Piqua's City Commission Puts On a Show

Vol. III, No. 157 - Piqua's Commission Shows Obedeince to Everyone Except Residents

We Are Feeding our Neighbors here at Civic Capacity

Throughout November, this publication is giving our readers an opportunity where our readers can support local food pantries. Every dollar received from our “Buy Me a Coffee” Page will be given to New Path Food Pantries.

We started November with a modest goal to raise $750. After the third day of our campaign, our community raised $1,610. Our new goal for November is to raise $2,500. You can be a part of this effort by making a donation here:

Thanks to our donors who have generously given to this project yesterday: Aimee, David, Rachelle and three anonymous donors! Thank you!

A Commission Decision Made Months In Advance

Last night, I spent three hours watching the Piqua City Commission meeting and I didn’t get to watch all of it. Even though it can be reasonably argued that the City Commission did everything they could within their power to keep residents from not attending by having a meeting on a day and time that were not standard practice, dozens residents showed up, a clear majority of them having legitimate concerns on what a series of two large data centers would have on their community.

The decision is not one to be taken lightly. Any project that promises to bring hundreds of millions of dollars of investment should be thoroughly vetted and discussed. For all the faults of government, it’s one virtue is that it values deliberative processes. That’s why all throughout government, at all levels, procedures are structured to ensure that before decisions are made, thoughtful discourse takes place. Committee structures, three reading rules and citizen boards and commissions are often part of large decision making processes that ensure transparency and openness.

Last night in Piqua, the exact opposite occurred. An ordinance that was placed on the city’s website on Friday was adopted Monday night and will have significant ramifications for generations to come. The three-reading rule was waived to benefit no one but a developer and an emergency clause was added to keep the ordinance from being subject to a referendum.

To add insult to injury, the City Commission readily admitted that there was no emergency and they knew they were going to waive the three-reading rule. This was all decided well in advance. Everyone involved with this project, had November 3rd circled on their calendar and the 19-minute Executive Session that preceded the business portion of the meeting was nothing but a behind the scenes dress reherasal for the commission.

Commissioner Paul Simmons pretty much summed it before the open session. He had to leave to deal with a familiy emergency, but pretty much telegraphed how the evening was going to go. He said every piece of legislation dealing with the data center was going to pass unanimously.

Bascially, it was all a show. Except the audience knew the storyline better than the actors.

And it was a bad show and everyone knew it. The disucssion began as a city staff member gave a power point presentation that had as much passion as a cheesy infomercial that airs at two o’clock in the morning. The Commissioners were to be nothing but non-player characters throughout the entire charade. Their job was simple. Say “yes” when pointed to, don’t ask too many questions, toe the company line.

In the end, this decision was driven not by elected officials, but by developers and those on the second floor of the Municipal Government Complex. And through the entire process, the script has been written behind the scenes for months.

Fortunately, there was one resident who spoke up at the meeting and knew the plot from the very beginning.

His words pointedly showed that the heart of the issue wasn’t the data center, it was the abuse of government process that got the city to where they were last night. An abusive process that deflected questions and exposed the dishonesty of government officials. Here is this resident in his own words:

My name is Jonathan Wessel, and I live here in Piqua.

I know that there are many objections from my neighbors, some of which I share. Others are more hyperbolic, and even arguments for why this industry should exist at all.

To me the question tonight isn’t whether datacenters should exist — they already do, everywhere. The question for us is whether we want to host one here, under agreements that the City controls and benefits, or watch it go to another town and take the investment with it.

A lot of what I’ve seen online and heard here tonight compares this project to a fantasy benchmark — a hypothetical world where Piqua somehow lands a multi-hundred-million-dollar investment with no incentives, full taxation, and zero infrastructure obligations. A thousand jobs, with no additional traffic, no noise, no disruptions to anyone. Unfortunately, that world does not exist.

Some of the challenges are real – this global datacenter build-out will continue to put upward pressure on electric rates for example. This will happen whether this complex is built in Piqua, Sidney, or states away.

I am not going to stand here tonight and critique the “deal” before you. I think it’s a good deal.

What I will critique is the means that got us here.

If we go back to the January Commission meeting where these properties were annexed and re-zoned.

A member of the public came up and asked a very basic question:

“When you speak to future development, can you give me specifics of what that would look like?”

And we were told – paraphrasing - “blah blah blah , we seek the highest and best use, blah blah blah”

It was bureaucratic theater.

And before sitting down, Nick asked one more time:

“So you can’t speak to any specific businesses?”
And the response from staff was:
“This is a zoning designation request and nothing else.”

Nothing else.
That phrase rings differently now, doesn’t it?

Let’s rewind a little further — November 18, 2024, the Planning Commission meeting.
Multiple residents came to this podium asking completely legitimate questions:
How will this affect traffic? Drainage? Property values? Noise?
And one after another, City staff shrugged their shoulders and said:

“We don’t know yet — it’s too early.”
“the request this evening is a zoning designation, that IH designation could have different users, so I don’t know that there is ANY way that we could forecast anything one way or the other.”

I would encourage you to go back and watch the videos of those two meetings.

You will see highly intelligent professionals — people who absolutely knew what was coming — pretending not to.
You’ll see residents talked down to, dismissed, and told their concerns were “putting the cart before the horse.”

Because tonight’s agenda packet lays it out in black and white:
Back in August 2024, two months before that meeting, this City had already hired a Columbus law firm to, “assist with the Data Center project.”

So, the City knew exactly what was coming.
Yet the public was told — repeatedly — that staff had no idea, that this was all just “procedural.”

You employed a simple strategy: play dumb, keep the public in the dark, and move the project along one “harmless” step at a time.

When Staff and the Planning Commission told neighbors of these parcels in November that it was “too early” and that Staff and the Planning Commission were “just responding to an application,” that wasn’t true.

When staff told this body in January that they “didn’t know” what was planned, that wasn’t true either.

City leadership knew the intended use and scope of this project. There is no question - that very early on - they made some tacit evaluation of the feasibility and impacts before anything came into this Chamber.

And rather than level with the public - the City chose secrecy.

And now, a year later, we are told this is all that the deal is done, the contracts are signed, and the only thing left is our consent.

Gentleman, this isn’t Washington politics. This should not be “lets pass the bill so we can see what’s in it”. This is real. We are your neighbors.

The ends do not justify the means. You knew there would be public backlash to this, but that was on you to be transparent. I fully believe that coming here today and pretending that this is an emergency, is part of that strategy.

So I agree with my neighbors, its not an emergency; hear people out, let them digest this information.

Thank you

What we witnessed last night was not a government in action working for the benefit or the concerned of the governed. It was a government working for the benefit of people who probably couldn’t find Piqua on a map two years ago.

Piqua deserves better.

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In order to achieve that goal, the decision was made to release a small survey that would ask residents their thoughts and feelings every two months. Every month seemed excessive, yet, once a quarter didn’t seem quite frequent enough. The idea was to help create a picture of the sentiment in the community and measure that sentiment over time.

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A New Handbook to grow Civic Capacity!

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