Fulton County Area Plan Commission and Data Center Ordinance Committee Sued

FULTON COUNTY, Ind. (WSBT) — The Fulton County Area Plan Commission and Data Center Ordinance Review Committee are being sued by a resident who believes they are not complying with Indiana’s Open Door Law.

They’ve decided that transparency is not that important,” said Richard O’Neill, a Fulton County resident suing the Area Plan Commission.

Back in March, county commissioners voted 2-1 to approve a one-year data center moratorium, as talk of a possible data center in Akron picked up.

After that vote, the data center review committee was formed to review regulations and look at how other communities handle data centers.

But some residents said they’re concerned the public can’t attend or even listen in on those meetings.

I’m suing them to get an injunction to stop this committee until such time that they’re willing to have public meetings. So you don’t want the public there, fine, live stream it. They wouldn’t do that. So you have to ask yourself, what do they want to hide?” said O’Neill.

Other community members weighed in on the transparency issues.

When the committee was formed, the county attorney and Area Plan decided to place in the regulations that this committee would be closed to the public. Several people argued this decision and requested it not be closed so the community could feel involved. I stressed and stated at the Area Plan meeting on March 30th that currently the public trust with our local government is at an all time low and this committee not honoring the open door law would only make things worse,” said James Zimmerman, Fulton County resident.

Indiana’s Open Door Law states:

“Government agencies must hold official meetings of a majority of their governing body, such as council or board meetings, publicly. As a citizen, you have the right to attend and record these meetings.”

But the committee said it doesn’t have to follow that law because it’s not considered a “governing body.”

WSBT22 reached out to the committee’s executive director, but has not yet received a response.

The county attorney feels that they’re in the right and my attorney feels we’re in the right. So we’ll find out from the court,” said O’Neill.

O’Neill said that he’s currently waiting for a different judge to be appointed to his case to set a court date, which should be any day now.