432. One. Chair calls to order public hearing for bill 260 ten low. Sapp amendment. Length of
service. Award. Program benefits. I'm going to go ahead and do the presentation on this.
first of all, I want to thank our firefighters for being here tonight. I thank them for
everything they do for our community. I threw a couple notes down here and I just said,
our community members and volunteers have been coming to our aid in time of need for
fire, literally as far back as we can document from bucket brigades, horse drawn carts to
modern day apparatus, million and a half dollar engines, $2.5 million aerial units. The
personal gear, $5,000 apiece. And the technology that they need today to keep them safe.
they continue to volunteer their time for us protecting or saving our lives and property
every day. Our volunteers continue to be the backbone of our fire service. Harford
county's length of service award program was established in 1975. It's to find a small
way to recognize and give back to our volunteers for the critical service they provide.
I've had the honor and privilege to amend this program twice, working with chief hurst,
the harford county volunteer fire and ems association and others. In 2020, we did one
amendment, and in 2022 we did a second amendment to enhance the program, making it more
beneficial to the volunteers while providing a valuable tool to enhance our recruitment and
retention efforts. We know that it's cost us now what it costs us now to for a paid ems
service with 17 units on the road and 17 units in waiting if we need them. The challenges
that we face in trying to find personnel to service those units. Mr. Overbay is here
tonight. I'm sure he could. He could attest to that. And retaining those positions. To
date, we're budgeted about $60 million annually for ems service. The county treasury
has shown last year there was a balance in the volunteer firefighters trust fund of over
$47 million, up from 39,000,000 in 2022. It continues to grow while paying 788 payees in the
system. The legislation will change the monthly benefit for these dedicated volunteers from
$325 a month to $375, as I said to county auditors, fiscal note shows the 788 788 payees in the
system, and this bill will cost the county an additional $550,000 annually, with a total
investment of about 2 million a year for our firefighters losap program. We also know that if
we are forced to go to a full time paid fire service, the first year will be well over
$200 million. And I hate to talk about the cost that they're saving us, but it's
it's real. Seeing the success that we've had with a blend. And chief covey can talk about
that. A blend of career people with volunteers at abington, at the new station there with paid
drivers and firefighters. It's extremely successful. This has helped with reducing response
times again, ultimately helping to save lives and property. I want to thank all of my
colleagues for cosponsoring this legislation, and we believe it's a necessary step
to maintain and extend our volunteer fire base, and it helps to keep it alive and
benefit to all of us. So with that council, mr. Ginger, thank you, council president. So I
agree with everything council president said and then some. I think, you know, I met some
some young firefighters over the past, I don't know, 7 or 8 years. And they all say they go
down to pg county and some of the other counties, they work down there full time, but then
they, they come back up here and they work. They work here. You know, they, they come back
because this is where they got their start. A lot of them still live up this way, but they go down there and they stay down there and they work. But the camaraderie that they
have up here and what they learned up here, it's invaluable. I can't thank the the fire departments enough for what they do. We know this is a a small amount, and I know
we've looked at increasing it. And then there's some concerns. If you go over too much of how
that affects you guys. So, you know, we're always looking at ways to, to help support you
guys. And like you said, you know, now some of the drivers and everything are paid in the
hybrid. And we know it would cost a significant amount of money to start off, you know,
probably, you know, not only that, because just what happened with ems, we had to replace a lot of the fire ambulances because they they weren't up to par, you know,
and I've heard that to order a fire truck, it's like some 36 months out to get a fire truck.
and there are probably $2 million a piece. So that's not cheap. So I just want to say we
appreciate you guys. Thank you for being here. Look forward. Totally support this bill. And
thank you, everybody. And thank you for being here, mr. Bennett. Good evening. Thank you all for
being here tonight. And a special thank you to all of our volunteer firefighters for all
they do every single day. I hope the community truly recognizes what a value our
volunteer system is here in harford county. Even if you never have to be the one to
call 911, the amount of money that we save on insurance for our homes, thanks to having a
well staffed volunteer service here in the county is tremendous. And I know that's
something that chief hurst often speaks to, the value that, you know, in having degrees,
having an iso class one fire company brings to our community. And it's so important that
these people who give up their weeknights and their weekends, their a little bit of free time.
they have to be with friends and family that they give up 25 years. That's to get the full
benefits of, of this program is 25 years of volunteering for $375 a month. No one's doing it
to, you know, get wealthy. If they are, it's a very bad plan. But in order to give people
that thing at the end to keep them going at 21, 22 years to keep our volunteers in the
program, I just think is incredibly valuable. I was concerned hearing from multiple
firefighters in the community at a recent meeting with the county treasurer representing the administration and talking about this bill, the county treasurer emphasized over and
over again in the meeting. Every dollar we spend somewhere has to be taken from somewhere
else. You know, this bill, which gives an extra $50 per eligible beneficiary, will cost
about $550,000 annually. What what was the meaning of the county treasurer saying that
representing the administration in that meeting, that every dollar given has to be taken from somewhere else? And I'm asking that to mr. Overbay, because he's the representation
of the administration here tonight. Mr. Everybody, having not been here to comment on
this bill, and I wasn't at the meeting, I certainly can't speak to what mr. Sandler's was
addressing with the council at that time. Certainly something I'd be happy to bring back to
you, sir, as part of follow up with the council, because I you know, I just think it's
important to emphasize to the administration that we have to keep our volunteers strong. We
also have to be planning for the future to be able to pay for and fund a career system or
a hybrid system. And we're not there yet. But in order to have the runway to get there, we
have to commit to supporting our volunteers and any sort of action that would threaten to
cut funding from our volunteers is unacceptable in that long term vision of taking care of
our community. So I really wanted to emphasize that and support our volunteers tonight,
that funding this does not mean taking from those people who serve us each and every day.
