A new group has formed and is demanding transparency from Columbia County government.
The group, which is called Citizens for Open Governance, Columbia County, Ga., was formed after several community members began talking and sharing information and opinions about recent things happening in Columbia County, including the development of the proposed data center, said member Alan Wyatt.
“We just cannot really believe the extent to which our government has been opaque and purposefully avoiding transparency to make this data center deal happen,” Wyatt said. “So, we’re really focused on calling the local government to task, really demanding a return to full transparency, especially and vitally when it comes to massive developments like this when it affects thousands of citizens. Some of them it affects really hard because they’re going to value of the properties, they’re going to lose their way of life, and the county don’t seem to care. They continue to this day to be obfuscating all our efforts.”
Wyatt said the immediate goal is to stop the development of the proposed data center, to reverse the zoning decision and temporarily halt the project. Not stop it, just halt it until he says a full and thorough public hearing can be held regarding it.
“What we’re saying is let’s stop for a minute,” Wyatt said. “Let’s pause and reverse that zoning decision so it don’t go ahead and get the bulldozers out and start destroying this property and let’s have a proper review where we can learn from all the experiences of the dozens and dozens of data centers that have recently rolled out or are about to roll out.”
Wyatt said the group is also concerned with what they cite as a lack of transparency with the county. He cited an example of open records requests being denied, but others have been answered.
“We just put in an open records request, and they are denying them,” Wyatt said. “They are supposed to get back within three days, and they take a week or longer to respond, and then when they respond, they’re very terse and curt, and they’re not complying with the statue in anyways. I think we’re going to end up filing a complaint with the attorney general about it.”
Certain information is exempt from open records request, and if a request is denied, a reason must be given. Wyatt said the ORR that was denied was for a copy of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) between county commissioners, the Columbia County Development Authority and Trammell Crow, the developer of the proposed data center.
“They claim an exemption through the real estate exemption that is supposed to be applied very narrowly, but they claim that exemption,” Wyatt said. “However, that exemption does not apply when a binding commitment has occurred, especially a financial one. On Dec. 18, 2024, the development authority took out a loan for $30 million, bought some land and signed a purchase and sale agreement for $59 million with Trammel Crow. Both of those are binding commitments, so they should’ve released the NDA’s at that point. What they are saying is they don’t have to because an end user yet has not been found for the site, has not been identified and is still exempt, which is a ridiculous reason. They said there’s no binding commitment because an end user hasn’t been identified yet. So, if it’s not been identified, then why is there a non-disclosure agreement with an end user if it’s not been identified. You can see that they’re basically obfuscating here.”
The group has met a few times and plans to meet more in the upcoming weeks. For those who would like more information or to get involved, an email can be sent citizensforopengovernment@gmail.com.
