EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso City Council has voted not to end the city’s incentive agreement with Meta for a massive data center.

The city council voted 5-3 during Tuesday’s meeting following nearly 200 public comments over whether to end the incentive agreement.

El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson and City Council members have said ending the agreement would put taxpayers at risk.

The discussion comes three years after the City Council first approved the agreement in 2023.

Then the City Council listened to public comment, with most voices in favor of cancelling the agreement and a few in favor of keeping it.

Urging council to cancel the Meta agreement, one El Pasoan said, “We’re gonna lose our water… and you’re afraid of litigation?”

Another speaker pointed out that they understood the possible financial consequences if the agreement is cancelled, but said it is the lesser of two evils, saying, “there’s not gonna be a happy ending to this.”

Meanwhile, two members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said they are in favor of keeping the agreement and the Meta data center going up because of the jobs.

“You’re killing opportunities, you’re killing careers, you’re killing dreams,” one speaker from IBEW said. “Don’t kill middle-class jobs.”

Another IBEW member told his personal experience detailing what it’s like to leave your hometown and family to look for work somewhere else.

It is important to note that the number of jobs the center is supposed to bring is 300 full-time employees to run it and 4,000 during the construction phase, according to Gary Demasi, the VP of data center development at Meta.

RELATED: Meta defends El Paso data center citing jobs, clean energy plans

Last week, Rep. Josh Acevedo and Rep. Lily Limon placed an item on Tuesday’s agenda seeking to end the city’s incentive agreement with Meta, citing concerns over water use, air quality and the long-term impact of a hyperscale data center.

“The idea here that my constituents have repeated to me is our water… our resources in our city are more important to us and we understand the risk of there being a lawsuit,” Acevedo said.

Johnson, however, stressed the importance of keeping the contract and said backing out could affect El Paso’s future.

“It’s a legally binding agreement with the city of El Paso, and if you are going to be in economic development. ” You gotta be moving the city forward, you cannot go back on your word, and this is something you have to know that El Paso is going to stand by our word,” Johnson said.

The city manager and city attorney said in a statement that the city can’t simply cancel the Meta agreement, warning it would be a financial risk to taxpayers.

Earlier this year, officials voted against offering incentives for future hyperscale data centers, but leaders stressed that the decision does not affect agreements already in place with private investors.

Below is the presentation that law firm Husch Blackwell prepared for the City detailing the Meta agreement.

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