and if something was to happen to your home while we're sitting here, would service you right now. So I think that's very important to emphasize tonight. Thank you, mr. Bennett.
anyone else, miss simmons? I just again, want to thank all of our volunteer firefighters
and ems crew. I've been very well connected with the fallston fire company. Honestly,
my entire adult life. My dad's a volunteer over there as well. And a couple of years ago, we
were able to donate a house to use as a controlled burn. And if anyone has ever been able to
watch you guys do what you do, it is remarkable. I was able to share that experience and being
able to show my girls the amount of bravery and dedication that you guys put
forth, and being able to learn the best practices, to be able to make sure that you save
people that you've never even met before. And so for that, I just want to say thank you and
that I will always support whatever you guys need. Thank you, miss emhoff. Anyone else?
miss roberts? Thank you. And I too, would like to thank you for your service. I know in my
jurisdiction I rely a lot on volunteers. I have the joppa community and the edgewood
community. And I will be power walking through the streets. And I can see the firemen
waiting for the volunteers to show up to go make that run. So I really appreciate everything
you do for our community. And you guys are pretty quick, and I've watched that happen
recently. We did have a fire in our area, so thank you. And one more thing, mr. Riley. Yeah,
I'd like to thank the administration because what they did is they put $1 million
in for whiteford firehouse. So I know that's at their that's in mr. Kessler's heart. And
also, as I was looking up these three helmets here, I'm trying to figure out which one is ed
ed watkins. And I thought maybe it would probably been the cleanest one there. But you can.
but you can correct me when I'm wrong. Thank you, mr. President. You're welcome, mr. Dana. Yeah.
one more thing. 30 years ago, I started working with iso and those iso codes, and they
always talked about harford county having some of the best volunteer fire departments and
have some of the iso ratings that were better than some of the paid firefighters areas
around the state. And that does certainly translate into premiums on your homeowners
being less. So. Thankfully, we've always been able to keep and maintain a lot of those,
you know, from havre de grace 701 you know, three and five in bel air. And they used to do
things a little bit different back then. If you could see ten homes and they would, they
would also credit that. So we're lucky to have you guys and your dedication in the long
run. And it's, it's people don't realize the amount of money that you guys have saved them over the last 35 years. But I know it's a lot. So thank you. Thank you, mr. Giordano.
and I think because the room is full and a lot of you probably are not familiar with how these
fire companies work when they respond to calls. I just tonight, I just have level bel
air and susquehanna hose company here in front of me. But it doesn't matter if
there's a call in joppatowne. It's not unfamiliar to see a bel air truck there, a
susquehanna hose truck there. If there's a call up in whiteford or morrisville, same.
these guys run wherever they need backup and fill in. So I want to thank you for that. But
you're going to hear from some of our dedicated firefighters. Next. We have anyone signed up
for want to call you first speaker christopher gibbons, followed by scotty hurst. Keep
it clean, keep it clean. I apologize, I didn't dress as snappily as mr. Hurst did, but
I did come to work. So can I have your name and zip code, please? Christopher gibbons,
forest hill two 1050. Thank you sir. Currently the president of the fallston volunteer fire and
ambulance company for my 20th year council president vicente and distinguished council
members. On monday, may the 1st of 1989, 37 years ago, as a 16 year old high school student,
my application was read in to become a volunteer member of the false and volunteer fire
and ambulance company. One of the benefits explained to me was lozap. I was an eager kid,
ready to go on calls and take classes. All I remember about lozap was the old guys around
the table talking about their monthly check and how it was a car payment, the base pay to a
volunteer who had accrued 50 points in calls, meetings, training and other categories
combined in that year for 25 active years and the age of 55 was given $300. In 2007, the
council raised the approved the addition of a death benefit for surviving spouse of 50% of that
benefit. And as you had taken some of my thunder in 2020, you guys approved as a council a
raise of the base rate from 300 to $325 to a maximum benefit of $475, with $6 added for every
additional year over 25 years, $6 a year. In 2022. Again, the council approved and lowered
the age to collect from 55 to 50 with 25 years of service, and there is also a benefit for
people that join later in life that at that time was 70 years old and ten years of credited
service. They received a partial benefit. They lowered that age to 60 in 10 years. So
we greatly appreciate all of that. This is really the first time that I've paid any
attention, because when you lowered the age, that's when I actually was eligible to accept
that benefit. But in 2023, this was no longer a car payment, more likely a fuel bill or a
big bill. I and many other volunteers are grateful for the allotment provided, and believe
me, I didn't join at 16 with the thought of making an extra $300. Some 39 years later, I
joined because I've always wanted to be a volunteer fireman and am one of the small
groups that have actually stayed and remained very active, responding to calls, as well as
handling the myriad of tasks and activities required training, fundraising, building
and equipment maintenance, and just ready for calls. I urge the council to support and it
certainly sounds like I really don't need to do that. The raising of the base from 325 to
375 is. This is now more of a retention tool for us with the rising cost of everything,
everything, keeping members in the building to handle calls and tasks is more difficult when they could be out working a part time job to make that money. I know you as a council,
realize the citizens of this great county get a whole lot of bang for very little of the
budget. Comparatively. I know that when the audits are submitted, there's a calculation included that shows what it would cost you salary wise and what is saved by the
county. And it pales in comparison to a small increase in allotment for the lozap
program. I know the county treasurer spoke to us at about the actuarial studies involved
and the budget, and I, at the end of that meeting, agreed to be involved and lead the work
group to have meetings with them and the actuarial not only for this project, but another
project that I've proposed. You're out of time, buddy, so thank you all. Thank you for
your service. I appreciate you, thank you. And as you can see, while we're sitting here,
they're getting calls and leaving. Good evening sir. Name and zip. Scott hurst, zip codes
21078. Chief of the susquehanna hose company. Good evening, council president vincent and
county council members. First, I'd like to thank you for your continued support of the volunteer fire companies in harford county and for your support of the length of
service awards program increase. As you know, volunteer fire companies across the nation are struggling to survive as times change. With training standards, the economy and the general
lack of volunteerism due to time constraints due to family and work priorities, harford
county is very fortunate to have the volunteer firefighters continue to provide services, which saves harford county hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Harford county is one
of the few all volunteer counties left in the state of maryland, and certainly the
busiest. The growth of harford county has mandated 50% of our fire companies to. In station
response and has pretty much killed home response. Thus, volunteers must spend more time
away from home and in the station, those 50% of the fire companies cover 75% of harford
county calls. This issue is one of the volunteers have no control over. The program is by
far our best recruitment and retention tool that companies use each and every day to promote. Joining the local volunteer fire companies continue. Improvements like
this are needed to keep up with the ever growing demand of being a volunteer firefighter.
