Sen. Steve Padilla hosts El Centro town hall

EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA) - California State Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat who represents California's 18th District, hosted a town hall forum for the residents of Imperial County to discuss community concerns and lingering questions.

One of the biggest topics of the night was data center accountability.

Sen. Padilla authored Senate Bill (SB) 886 to protect rate payers from the impacts of massive AI data centers.

The senator previously clashed with the Imperial County Board of Supervisors, demanding the data center project halt due to lack of transparency.

"You're going to tell the truth and be transparent. No secret meetings, no cute little movement. You're going to be open and honest with the community about what those impacts are," he warned.

In addition, Padilla spoke about SB 887, which ensures all data centers comply with environmental standards.

Padilla also touched on SB 420 which he amended to prevent nonprofits connected to private immigration detention centers from claiming charitable property tax status.

"I have another bill that will address another situation that I found out about here in Imperial and that is giving tax breaks to supposed non-profits that are used to finance private companies under contract to the federal government to run  an immigration detention facility," he said.

This comes as a report, released by KPBS, discovered that the Imperial Regional Detention Facility is linked to a nonprofit, as the facility's real estate is owned by the Brawley Community Foundation, which operates as its landlord.