THAT THEY KNOW WHAT IS ON THE COUNTY PLATE AND POR. THEN THE ROUND TABLE FOR SEPTEMBER 10TH, THE AGENDA IS SLIGHTLY CHANGED. ONE OF THE TOPICS BOARD GOVERNANCE IS MOVING TO Hopefully, I said the September 10th roundtable is now moved to the October roundtable. I also had my one-on-one with CWS GM Rahim Harji and followed up with him yesterday since Commissioner Director Fai let us know that she's reneged on attending. WEFTEC, as

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

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

So it's just a data center work group IN THE AREA OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, BUT IT'S IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH US AS A WASHINGTON COUNTY GOVERNMENT. SO SINCE WHAT YOU'RE PROPOSING, COMMISSIONER FYE IS PROPOSING A MORATORIUM IN THE LETTER, A PAUSE IN HER TEMPORARY PAUSE IN HER LANGUAGE, AND COMMISSIONER TREES IS OPPOSING A MOVING FORWARD WITH THE TWO OF THEM CONVENING A COUNTY BOARD EFFORT FOR A ROBUST AND WELL INFORMED DISCUSSION ON DATA CENTER INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE UUA'S. I AS ONE OF FIVE WANT TO SAY THAT THERE IS MUCH confusion in the public about our role as a county government and what we do.

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

not yet okay so i'm i'm not maybe at some point you can explain the relationship between the group and then the request for the moratorium and i would just i thought the group had maybe met that's where this was coming from but i'd want to know you know who's participating what conclusion like okay so this is the recommendation what is that based on i'd also want to hear from our staff about from land use and transportation about how much, like if we're going to put resources to this, how much of the urban unincorporated area even could have a data center on it? I know we don't have any pendin

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

Well, and also what I found out is that, you know, if you listen to the public meetings, they're dumping, they're using a lot of water and they're dumping it back into our system. And that's just not true. Every one of the data centers in Hillsborough are closed system. So, you know, they're not completely consuming water every day on those things. But anyway, that's just one of them. And so there's a lot of misinformation out there, and I would be encouraged on that. But I kind of was hoping that Hillsborough's moratorium would bring out this kind of information. And so since we really don't

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

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

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

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

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

NEW SPEAKER I CAN FIND OUT SOME INFORMATION.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for checking. I appreciate that.

So I'll just say that I don't think we're going to come to a firm resolution next Tuesday about any potential work plan, okay? Because I think that discussion needs to help inform first, do we want to have any such work plan to be developed or not? Because I'm hearing different things like certainty involving local jurisdictions, CBOs, so on and so forth, which then gets into something of the scale of the Washington County 50-year transportation effort that was before I was on the commission. It goes back to when I was a Metro counselor. Commissioner Treece was on that in her former life. I th