In less than 15 minutes Wednesday, Emporia city commissioners approved 2 resolutions putting data center-related petitions on the November ballot.
Commissioners voted unanimously to put before voters a petition barring data centers for up to 10 years. They also voted, again unanimously, to have residents vote on a petition banning battery energy storage systems. Both questions will be up for public votes November 3. They will be listed as Questions 2 and 3 on the ballot, following the 0.25-percent sales tax question to fund a new public recreation center at Jones Aquatic Center and major renovations to Lee Beran Rec Center near downtown.
City commissioners say last week’s ruling by Kansas Senior Judge Glenn Braun ordering the commission to put the data center petition on the ballot made it natural to put the battery system petition in front of voters as well. Commissioner Kurt Steinkuhler:
Commissioner Monica Duncan says there is another consideration:
The city says it still holds the right to seek legal reviews on the petitions and their enforceability, enactment, implementation, legality and publication.
As the conversations now move towards votes November 3, Steinkuhler tells KVOE News he wants residents to put in the homework before they decide.
City Commissioner Tammi Ogle agrees
The decision by Judge Braun to put the data center petition on the ballot before any sort of hearing to determine whether the requests are legislative in nature, meaning they will be validated, or administrative, meaning they likely won’t, has commissioners concerned. Duncan says the City Commission asked for the declaratory judgment because it wanted to avoid that possibility.
Ogle is worried about the potential blowback from residents if that process happens, but she is also worried about other components of the data center process.
In a separate but related vote to data center policy, commissioners voted 5-0 to approve a resolution allowing offers for external legal assistance as the city works through a lot of information about data centers — and as work continues to secure a potential end user for a roughly 1,000-acre campus in west Emporia. Project spokesman Garrett Nordstrom isn’t naming potential partners, but he says the process is getting close to finalizing an end user. He also says more potential end users have joined the conversation as things have moved forward this month.
Click here for KVOE YouTube channel, including a YouTube Short from the City Commission meeting.
6:10 am Wednesday: Special City Commission meeting Wednesday may put petitions on November ballot
A special meeting is ahead Wednesday for the Emporia City Commission.
The board will meet at noon at the Municipal Court Room to discuss 2 petitions related to halting data center operations, one to stop data centers outright for a decade and another to stop the use of battery energy storage systems.
Kansas Senior Judge Glenn Braun has told the City Commission the data center petition has to go on the ballot, and commissioners are looking at adding it to the November 3 election slate. There is no such decision on the books, at least for now, for the battery storage petition.
Approval means both petitions go onto the general election ballot.
The agenda also includes an item for the city to authorize retaining outside legal counsel as the City Commission continues considering information about the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus data center project.
The public can attend but can’t comment due to the special meeting nature.
