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BROWNSVILLE — The City Commission on Tuesday moved closer to voting on a 90-day data centers moratorium after holding the second of three public hearings. Commissioners will hold the final hearing on Wednesday, along with the first of two votes on the ordinance enacting the moratorium.
Commissioners also filled the last of two commission-appointed seats on the Environmental and Conservation Task Force that will research data centers’ possible effects on health, the environment and business in Brownsville. The task force is expected to complete a preliminary report in December and a final report in March 2027.
The South Texas Environmental Justice Network rallied supporters to the hearing in hopes of swaying commissioners to appoint one of its co-founders, specifically Bekah Hinojosa or Christopher Basaldú, to serve on the environmental commission. The organization has been staunchly against data center development.
More than two dozen people signed up for public comment on the moratorium, urging commissioners to support the pause on data center development in the city in light of health impacts and pollution that other communities near data centers have reported. They also said commissioners should replace task force appointee Carolyn Wood, who works for SpaceX as a senior environmental regulatory engineer.
Public policy researcher Etienne Rosas, a task force nominee who had been unsure of participating due Wood’s involvement, said during public comment he was accepting his nomination.
“What I would ask is that (the city) also gives me and anyone else on the commission the tools and team adequate to carry out the work,” Rosas said, encouraging commissioners to place Hinojosa or Basaldú on the task force alongside him. “I would like us to create the base of something bigger that will help us move forward sustainably.”
Several residents expressed fear that SpaceX, which acquired Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI in February, could develop a data center on the 444 acres of land that the city disannexed at SpaceX’s request in August.
“I don’t mean this as a provocation or anything, but I wouldn’t let a monkey be regulating bananas, or a mouse regulating the cheese,” resident Adrian Barrientes said during public comment, “the same way I wouldn’t have Carolyn Wood nominated for the environmental task force.
“I’m not relating (anyone) to animals or anything. I’m just saying it’s just a clear, obvious conflict of interest for (someone from) an affiliated company to be regulating their own affiliates.”
At-Large “B” Commissioner Nurith Golansky and District 1 Commissioner Bryan Martinez made their appointments Tuesday, rounding out the commission-appointed seats. One non-voting position on the task force remains to be filled by the Brownsville Public Utilities Board.
Martinez selected Valeria Caballero, the just recovery coordinator for the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, to join the task force. Golansky chose attorney and UTRGV lecturer Justin Katusak, who has experience working for the Bureau of Land Management.
Golansky asked the meeting attendees to give the task force nominees a chance.
“We do need to have a well-rounded body that has different strengths and represents different demographics,” Golansky said. “(Katusak) might not be someone that you know, but as was mentioned earlier today there are a lot of qualified, intelligent, creative people (in Brownsville), and they’re all wanting to contribute to the betterment of our city. So we need to give them the opportunity to do so.”
The commission was set to reconvene at City Hall for a special meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday for final public hearing and first vote on the date center moratorium.
While the ordinance is for a 90-day moratorium, commissioners can later approve a one-time extension that brings it to a total 180 days.
After the first reading and vote on the ordinance Wednesday, commissioners will have a final reading and vote on the moratorium Nov. 4 with the ordinance going into effect Nov. 5 if passed.
City Attorney Will Treviño said the city is required to schedule the readings at least 28 days apart.
If commissioners extend the initial moratorium before it ends in February, a process that would require additional public hearings, the moratorium would run through May 18, 2027.