we recognize that due to an increase in the budget, money will need to be allotted or cut.
as we were told, however, that money well spent the savings account gets from the hundreds
of millions of dollars we save harford county each and every year. A number of the county
flat out would not be able to fund or support in the foreseeable future without major tax increases. In closing, we look forward to working with everyone in the future and
improving the volunteer fire service recruitment and retention programs and issues that come along with it that will hopefully in the future include property tax credit
that we've been discussing for several years now. Thank you. Thank you chief. Thank you for
your service. Paul d'amato, followed by scott pannowitz. Name is it sir. Good evening.
paul demonaco 21014. I came here to talk about data centers, but then I realized that bill
was on the agenda. So I decided to talk to this. If I asked anybody in the room, would you
volunteer to run in burning buildings to commit over 500 hours to get firefighter one.
firefighter two emt would you take that job for $15 a year for 25 years? That's what
they're getting. Basically, they get $15 a year for 25 years with this new bill.
that's peanuts. They're basically responding to calls on holidays, christmas,
thanksgiving, anytime that there's a high school graduation or something in
their family's lives, they're running out the door, they're going to the fire station and
they're helping us in our time of need. I honestly think this bill doesn't do enough. We're
increasing it $600 over a year. So I just heard it's costing the county 550 k. If you look
at our budget and you look at in the back where they have where reserve funds and all
that other stuff, we have the money in this county. We should be doing more for these
volunteers. Thank you. I fully support this bill. I'm glad that the county council is
unanimous sponsored this. Thank you, sir. And I would also say you need to increase that death
benefit. 5000. You can't bury anybody. I'm sorry. Thank you sir. Name is up. Chief scott
pannowitz two 1015. Good evening, mr. President and council members. My name is
scott pannowitz, chief of the bel air volunteer fire company, and I am speaking in support of
bill 2610. The length of service award program is vital to sustaining the volunteer
fire and ems service in harford county. The demands placed on our volunteers continue to
increase. One of the most significant challenges is the growing call volume throughout the county. As our communities continue to expand while activities such as training,
meetings and administrative duties can be scheduled, calls. Emergency calls cannot.
volunteers routinely leave their families, friends and workplaces at a moment's notice
to respond to emergencies and serve the citizens of harford county. Many volunteer fire
companies still rely on a home based response model. However, growth throughout harford
county and the town of bel air has increased increased traffic congestion, resulting in longer
response times for members traveling to our stations, to staff, to staff apparatus. At
the bel air volunteer fire company, we have adapted by implementing an end station crew model to ensure we continue providing the high level of service our community
expects. The changes. The change requires members to spend even more time at the
station, away from their families and personal commitments during the transition. During this transition, losap has been one of the most important benefits
we have promoted to both current and prospective members. The enhancement proposed in
bill 2610 will strengthen the benefit and help us retain the dedicated volunteers who make
our service possible. Recruiting and retaining volunteer members remains one
of the greatest challenges facing fire companies throughout harford county. When
speaking with prospective members, losap is consistently one of the first benefits we
discuss. While new members recognize its value, losap becomes even more important as
volunteers continue their service. We have seen numerous senior members remain active
and engaged because of the benefits provided through losap. Losap has been and continues to
be one of the most effective tools for attracting and retaining volunteer firefighters and ems personnel in harford county. I strongly believe the changes proposed in
bill 2610 will help all volunteer fire and ems departments recruit new members,
retain experienced personnel and continue providing the high quality emergency services our
citizens depend upon. I respectfully ask for your support of bill 2610. Thank you
chief. Yes, sir. For the citizens call volume for bel air. We had 26 2675 calls last
year, and we had 5703 responses, unit responses. So how many for abingdon 1800 1800. So I mean
we're talking thousands of call amongst the 1011 fire companies in the ambulance corps and
havre de grace. So I just wanted everyone to know that. Thank you for your service,
chief. Thank you. So this will conclude the public hearing for bill 260 ten. I want to thank
all of you for your service now and in the future and in the past. And this bill will be
looked at tonight. We will act on this bill tonight. So thank you very much. And we're going
to take a short recess so that they can get out and we'll bring other people in.
five. 4321. Chair calls the order bill 26011. A public hearing for zoning and zoning
data centers. Mr. Overbay, whenever you're ready. Thank you, council president. For the
record, my name is steve overbay. I'm here this evening representing harford county
government and would like to read the following statement on behalf of county executive castle administration. Good evening, council president vincente and council members.
