Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Oregon city council provided an update at the Feb. 16 committee of the whole meeting on the previous week’s news that there was a debate on whether a vote to give an extension to potential data center developer, Will Turner, of Capacity LLC, did or didn’t pass.
The city’s acting law director, Chynna Fifer, said that she spent a lot of time reviewing the vote, which was 3-2 (with one abstention) in favor of the extension, but presumed to have failed as it didn’t receive the four-vote majority of the full council.
“What it really comes down to is whether Oregon's charter and ordinances establish what a majority is,” she said. “There are two different parts within the charter and the ordinances that address it. One says a majority, or a majority of people that are present. (The other) says a majority of people who are present and voting. When I went through the (attorney general’s) opinions, really what that came down to was that this abstention was based on a conflict of interest, and Roberts Rules would state that they can't force someone not to vote. But the problem is if that person had that conflict of interest, and it's involving money, they'd be violating the revised code and potentially committing a felony.
“So what the rules really state then is that that vote is to be treated as not a vote. You shouldn't even call it a vote. If someone's abstaining because of conflict of interest, we don't take that into consideration. So it is complex. I think (councilman Steve) Hornyak is correct. I also believe that it did pass, but it's not so clear-cut as to just say it's an easy read and for certain. I can say that I did write a memorandum to the AG’s office where I go through not only revised code, Oregon's code, as well as Robert's Rules hoping that that would expedite it for them to make a decision. I haven't received a response yet, but I'm hoping it will be soon.”
Prior to Fifer’s statement, Hornyak said he believed that it did pass, and he is confident the state will concur. He said he received emails shortly after the prior week’s regular council meeting questioning how it failed. He said he is presenting those emails to the clerk of courts for the official record.
“I wanted to consult the charter before I moved on a challenge to the outcome of the vote,” he said. “We're still pending a review from the Attorney General to make sure it's there. I do believe when it comes back, it's going to say that the motion passed and that we will move forward with that extension. My reading of the charter supports that, and I think many others have as well. We'll wait for that coming back.”
Hornyak also shared that a United States senator from Missouri has proposed a bill in the Senate dealing with data centers in terms of equitable use of power, water, and priority of power. It includes that the developers would have to commit to self-generation within a 10-year period for any existing or new data centers across the United States.
“It is very important, very strong legislation,” he said. “Once you get to know it, I'd strongly recommend letting your representatives know. Let our representatives know from the House, let our representatives know from the Senate (that) this is something that we support because I think it can help all communities nationwide muddle through this as opposed to one community of 20,000 trying to take this on. It's a very positive thing that it's in there, and hopefully, once we get a final ruling back from the Attorney General, we will come forward either with a special meeting or at an official meeting, which a committee of the whole is not considered an official meeting, to address the vote from last week and the three to two carry through on whether that was properly called or incorrectly called, and we will make the adjustment as needed.”
Councilwoman Beth Ackerman said that even if the vote didn’t pass, the potential project isn’t necessarily dead.
“After the way the vote went down, regardless of the outcome, there was a lot of hoopla about,” she said. “‘It's killed. It's dead. It's never going to come now. It's over with. They ruined it. They destroyed it.’ The very next day, I got a call from Will Turner. I know the mayor did, too, I believe. I don't know who all else. (Councilman Paul) Gibbs, (it) maybe sounds like you had a call from Mr. Turner. It is not by any stretch of the imagination done.
“I think all of the people that are spreading all of the hate about it and running to all of the assumptions, might want to refer to the guy who's actually making the deal. And it's not dead in his eyes. I don't know why they feel confident to run around and call it a dead project in their eyes here locally when I heard it from the horse's mouth. We had a very long conversation about the multifaceted reasons I voted the way I did, and some of that being, you said you wouldn't do this, now you're doing this, and a lot of that had to do with the load study changes. Everybody that's been there, the Facebook warriors, maybe get your facts before you run to a conclusion about what you think is going to happen based on a vote that we don't even know the real outcome of yet. Mr. Turner said it's not. He's not going to throw it in because of that extension deal. He's smart enough to wait to see what the outcome actually is. People might want to just check on the facts first.”
Accusations thrown around
At the beginning of the meeting, several residents spoke and made accusations of improper behavior on both sides of the data center argument regarding Facebook posts.
