Findlay cancels closed-door data center briefing

FINDLAY — A planned closed-door briefing on data centers for Findlay City Council was cancelled Wednesday afternoon just hours before it was set to take place. Mayor Christina Muryn sent a blanket email to council members and several city officials at 2:30 a.m. cancelling the meeting. In a statement issued by the mayor's office later Wednesday afternoon, Muryn said the meeting was cancelled "at the request of a number of city council members" due to concerns about transparency. The briefing was expected to include a presentation from the New Albany Economic Development group, a public entity that manages the New Albany International Business Park, home to Intel's $28 billion semiconductor campus. Muryn said she organized the virtual meeting because representatives from New Albany have served as a resource for communities across Ohio to learn more about how that city "has thoughtfully considered data center development over the past few decades, their lessons learned and recommendations on what questions we should be asking." Council has been actively discussing data centers for months. A 12-month moratorium on data center construction is already in place until April 2027, and the Planning and Zoning Committee has spent recent meetings reviewing a sweeping set of proposed regulations. To comply with Ohio's open meeting laws, Muryn said no specific discussion of Findlay's zoning or council members' opinions would have been permitted, and no action would have been taken at the meeting. "This is similar to if council members were to attend an Ohio Municipal League Seminar and all sit in on a session related to a topic of interest in front of them. This is not a violation of the open meetings law, unless they were to begin deliberating or discussing their specific plans for Findlay," she said. State law defines a meeting as any prearranged gathering of a majority of council members to discuss public business. The Ohio Attorney General's Sunshine Laws Manual says informational briefings and training sessions are treated as public meetings when a majority is present and public business will be discussed. Virtual gatherings are treated the same as in-person gatherings. Public bodies are required to give advance notice of meetings, deliberate and act on public business in sessions open to the public and keep minutes available for inspection. "Transparency is a top priority for me and for council, especially on such a complex and contentious issue. I do still believe that council and the public are best served when members of council have opportunities to learn and prepare themselves to engage in thoughtful, informed discussions with the public," she said. The mayor's statement also included a link for the presentation New Albany officials were expected to present to council: datacenters.newalbanyohio.org.