thank you for the opportunity to provide a statement about bill 26011 detailing my
administration's legislation banning data centers in harford county. As we sit here today,
data centers are not permitted, not a permitted use under harford county zoning code.
some may reasonably ask if that's the case, why is this legislation necessary? The
answer is simple. As county executive, I became alarmed by another bill that could have
opened harford county's door to data centers. That bill created a moratorium to plan for
guardrails on data center development. Over the past two years. As data centers began to
proliferate, the nation, we conducted extensive research and examined the experiences of
communities across the country that have embraced large scale data center development. After
that review, we reached a clear conclusion data centers are not in harford county's best
interest. Among our significant concerns are the high energy demand, noise, water usage and
the overall impacts on our environment and the quality of life. A single hyperscale data
center can consume enough electricity to power more than 100,000 homes. Approximately
the number of households in harford county today. In practical terms, one facility
could double the county's residential electricity demand, sending our residents and
commercial community energy bills even higher. Maryland is already struggling to meet its
energy needs. Demand is increasing faster than supply. Last summer, baltimore gas and
electric warned of potential reliability issues and brownouts during peak periods
of demand. Today, maryland relies heavily on electricity generated outside of its
borders, with more than 60% of our current power needed at peak load being generated
outside of this state. At the same time, many of our neighboring states that
currently supply much of that power through the pjm cooperative have expressed
growing concern about continuing to subsidize maryland's energy shortfalls
while we pursue data center development and policies that further increase demand. The
reality is simple our electric grid is already under strain, and large scale data center
development would only make this situation worse. Data centers are also on a collision
course with maryland's green energy policies that have greatly reduced in-state energy
production. The state is requiring 50% renewable energy in two years and 100% renewable
energy within seven years. This super reliance on renewable energy is completely
incompatible with data center development and energy consumption. Some proposals
seek to allow data centers to generate their own energy through nuclear or fossil fuel
powered facilities, while residents, businesses and manufacturers remain subject to
increasingly restrictive state green energy policies, that is neither equitable nor
sustainable. Our state's commitment to renewable energy is driving our residential
rates higher each and every day. Given all of this, why would a local government consider data
centers? The answer is tax revenue. As data centers produce very few local jobs,
communities such as northern virginia, which did have available energy capacity,
embraced data centers based on promises of extraordinary tax receipts. Years later, many
residents in our nation's data center capital are now confronting the unintended
consequences of unchecked growth. Industrial industrialization of rural
landscapes, increasing energy demands, environmental concerns, and diminished quality of life.
these troubles are not isolated to this country alone, as reported in this week's wall
street journal, ireland has just issued a halt to all data center development as rapid
deployment of data centers quickly consumed one fifth of the country's entire power
supply. Harford county has the benefit of learning from these experiences rather than
repeating them. Bill 26011 takes a proactive approach. It provides certainty to our
residents, protects our communities, and makes clear that harford county will
prioritize public health, environmental stewardship, responsible growth and quality
of life over speculative promises of revenue. We cannot leave this to chance. Our
communities, our natural resources and our quality of life are not commodities to be
traded. That is why my administration has brought this legislation before you today,
and why I respectfully request your favorable consideration of bill 26011. Thank you, bob
cassilly. If I may, only because I didn't see you when you dropped this up here. Mary
catherine mccall, are you in the audience? Thank you. Thank you for your note. We
appreciate it very much. I just wanted to recognize you for that. Thank you. Steve, do you
remember when it was that you came and sat with miss allegy and I and asked us to consider
putting together a work committee for data centers? I would have been. I believe that
would have been over a year ago or right around a year ago. Council president, I don't know,
I don't remember. I believe that just curious. Yes. And are you aware of the information
that I have in front of me with the planning advisory board and the comments in there? I would
need to see it, sir. I'll give you a copy of it before you leave. I just want to be sure.
all right. Council. Mr. Bennett. Hello. Thank you for being here tonight. I do want to reference
the minutes from the ppab meeting on march 11th that I had physically shared with me
earlier today. Because I think it's important to state something that's in those
minutes. A few things, actually. But the first is that it states until legislation is passed,
battery storage data and data centers are handled on a case by case basis, which, as a
reminder, was my whole initial point when I introduced the moratorium, was to make sure
that nothing could be moved in a discretionary manner until permanent legislation was
passed, because a case by case basis means inconsistency, and that means insecurity for our
community. It's also important to note that attending this ppab meeting on march 11th was
the owner of mountain branch, along with a relative of theirs who spoke at that meeting. It
was stated at that meeting that the pab is going to do research and draft proposed zoning
amendments for battery storage and data centers, and the owner of mountain branch spoke in
support of this action at the meeting. And then later in the meeting notes, it talks about
the question of timing. At the planning advisory board meeting on march 11th, 2026, the
harford county director of planning and zoning acknowledged on the record that
the executive office would not introduce data center legislation before the election
cycle concludes and welcomed the possibility of a council member drafting legislation
independently. Board members themselves made clear that they wanted legislation drafted and
introduced now before the election, not after. When I originally introduced the
moratorium, the whole point was I had concerns over the possibility of someone. The day
after election day, for example, changing their tune on this issue and potentially opening
up our community to harm with no longer having the pressure on them of an election. And
these notes to me recognize a possibility that the county executive was thinking along
those lines. Why else would you need to wait till after election day to work on
introducing regulations around data centers? Unless you're concern is that the community might not like what you have to say about data centers. This also aligns with comments made
by the county executive and public that he's not anti data center. He can just read the
tea leaves. So what do you say to those comments from march 11th at the pab meeting? Well,
I would certainly say that, again, having not been at the march 11th meeting, I assume
you're talking about former director grimm that was making those meetings that mr. Kropp.
