PUBLIC MEETINGS

CITY COUNCIL
The City Council generally meets the 2^nd and 4^th Monday of every month at 6 p.m. While City Hall is under construction, meetings are held at the Loucks Auditorium at the Salem Library 585 Liberty Street. Work sessions on single topics, where no decisions will be made / only direction provided to staff, are sometimes scheduled on the Mondays in between Council meetings. 
Agenda packets are generally posted to the City’s website on Thursday before the Monday meeting. Agenda packets (agenda + staff reports and supporting documentation) can be found on the Council Meeting Page. This page also includes information on how to participate in meetings remotely (must pre-register) or in-person. To speak in person at the meeting, you must arrive before the meeting start to sign a speakers roster in the lobby. Staff are available to assist.
Council meetings can be remotely watched real time on the City of Salem’s YouTube Channel in partnership with CCTV media. Video playback of the meeting is also available on the You Tube Channel.
TIPS FOR PROVIDING ORAL PUBLIC COMMENT:
Generally, 3 minutes are provided to each person; however, with large crowds the mayor at her discretion can shorten that time to less.
• Script your comments to remain within time. If there is the possibility of reduced time have a 3 minute and a 2 minute version. 
• Practice, practice, practice. Time will run out faster than you expect.
• Get to the point, quickly. 
• What is the ask or the question? What do you want Council or staff to do? 
• Share personal or direct impacts. Authentic emotion is ok.
• Reference facts and sources if you have them; they add a lot of credibility to the comment. Split up issues among speakers to cover as much material as possible.
• You can share documentation with the recorder, which will be shared with council and incorporated into the public record for the meeting.
City Council Meeting: July 27, 2026, 6:00 p.m. Loucks Auditorium
Click on the agenda for the Council meeting to review three staff reports. Scroll to the agenda items below for the Verrus-related reports. 
Item5.1 is an overview of the Verrus Project by the City Manager and Community Planning & Development Director. The update includes “the current status of the proposal, activities to date, anticipated review process, and planned public engagement.” The current zoning already allows a data center as a use within the Employment Center classification. A pre-application was submitted to initiate technical conversations with staff – no commitments or approvals have been made by the City. The developer, Verrus, applied for and has “received approval for a standard three-year Enterprise Zone property tax exemption from Marion County under an existing state-authorized program.” If Verrus submits a formal application for Oakline at Mill Creek, the status of the development application will be available on the City’s website. The proposed project is located in Ward 3, Councilor Shane Matthews. [Likely not an if, but a when.]
Item 5.2is a motion by Councilor Micki Varney, Ward 8 (W. Salem) requesting Council support to “direct staff to explore options [italics added] for prohibiting the City from entering into non-disclosure agreements with entities seeking to develop land in Salem for use as a data center.”
Item 5.3is a motion by Councilor Micki Varney for Council to authorize a Task Force, which would be “Empowered to evaluate available [data center] models at the national, state, and community level, and draft recommendations for a principle-driven approach to managing data center growth [italics added] within the Salem region. The report would be due by December 31, 2026. [This task force would likely have no bearing on the current proposed Verrus project since a formal application is expected soon.]