EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Social media giant Meta expressed reluctance to the idea of a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) with El Paso before a vote by the City Council.
At the end of June, the council voted unanimously on the idea with Mayor Pro Tempore Alejandra Chavez, saying, “You miss 100 percent of the chances you don’t take.”
The agreement would address environmental protections, ratepayer safeguards, workforce development and resource protections among other proposed benefits as the social media company builds its $1.5 billion data center in the Northeast.
But the week before, Meta arranged a discussion between Northeast Rep. Cynthia Boyar-Trejo, City Attorney Karla Nieman, and the company’s Vice President of Economic Policy Probir Mehta.
In emails obtained by KTSM through the Texas Public Information Act, a Meta representative said the conversation would be to “discuss further why the CBA framing is challenging at this point.”
The messages describe at least three exchanges between Boyar-Trejo’s office and Meta in person or virtually. The discussions started the week of June 8, and the last message provided was on June 17.
Those discussions happened before a roundtable between Boyar-Trejo, Mayor Renard Johnson and other stakeholders at City Hall.
KTSM has reached out to Boyar-Trejo’s office, which represents the area where the data center is under construction, and Meta for comment.
The City Council directed City staff to have a draft of a proposed community benefit agreement to present Meta sometime in August, or 45 days after the vote took place on June 23.
And, there’ve been no other known roundtable discussions about what Meta could offer the El Paso community outside of its commitments in an incentive agreement with the city.
According to the emails, the Northeast representative’s office was in contact with Meta around the time of the council’s votes to begin negotiations to end the City’s incentives agreement with Meta, and, the following vote for the proposed community benefit agreement.
On June 16, Boyar-Trejo shared her community benefit agreement language with Meta, which would later appear on the council’s agenda.
“Please submit the letter of support this line item,” she wrote in her email.
A Meta representative replied, “Thank you for sharing this. I understand we are beyond the agenda deadline, but I did want to share some suggested alternate language for you to consider. I would also love to set up time with you and our VP of Economic Policy to discuss further why the CBA framing is challenge at this point in our project.”
While the language she sent to Meta ultimately was unchanged, Meta suggested changes to the agenda item and removed the word “action” from the proposal. A company representative also crossed out a section of the Boyar-Trejo’s language.
In the crossed-out section, the company representative removed the word “action” on the city manager and attorney from negotiating a draft of the community benefits agreement proposal, which the council ultimately decided unanimously.
Veronica Carbajal, an organizer for the Sembrando Esperanza Coalition, said she was encouraged to see the council call on Meta to do more for the El Paso community. But she said the emails further highlight concerns about the company’s willingness to listen to the community.
“Meta is not serious about the community agreement,” she said. “They’re not serious about protecting us against the effects that they know from their operations elsewhere.”
Meta has also not committed to holding public meetings to hear feedback from the general public about its project. But in emails with Boyar-Trejo they did appear to welcome more roundtable discussions with an independent moderator.
In an interview with KTSM, Meta’s Public Policy Director Ana Martinez said the company is forming a regional manager position for the area.
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