okay. Very good. So having not been there, mr. Kropp has been involved in these very
discussions, as has he been involved in the bill that ultimately is being considered
by this council this evening as it relates to the county executive's comments about not
being anti data center. I think, you know, the belief is that data centers, there is a
there's a place for data centers and that ag land certainly is not some of that.
these are not something that's permitted currently. So a lot of that discussion that
happened over the last two years I can speak to because I had been in conversations with
the county executive about that, but that was about identifying and trying to learn, again,
from communities. One thing that we learned is that these are very valuable commodities,
meaning that there is a lot of tax revenue that comes into communities based on these, but
that one by one across the nation and across the globe as it relates to now, what you're
hearing is that from residents, both those in very close proximity as well as those that
are much further away than perhaps what was once believed to be problematic. All have a
very consistent theme. And in the discussions that were had in speaking with all of those
communities, had they had a chance to kind of rewind the clock and go back and do things
differently, they would. So I think, you know, the idea is this is a rapidly evolving
technology and, you know, trying to make quick decisions about these things really does
not make sense. I certainly am happy, I think, on behalf of the administration that, you
know, this, everybody seems to be in support of a commonality here. And that's that's not
always the easiest to do. But I think in this case, for the betterment of harford county.
for the details outlined in the county executive's letter, that the belief is that this is the
right thing for the county. And I just think it's important that I state on the record that
inconsistency in the county executive's stance, because I have been very consistent for a
long time now on the fact that we have to push back against this industry from coming into
harford county. It's what I've been working on for over a year now, and I took umbrage to the
county executive's comments suggesting that when I introduced a moratorium, it was
some sort of sneaky effort to let data centers into harford county because it was nothing
of the like. Meanwhile, the county executive has not been fully transparent with the
public and had stated that he didn't want to work on anything until after the election. So I
just think that's important to clarify so that people understand tonight this bill is
going to pass 7 to 0, and I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful that community
pressure and reading the tea leaves led the county executive to landing in the right place.
it's unfortunate that he can't be here tonight because he's at a fundraiser for his personal
campaign, but it's good that we're able to get this work done tonight. Thank you. Thank
you, mr. Bennett. Miss emhoff, good evening. So we keep referencing the p b the
planning advisory board. And so first I want to actually thank councilman bennett. Since he
started creating this legislation, he has been willing and able to meet with
me more than, you know, half a dozen times. And I've been fully supportive of tightening
up all of our zoning legislation. I'm a believer in even if your name isn't the top
of the legislation, that as long as the work gets done, that's the biggest priority.
now, going back to the planning advisory board, just for full transparency. So this is the
same board that said the count, the county council member who has proposed the moratorium has
separately stated in public testimony that he has spent months studying this data
centers. The analytical work has been done. The professional planning apparatus of harford
county has signaled openness to council initiated legislation. So that's coming from the
planning advisory board. Can you give a little bit of background as to who makes up
the planning advisory board and how they get appointed? Actually, I would need to bring
in planning and zoning to provide you with detailed information about that. That is
certainly not my role within the administration, but I appreciate the question. Happy
to, you know, happy to provide clarity for you. I'll do that directly, and we can do that publicly as well. So we have a list of the people who are in the attendance to the march
11th meeting who made these statements. And so, just so everyone knows, the majority of
the people on the planning advisory board are appointed by the county executive. As with
most of our boards and commissions and committees. And so we just found it to be
interesting that while these boards are there, meeting minutes are posted online. The
meeting minutes that we were provided earlier today were omitted. And I can't help but
wonder why. There's been several copies of the meeting minutes that, in their full
effect, that have now been made available. And I would like to know if the county, the county
is planning to actually publish the full meeting minutes. I assume you received those from
the county at some point today. Is that what you were referencing? Okay. Thank you.
mr. Riley. Steve, as you can tell, it's an election year. Mr. Chandler. So first of all,
whether I'm just grateful that the bill is forward, that we're going to look to ban the data
centers. I think it's clear nobody in the county wants it. Most of the state doesn't want
it, especially in the rural areas, especially in a golf course surrounded by
communities that within six miles, that noise, low hum, transmits through buildings,
through people. And it's going to be hazardous to the health in the long run. Everything is
changing with data centers, and in two years they might not need these humongous data
centers. They're talking about putting them in space. They're talking about them being the
size of an air conditioning unit, sitting outside of your of a brand new home or
something, and not these football field size of data centers that are taking up
electricity and power and water. You know, we're trying to bring a gas line 18 miles all the way
in. And that's been my other concern is that, you know, how if I've talked to mr. Leggit
about it, you know, can they come in and build a, you know, an electricity center and then
do that? And she's told me, no, we cannot do that. Because that's been my other biggest
concern is that can they slip it in the back door somehow? You know, if they build a
nuclear thing, you know, and they give power, can they say, hey, we got this extra power as
long as we ban the data centers. And I and I think you heard it from councilman bennett, you
were all in agreement that we're going to pass this, move forward, get this band. And I'm
just grateful that, you know, there's a lot of people out here. I'm sure we're going to
hear from everybody in all different reasons. Maybe there's 2 or 3 people that are for it. You know, I got some of these letters up here, but they're from maryland tech
council and fasto consulting. So, you know, you know, they're they're looking their way, but
everybody else is going to be like, nope, we don't want data centers. So, so I don't know
about the tax benefits. I'm not worried about the tax benefits. I'm worried about the people,
people's health and our community. So for me, I'm voting no doubt as. Did you
have your hand up? I did, I thought so I was reading something. Yeah. So the, the
email today from the pab meeting that that came to light to me today. And I, I I was
kind of churning on it because, you know, I remember after bill v, I can never pronounce his
name, had emailed the council with all of the information and everything. I was the one that
set up a meeting with him, because some of the language made me wonder how far along he
got with the county executive's office. And then I saw this and I thought, well, I'm glad I met
with him because he truthfully was saying he got further along than what everyone expected to
do. And as I stated to him, you know, I was doing my own research on the data centers
and talking to frederick county and their council and knowing about the pause and knowing
that council member bennett was putting in the moratorium. Thought that was great. I do
think that the county executive putting in the data center ban. He did. I know the citizens
were like emergency, emergency, but he didn't do it as an emergency request or emergency
legislation, which led us to have to amend it in order to make it emergency legislation
so we can answer what you guys wanted to do, which was to ban the data centers. And I am in
agreement with that because of the fact we have no idea what is going on with that, what the
effects are. If I've been reading more and more about the water and health and all of
those things, and we cannot move forward with something. Coming into our community that
we are unaware of the effects of for our community. So I am definitely for banning the data
centers, but I do want to make that known that, you know, in the back of my mind, and as mr.
