‘I Own the Vote,’ Mayor Frank Figueroa

As Some Coachella Residents Point Fingers of Blame for Proposed Data Center Getting Close to Reality, Mayor Says, ‘I Own the Vote’

COACHELLA — Residents, passionate about this community they call home, have managed to sever a potentially abusive relationship the city partnered with just three months ago. Now, residents want accountability. So far, only Mayor Frank Figueroa has stepped forward to say, “I own the vote.”

My question was blunt. Why did you vote for the proposed Data Center?

Figeroa’s response was equally blunt.

“I didn’t vote for a data center,” he said firmly and forcefully.

“I voted for the municipal electricity agreement,” he said without missing a beat. “I voted for it because of the potential growth that Coachella could gain from it. It was to grow and expand in the green fields. They kept calling it a technology campus, which now was just a fancy word for a data center.”

According to minutes of the Feb. 25, 2026 City Council meeting, then-Mayor Steven Hernandez, then-Mayor Pro Tem Figueroa, Councilmembers Denise Delgado, Stephanie Virgen and Yadira Perez voted unanimously to approve a Municipal Utility Agreement with Coachella Valley Power Services, LLC for Implementation of the city’s Municipal Electric Utility. Stronghold Power Systems Inc. was to build a data center campus.

But did everyone know and understand what they were approving? Apparently not given the uproar in the community, the protests, the hundreds of people standing in line outside City Hall urging the City Council to implement a ban on data centers.

Virgen, Delgado and Perez have all pledged open communication and transparency. None responded to texts, emails and/or phone calls seeking comment on this question of why they voted to support a data center.

Why not? What are they afraid of or hiding? Did they blindly follow the leader at the time, former Mayor Steven Hernandez?

Some have blamed City Attorney Ryan Guiboa, a partner at Best Best & Krieger and are calling for the city to find new legal firm to represent the community. At a recent public meeting some residents accused BB&K of representing Stronghold and the city of Coachella simultaneously and not watching out for the city’s best interests.

“Best Best & Krieger does not represent Stronghold Power Systems,” Guiboa told Uken Report. “In our role as City Attorney, all work by BBK regarding the Municipal Utility Development Agreement between the City of Coachella and Stronghold has been performed on behalf of the City and adverse to Stronghold.”

Still, the City Council agenda for Wednesday, June 10, calls for a “Discussion whether to Issue a Request for Qualifications for City Attorney Legal Services.”

That so-called technology campus was to be built on agricultural land near the intersection of Fillmore Street and Avenue 52. It was to be a focal point of what had been pitched to the council as a larger plan to pay for the buildout of electrical infrastructure that would open the northeastern part of the city to development. As part of the process, Stronghold was to find a company or other user that would operate the data center.

That’s how the city almost came to have a relationship with a data center.

On April 8, the city’s short-lived relationship was immediately strained as a young woman by the name of Stephanie Ambriz took over the microphone and laid the issue bare during public comments.

“I was supporting community members in Imperial months ago at a protest they mobilized for,” Ambriz told Uken Report. Many of us have understood the harmful impacts of data centers since then. Before we knew the city of Coachella had plans for data centers in our community. In conversation with community members in Imperial they mentioned that in an IID presentation they referenced a data center project in Coachella and asked how that was going. I had no idea what they were referring to. A few weeks later, I came across the GPS business insider article that discussed the ‘Coachella Valley Technology Campus.’ From there we spread the word.”

The Coachella City Council has agreed to a moratorium, which is expected to lead to a ban on data centers.

“It’s not over until there is a permanent ban, but glad we learned about it before it got too far ahead of us,” Ambriz said. “Lots of residents and organizers have helped to fight this thing.”