Hillsboro: Sabrina Cotta Accepts Assistant City Manager Job, Water Department Report Says

Sabrina Cotta, who became Ashland’s city manager in 2024, has accepted a job as a Hillsboro assistant city manager, according to a director’s report in the city Utilities Commission’s Oct. 13 meeting packet. The report says she will manage a “Community Infrastructure and Growth portfolio” covering Water, Economic and Community Development, Public Works, and Sustainability and Resiliency.

The announcement is a short section on page 94 of the Oct. 13 Utilities Commission packet, on Hillsboro Water letterhead. It does not give a start date or salary. Neither does the Oct. 20 council packet or the City Manager’s Office web page, the other city records we checked.

From Ashland to Hillsboro

According to the report, Cotta joined Ashland as deputy city manager in 2022 before becoming city manager. It lists a master’s degree in political science from the University of Arizona, a master of public administration from the University of Alaska Anchorage, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Colorado State University.

The report does not mention how her time in Ashland ended. OPB reported Oct. 9 that the Ashland City Council had approved a separation agreement under which she would leave Oct. 16 with 12 months of severance, about $228,000, and which states she resigned voluntarily for reasons unrelated to the quality of her work.

What sits in the new portfolio

Each of the four areas named in the report has open work in recent city packets, starting with the data center rules. Here is what the documents show.

• Economic and Community Development: The data center and battery storage code changes reached the council in an Oct. 6 memo from this department. It describes a second code phase on design standards, plus environmental and economic studies that will also inform “discussions about the Enterprise Zone policy to take place in 2027” (Oct. 20 council packet, p. 85).
• Data center moratorium (same department): The same memo says the council enacted a 120-day moratorium on new data center and battery storage development on July 27, and may extend it six months if it shows “reasonable progress.” The council adopted the first-phase limits Oct. 20, as we reported.
• Water: The Oct. 13 commission agenda listed resolutions setting water rates and fees for retail and wholesale customers (p. 2). A separate Joint Water Commission report dated Oct. 16 says a leaking 42-inch pipeline link at Jackson Bottom was taken offline, and repairs are now expected by the end of this year (p. 45).
• Public Works: A memo from the city’s facilities manager asked the council Oct. 20 to approve a three-year lease extension for the Tanasbourne police precinct. The memo says the new Police Headquarters is targeting construction completion in early 2028 (Oct. 20 packet, p. 53).
• Sustainability and Resiliency: Robin Straughan, the city’s Sustainability & Resiliency Manager, brought appointments to the Hillsboro 2035 Environmental Stewardship Committee to the council on Sept. 15 (Sept. 15 packet, p. 77).

How the job fits the city manager’s office

Those memos also show where this work was routed this fall. The Oct. 6 code memo and the Sept. 15 sustainability memo were addressed to City Manager Robby Hammond. The precinct lease memo went to Assistant City Manager Simone Brooks and Public Works Director Tom Arnold.

The City Manager’s Office leadership page, read Oct. 26, lists Hammond as overseeing Police, Finance, Information Services and the City Manager’s Office. It lists Brooks over Human Resources, the Library, Community Services, the Communications Division, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Neither list includes Fire or Parks and Recreation.

The same page says the office “is seeking two new strategic leaders” as assistant city managers and that recruitment “is underway.” The water report names only Cotta. None of the documents we reviewed names a second hire or explains how current reporting lines will change once she starts.

When she may appear in public

The report says Cotta “will be invited to a future Utilities Commission meeting, as soon as she settles into her new role.” That commission, which the city charter gives general authority over the water system, listed a public comment period on its Oct. 13 agenda, with three minutes per speaker.

People who want to speak virtually must register with the Water Department by noon on the meeting day, according to the Oct. 13 agenda, by calling 503-615-6702. The commission’s calendar in the same packet lists its next meetings on Nov. 10 and Dec. 8 (p. 95). The report does not say which one she will attend.

Top image: File photo, 2019: Ashland City Hall in Ashland, Oregon. Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).