riley said, it's an election year. I'm still churning on what's going to happen in the
future. And that's why we wanted to make sure there were parameters that were
enforceable. Thank you. Thank you, miss robert. Anyone else? So for me, I know there's been
some questions about some emails, but as council president, everything that goes
on in this county comes across my desk at some point. And I always am grateful for the
records that our council keeps and has kept for years. We've seen time and time again where
we have to dip back into them to clarify something. And I'm, like I said, I'm glad they do
that. Whenever I get an email that has to do with any type of project in this county, and all
you need to do is talk to any of these folks on this council. We thoroughly investigate it.
we look at all sides of it to make sure that it either is good or bad for the county.
this is a no brainer. None of us have ever said that we support data centers. Do we
listen to the people presenting thugs to us? Yes. When the group that was here presenting
and telling us their side of the issue, remember they presented at the abington
library? First members of the administration were there listening. One of my council or
two of my council colleagues were there. I was not there, and my colleagues suggested
that we have them come in just to listen, to hear what they have to say. Not to support it,
but to make sure that we have all the information needed to make a decision and do our due
diligence as we do every day. So hopefully that will answer some of the questions that you
folks have. The greatest resource that I've had with your group is through brian
cornell. I've had an opportunity to speak to brian on multiple occasions. I gave
him a copy of the documents that we're talking about here tonight. As far as the planning
advisory board actually goes into more detail that I have a presentation here that I will
give him a copy of afterwards. I actually brought the copy out the night of the bully rock
candidate forum in reference, and talked about it in front of the county executive. So I'm
just trying to be transparent on everything. I've never talked about being supportive
of data centers. And I never will. I said from this dais months ago, harford county is
not the place for data centers. Our ag preserve ground, our ag ground period is not the place
for data centers. And try to be very clear on that. And again, as mr. Riley said, it is an
election cycle that we're in. So things get twisted. Things get out there. For whatever
reason, I will be voting to kill this or to support this ban to kill data centers. Got a
lot going on today, and I did reference. Mr. Overbay came to me and miss lg early on, asked
us to consider putting together a workgroup for data centers. And I told, you know, that it
should come from the administration if it's going to come at all. And I told you why
all the experts are on your side of the street, not ours. So, and, and I think that we
did the same thing for the impact fee study. We brought together a large group. We
talked about it months later. We had a draft piece of legislation that was sent to me
from the administration, and it took miss lg six minutes to look at that and come back to
me and said, this is illegal. We can't do this. The state has guidelines in this violates the
guidelines. So we had to send it back across the street. And, you know, not too much later,
we got a bill that was correct and we were able to move it and look forward to adjusting fees
again if we have to. As far as, you know, impact fees, that's the way it should work. We
should all work together on everything and stop all of this division that's going on in our
county today. So with that, anyone else on this desk have anything to say? I'm used to
saying, miss dixon, are you over there? Who's calling him out? I'm over here. So how many
speakers do we have? We have 47 this evening, mr. President. Well, that's a lot less than I
thought. I thought it'd be more. I thought so. As I said earlier, because mr. Giordano made a
statement at our last meeting where he said, every voice needs to be heard. Yep. We're
going to do it again tonight. Sounds good. So the only thing I ask is that you be respectful
of the citizens speaking that are recognized and that no applauds, no outbursts because
we want to get through this. I had anticipated 50 plus and I had anticipated 2 to 3 hours.
so just for public comment and we have a full agenda after that. So we may have to extend
our step down from our rules and procedures and allow this meeting to run past 11. So with
that with that, miss dixon, call your first speaker. Candace hart, followed by simon
hewitt, greg fox, and ann blocker. Can't hear you. That that microphone is that one's
done. Yeah. That's not going to go. Call that first speaker again. She's outside candace
hart she's outside. Very first one's outside. She just told me she's been waiting for 20
minutes. So I was like, call your second one. Simon hewitt, greg fox and ann blocker. Good
evening sir. Name and zip code, please. Good evening, simon hewitt 21085. I live just
downstream on mount the mountain branch. Stream runs right at the bottom of our yard.
just downstream from mountain ridge golf club. So you can imagine I'm interested in this.