Another resident, Joe Upham, was upset that council members even voted against the extension when it was just a fact-finding mission instead of an approval of the project.
“(The) city administrator, his job is to guide you guys, right?” he said. “And multiple times last week, he said, 'We vote this stuff through, we can get all the answers we need.' Right? So you guys just said. 'Eh, we don't care what you say.' And you voted no. How is that good for the community, not to find all the answers that we want to find out before we say 'yay' or 'nay' on a data center or just shoo it away?
“To me, that is not for the community at all. I don't care if I win or lose on it. I am for the data center. I will say that. But to not list everything out is not wise. It's not good for the community. We could have something great here, and it could be something horrible. We don't know. How do you find out? By moving forward. You don't commit, but you move forward, and we didn't do that.
“Hopefully, the voting numbers are right because technically it should be we won 3-2 to move forward. And that's it. Just move forward. Not win the data center. You guys have to look at it that way. I've already come up here before about working together. We don't pay, and we don't vote for you guys to hate on each other. You have to work together, or we can't win the game. We all have the same end game. We all want what's great for Oregon, right? That's why we're here. Let's start working together, please.”
Acting city administrator Paul Roman also issued a statement that reiterated the extension was not an approval of the project.
“This purchase cannot go through unless the economic development agreement is approved by the city council,” he said. “I'm going to say that again. (The) purchase cannot take place until the economic development agreement is passed by this council. There's also a CRA agreement that would be its own ordinance. If they do vacate Wynnscape, that is another ordinance. All three of those things would have to be approved before any purchase would go through, okay? Just to make that really clear.”
Items for council
Following that, the regular business of the meeting included 16 items that were approved to be moved to the Feb. 23 regular council meeting.
The first one is to award a contract to Mosser Construction for the Corduroy Road bridge replacement project over Otter Creek for $1,364,454.78. There is a grant in the amount of $817,377 through the ODOT Municipal Bridge Replacement Program that will reduce the city’s cost significantly. The new bridge will replace a 50-year-old one that was a pre-stressed box beam bridge.
“Some of the strands and things are starting to fail on that bridge,” the city’s deputy director and acting public service director Rodney Shultz said. “There's a lot of infiltration of water getting through the existing structure, so that's kind of what caused it to deteriorate. The new bridge will be a three-sided, 28-foot span precast concrete flat-top structure.”
Ackerman questioned the city’s responsibilities with it being so close to the Toledo-Oregon border.
“The Corduroy Bridge itself is maintained and operated by the city,” Shultz said. “It's listed as our responsibility. But Toledo is on the north side with their water plant. They did grant the easements at no cost to us. They know it's a benefit to them as well. It is our bridge to maintain and operate.”
Shultz estimates that the project should be completed by the end of the summer.
The second item was for a purchase order to BCV Systems for preventative maintenance work on a Siemens high-speed geared turbo compressor at the wastewater plant.
The next seven items were for annual contracts that the city enters into for as-needed work for items such as providing technical support for the wastewater treatment plant, underwater inspections at the water treatment plant or if the city needs to get into large storm sewers or sanitary pipes, construction testing and material inspections on city projects, traffic engineering support services, and for appraisal, acquisition, and negotiation services on larger city projects.
Another was to retain legal services with a law firm that specializes in public financing and economic development projects. Another allows the police department to enter into an agreement for its continued participation in the Federal Equitable Sharing Program, which is for when the police work with federal partners on large cases and there’s forfeiture of property or cash, and those items need divvied up. Another one that encompasses two items issues purchase orders for a company that specializes in the servicing of big fire trucks, the ladder towers, and engines. In the case that a purchase order of this size (over $25,000) is needed during the year, an ordinance is required. The final three items are related to portable toilets and lawn care at the city’s parks, as well as renewing a contract with Coca-Cola as the city’s soft drink provider.
“They've been our contracted soft drink provider for the last five years,” the city’s parks and recreation commissioner Tim Borton said. “Their contract is up, so we got proposals from them and Pepsi. Coke is slightly better on the financial side of things. Also, we've had Pepsi in the past, and Coke the last five years has done a much better job of servicing us than Pepsi did at the time of their contract. We’re excited to be able to continue that with Coke.”
