The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted last night to amend county policy regarding non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, after facing criticism for its handling of a proposed data center earlier this year.
The updated policy shortens the maximum length of NDAs with developers from five years to two. It also requires that the board approve extensions to agreements lasting longer than six months.
Board Chair Jen Allen said the changes were a step in the right direction.
“Just to be clear, I don’t support NDAs in government,” she said. “That said, I think this policy is a great step towards putting in place transparency.”
The update means that the terms for any existing NDAs between Pima County and developers will need to be amended to reflect the new policy. Otherwise, they will become invalid.
NDAs were a point of contention last year following the board’s initial approval of the Project Blue data center. In that case, the agreements forced the county to conceal the identity of the project’s backers, which were later revealed to be Amazon and Beal Infrastructure.
At last night’s meeting, the board also voted to include large water and electricity users as projects eligible for the county’s “Enhanced Due Diligence” policy. This policy is essentially a more rigorous assessment of prospective projects’ impact on public health, historic preservation and the environment.
Under the new update, any project whose projected water use would be greater than 10,000 centum cubic feet (ccf) per month, or which would require construction or upgrade of a power station with at least 115 kilovolts of input, would be subject to a more thorough review process.