I'm extremely grateful to all of you that you're going to vote for this ban. There are
two reasons that I want to focus on the second one. The first one is kind of obvious. A
speeding train was heading without any control, straight for our neighborhood for a to
spread mayhem. And this bill, thank god, puts brakes on that speeding train. The
inappropriate placement of a huge industrial plant in our gorgeous neighborhood is just
an absurdity. So thank you for that. I've had another surprise tonight. I was born and raised
in ireland, and I've just heard that ireland has had this problem too. So it's everywhere.
so the main point I wanted to make was that we'll all celebrate your achievement
tonight in combining, as you said, we should, chairman, and passing this bill. There may be
a tendency or a temptation to say, great, it's done. We're over, it's over. I have had an
experience in arizona with a with a developer that I was a consultant to, who built big
planned communities and new towns, and they wanted to build a community in a place in
california that had a 40 year, every single development that they had been offered, they had
shot to smithereens. So it was the last place in the world you would expect to pass. Five
years later, after expenditure of a lot of money, a lot of that rose, rose tinted
presentations of reality, kind of like the hartford energy one. A lot of paid lobbyists, a lot
of high paid lawyers, a lot of community people who were actually enlisted to help. They
succeeded in getting their development into that community. It took five years. Now all the
signs are there that this is what will happen here. So the main reason that I'm thrilled
about this data center ban is it establishes the right team and the right starting point
for that five year struggle. So when we vote in this election, I would ask you all to consider
what is the right team that has shown and we've heard different versions from the bench just
tonight. What is the right team that has shown in their actions over the last many years, not
just at election time, that they will be thoughtful and forceful leaders in resisting
the override from maryland, the override potentially from the feds, all the forces that will
descend on us. You've probably heard that the owner of the golf club said this week, we
are going to get this done. One encouraging thing that I just heard this afternoon, I'm
nearly out of time, is that he had stopped all long term bookings on the golf course for
next year, since the ban has come in. He has told them to sign up. Thank you. Next year.
thank you. So in closing, thank you sir. You're done. Thank you. Okay, one last thing. Thank you
sir. Good evening sir. Name and zip code, please. Greg fox 21085. I have a study here that
was released two months ago by cambridge university. It was a study of universities in five
countries. Got together to look at temperature effects, which hasn't been discussed so far.
this goes in line with not knowing what you get with a data center. They looked at
6300 non-urban data centers worldwide. They looked at five years of temperature data
surrounding that prior to them going online. And then they looked at the temperatures
afterwards and they found effects out to six miles. Now I'm going to do this. There's a
lot of equations and charts in this, but I'm going to do this a way by way of example. Two
weeks ago when we met on this bill, it was 95 in the parking lot. Hot day. If there were a
data center put in on the big car lot out on route one, the used car sales lot, it would
have been 98 degrees based on the average of those 6500 data centers would have been a three
degree increase. Now, averages in this case are misleading because the data, the data they
used was from 2004 to 2024, data centers that came online in 2025 used 5 to 10 times more
electricity than data centers that came online in 2020. So they're getting bigger and more
powerful. So I would want to look at one of the maximum they saw. They saw an 11 degree
increase in some cases, which would have put it at 106 degrees in the parking lot that
night. Now power consumption keeps going up and there's no way to do zoning or permitting
on temperature. That's just not something the technology supports. And you can't beat
the second law of thermodynamics. All the heat that goes into these things, or
all the power that goes into these things as electricity has to go somewhere and it turns
into heat and it spreads into the surrounding areas. And we don't know how to model this.
we don't know the effects. If you put seven proposed data centers into mountain run, then
everybody living within several miles of that would experience a summer similar to living in
death valley or las vegas or phoenix, arizona. Thank you. Thank you sir. Call your next
speaker. Mr. President. We do have candace hart. Good evening ma'am. Name and zip. Candace
hart 21085. I'm here tonight as a candidate for the house of delegates in district seven b
on may the 1st, I submitted a proposal to the county council calling for a ban on data
centers in harford county at the state level. And my sponsor, delegate andre johnson, agreed
to move it forward in the next legislative session. I stand in support of a bill 26011, which
would prohibit data centers in all zoning districts in harford county, and I support a full
ban being addressed at the state level. This is about bringing clarity and
consistency to our land policy, land use policy and ensuring decisions like this are made
thoughtfully and transparently with residents in mind. Thank you. Thank you ma'am. Folks,
please, I want to remind you no applause because it all takes time. I want to be able to move
through here in a timely manner, and we're all happy with every comment, I'm sure. And locker,
followed by gary johnson, jimmy packet and paige keel. Good evening ma'am. Name and zip. My
name is anne blocker 21085. I guess I really don't need to remind the council that harford
county residents do not need or want a data center on the mountain ranch golf course site,
or any other green space or land area in harford county, where a data center siting is
likely to cause irreparable damage to our land, our water, our homes, and our quality of
life. The owner of mountain ranch golf course, as he stated on june 2nd at the county
council meeting, will have us believe that without data centers, the economic future of
harford county is at risk. He suggested that the consequences of pursuing a ban on data
centers will be severe, that we will become a county of solar farms producing energy for data
centers in other maryland counties, and that these counties will benefit from the
jobs and revenue that could have been ours. That argument is deceptive and desperate. It
appeals to fear and relies on false claims, and I feel pretty certain that none of the other
22 counties in maryland will be lining up to buy our fictional solar power in order to feed
data centers that nobody wants. We are not a struggling county. In fact, I learned at the june
2nd county council meeting that harford county maintains a triple a bond rating, and I
have reviewed the proposed 2027 budget with a total operating budget of $1,145,966,650. I
think we will be just fine without a data center, with no data centers spoiling our land,
our homes and our county. Young families will continue to buy homes here, start businesses
here, spend their money here, educate their children here. I trust, and I know from what
you've said, that every member of the harford county council values the people of this
county more than the purse, and will vote today to pass the emergency bill to ban data
centers in harford county. Thank you. Thank you ma'am. But we're getting fewer and fewer.
