Mold Remediation in Hillsboro, OR

Wells Fargo plans to cut hundreds of employees as the lender closes two locations in Oregon, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices filed Tuesday.

Wells Fargo will pull out of the namesake office building of William Barnhart Center in Hillsboro and the chief operating office of the global operations business unit in Salem, the lender notified city and state officials.

There are around 500 and 221 employees at the Hillsboro and Salem offices, respectively, who will be impacted, the WARN notice said.

“We continue to bring the majority of our non-customer facing positions together in locations best suited for our customers and our company,” a Wells Fargo spokesperson told Banking Dive via email. “This effort does not impact our commitment to serving customers and clients; Bank branches and Wells Fargo Advisors branches will continue to meet customers’ and clients’ needs for the best service and advice.”

Wells Fargo has been exiting some of its prominent real-estate locations recently. The lender reportedly wants to sell its San Francisco headquarters, which might be up for sale as early as this month, The Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.

Though the staff at both locations were notified of the business changes on Tuesday, the San Francisco-based lender expects the formal notices of displacement to go out to the affected employees in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Every staff member will be given a 60-day notice period from the day they receive formal notice of termination - those not relocating or securing internal positions will receive severance benefits proportional to years of service and continued health plan participation at active employee rates for a specified duration.

The lender noted that specific details on job titles, notice dates, and the number of displaced employees will be communicated after official written notices are issued.

“Impacted employees will receive severance, career assistance, and other services to assist them in this transition,” the spokesperson noted.

Wells Fargo has been shrinking its headcount for several quarters, including cutting 317 of its staff in the Des Moines area this year.

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In October, Wells Fargo said its global operations business offices in Hillsboro, Portland and Salem are anticipated to shut down by the end of next year as it consolidates its operations elsewhere, according to The Oregonian.

The lender has culled around 400 employees in the last couple of years at its Hillsboro offices, according to the publication.

In a letter to its staff obtained by The Oregonian, Wells Fargo executive Michael Grossberg said the company plans to consolidate its global operations, reducing its presence from over 150 markets to fewer locations. The lender told its employees in February that it aims to unify its operations into 13 geographic locations centering around major cities, including San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, St. Louis, Charlotte, and New York, the publication reported.

Wells Fargo on Wednesday told state workforce officials it will lay off 500 workers in Hillsboro and 221 workers in Salem.

The bank previously said it will pull out of offices in Hillsboro, Portland and Salem in 2025 as it consolidates operations elsewhere.

“We continue to bring the majority of our non-customer facing positions together in locations best suited for our customers and our company,” a Wells Fargo spokesperson said in an email. “This effort does not impact our commitment to serving customers and clients; Bank branches and Wells Fargo Advisors branches will continue to meet customers’ and clients’ needs for the best service and advice.”

Wells Fargo ranks No. 4 in deposit market share among banks in Oregon with 12% of the state’s deposits, according to the latest data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It has 74 offices — including its retail bank branches — in the state.

The bank announced 95 layoffs in Hillsboro in July after cutting 316 workers in the Portland suburb in 2023.

It’s unclear what operations the bank housed at the impacted Hillsboro location.

The Salem office was part of the bank’s global operations business, which is separate from Wells Fargo bank branches, and supports consumer and commercial banking and other corporate functions.

Impacted workers at both locations were notified on Tuesday, according to letters the bank sent to state workforce officials. Workers who don’t transfer will get severance that includes a period of health insurance coverage.

“Wells Fargo is committed to supporting our displaced employees and provides severance, career assistance, and other services to assist them,” the bank said in the letter to workforce officials. “We will make every effort to minimize the impact and ease the transition for our affected employees.”

This story has been updated to include information about the Hillsboro layoffs, which were announced after the Salem layoffs.

mkish@oregonian.com or @matthewkish.

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The Hillsboro Herald regularly tracks the happenings at Hillsboro City Hall, at least to the best of our ability we do. It is hard to get information and answers from the current city structures, which move things through very quickly and with limited chances for citizen input. Tonight at 6 PM at the Civic Center, the Hillsboro Finance Committee will approve a massive spending package on a wide variety of City buildings and programs. Some lucky City staff will get nice increases in their salaries. The Fire Department is finally getting its new station in South Hillsboro. The Lodging Tax (Hotel/Motel/Air BNB) will be extended into the future and will need to fund $26 Million for the Hops Stadium and the Wingspan convention space. And the list goes on and on.

Your Water bill (Utility Bill) is taking another big hit because Intel and Genentech are no longer contributing to maintaining our local roads. Buckle up, folks—you can look forward to years and years of this to continue unfettering how things have been going. Take a quick scan of the items on the agenda tonight. At the bottom is all the info for attending the meeting tonight in person or on Zoom.

Here is what City Manager Hammond wrote to the Finance Committee- “The reclassifications and wage adjustments in our recommendation involve a higher or different level and type of work, significant change in position responsibilities and/or an urgent business need of the department. The following reclassification and wage adjustment requests reflect an immediate need for implementation mid-biennium.”

Here are the positions getting Pay Increases:

Congrats to all the City emplyees about to get a nice bump in Salary and benefits during such a difficult economic time.

That brings the recommendations to the City Council of over $50,000,000. A lot of dollars, no matter how you look at it. And once open, all of the physical assets will cost many times that to run, staff, and equip.

Last Issue- and it’s a biggie: YOUR WATER/Utility BILL IS GOING UP AGAIN, AND AGAIN –

So, the money coming to the City through the SIP agreements ran out from Intel and Genentech. Now that money has dried up, they must find someone else to pay for our roads’ maintenance. So that shortfall is being put onto the Utility/Water bills going out to everyone in the City of Hillsboro, and you will be paying more. Going into tonight cost allocation tables and information were missing from the meeting packet. After emailing the City last night, the staff has now put a proposed rate increase document into the packet. Here is a look at what this newest, of several increases we have seen lately, will do to utility bills.

But the biggest concern may be who uses the roads and generates the most traffic and whether big employers like Intel and Genentech, who generate a massive percentage of the total traffic, are getting off easy. I think they are.

So what is an SIP, and how do these work?:

Reporting on this isn’t easy—not because I do not understand it, but because neither the City nor the County has been able to provide individual analysis on the outcomes of each of the SIP Deals. This is ludicrous because it is all accounting, and every dime is on their systems. But that is a fight for another day!

What about the Intel SIPs? Well, if you are into this stuff and can help us figure out how this has worked out, just dive into this link here – it is hundreds of percentages more money than the Genentech deal-

The net effect is that you will pay more for your water/utility bill, as these proposed new fees are being charged to fix our roads. Companies will pay less now that the SIP agreements are no longer chipping in.

I reported a lot of information and agenda items here. You can catch up on it here: https://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/128356/4820. You can also attend the meetings and ask questions.

Lastly, always remember to reach out to your City Council and Mayor and share your thoughts- follow the link here and go to the City Council meetings. https://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/our-city/departments/city-manager-s-office/hillsboro-101/contact-the-city-council

MEETING INFO

Finance Committee Meeting – 6 pm – Teleconference

For help with Zoom, read the Instructions for Joining and Participating in a Webinar or see Zoom’s Frequently Asked Questions.

Zoom Teleconference

Phone: 1-253-215-8782 or 1-301-715-8592

Meeting ID: 813-4024-3051

Password: 582574

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81340243051?pwd=aDI1Rjdmb1MvR2tWd3dPbVVnbkErdz09

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