mr. Johnson, before you start, I owe you an apology, and I may as well do it right now. I, I
jumped to the conclusion the other night that you had said something that you did not. My
apologies. Thank you, sir. And I should take a moment to thank you for the birthday card you
sent me. Name and zip code, please. Gary johnson 21087. Winking offend some people.
opacity offends me. Opacity is a lack of transparency. Something that politicians
always promise but seldom deliver. Opacity keeps citizens from knowing the truth. The
truth is that someone on this council invited a group of hyperscale data complex
promoters to make a presentation regarding a proposed mountain branch site.
no one on this council admitted to inviting them, but it is my understanding that such a
presentation could not occur without the president's approval. Thus, you allowed
them to spew their sunshine and unicorns, saying that this data complex would be all gain with
no downside. You permitted that, but you didn't arrange for us to hear from experts who might
have a different opinion. No environmental experts, nor any experts in the field of
industrial safety and compliance have yet to appear before this council. Shouldn't
you have asked for their testimony? Wouldn't that be the job to serve us all? Sure. You.
you let us speak. But we're not experts. Citizens have an expectation that their county
council will represent all of us. And not just a few. But that's not the way this feels.
this feels like the fix is in. We don't expect elon musk and his ilk to care about us, but
we do expect you guys to. Some of you contend that we can keep these data wolves at bay with a
moratorium. Some of you, including mr. Cassilly, believe that we can strengthen our zoning code and thus ban these hyperscale data centers altogether. But wes moore has
made such data centers a priority, and our legislature is with him. In may, the daily
record reported that our general assembly has concluded that local processes stand in
the way of broader statewide priorities, and they, the general assembly, are willing
to displace local zoning authority to advance these priorities. So what does this
council intend to do? Here's a thought. Put aside your petty squabbles and your political
vendettas and come together to fight for us. For too long, annapolis has worked to
undermine our charter. The maryland court of appeals disregarded our laws pertaining
pertaining to the qualifications of someone to sit on this council. The
legislature forces its agendas on our schools, but then doesn't fund them. And now they
disregard our right to be the stewards of our own land. Transparency says that you
should provide all the information we need to know before a vote takes place. What
are the risks to our water, our ears, our people, our livestock, our property values, and our
way of life? History has proven that data centers don't belong everywhere, particularly they
don't belong in residential areas. They also don't remain. Once erected, they come and
they go. Who will pay to restore the mountain branch property to its original
condition when this one leaves? If you want us to trust you, then do something to earn our
trust. Thank you sir. James packett, followed by page. Neil keil. Judith breuer, followed
by stan randall. Good evening sir. Name is it? Good evening. My name is jimmy paquette.
21078. Lifelong habit of grace resident and I currently attend texas tech university, where.
let me tell you, the zoning laws are much different out there. So you guys should be
proud that at least here in maryland, we have some kind of restrictions on when passing
stuff like this. In lubbock, things just kind of get done without anybody having a say.
so I do support bill 26011. I hope it passes. And this is obviously it's going to. But I
do want to leave this council and this community with one thought before we go home. We
actually already have a data center, and that's the mci facility at 2606 carsons run
road, which has been operating quietly next to the stoney demonstration state forest for
years with minimal water use, minimal electricity, zero community complaints. And
that's because they only process telecommunications data. So not every data center is the
enemy. The enemy is the hyperscale ai data centers. That's what we need to be
against. And that's what we're all trying to prevent. But the language that's in this bill does not define the difference. When a developer challenges this in court and they're going
to, a judge will ask harford county to define what a data center is. And this bill will
not have an answer. And that's a vulnerability. They're going to walk all over that. There's
individuals that I see over there that are clearly not residents. They're typing away
and they're ready to tell their their people back in their big corporations, hey, this is what
we got to do to fight this. That's what they're doing. And so tonight's a win and we
should treat it as one. But shortly after tonight, this county needs to define exactly what a data center is and what one would look like if it were ever permitted here. I have
drafted a proposed amendment. It's I mean, I'm 23. I'm trying my best. It's at bill, the
website. You guys can look it up. Bill 26011.org. That's bill 26011.org. Very basic, but it
could be the start of us being the first county to actually put legislature in place that
other counties can take, and they can take that master plan and duplicate that across other
counties to allow for a very small data center model like we have on carson's run road. So
again, not opposed to data centers opposed to ai, hyperscale crazy bs. That's
that's the issue. So this would grandfather in mci, which is a verizon co-op and limits any
future facility to telecommunications use only, which is what mci is used for.
this also will cap development at or below the size of mci's existing footprint, with
mandatory wildlife preservation of the surrounding land. When this bill gets challenged in
court, the kind of defined structure will give harford county something to actually
fight with. And again, bill, bill 26011.org. Thank you jimmy. Are you jim paquette son? Yeah.
your dad put an alarm system in my store when I was having trouble with theft. Put it in
in 2:00 in the morning. Oh my gosh. And when we opened at 11:00, we caught the guy that
fast? Yes. Oh. That's awesome. Thanks. Thank you. Good evening, madam. Page 2185. I live on
stockton road, very close to the proposed data center. I'm a civil engineer with a
concentration in water resources, and I am for the data center ban. There are
several issues that people have been discussing. But I would like to focus on the water
issues associated with a project of this size, because the hartford energy website
that looks like it is a wonderful thing for our county, has a lot of misinformation. So
the first thing that I noticed when I went on and started doing some research was that it
said zero public water for cooling, no discharge to the public sewer. We don't use
public water or sewer. We are on well water and we use septic systems. I find it offensive
that they assume that we won't know the difference. There's also they also state that they
will use closed loop and air cooling systems. They will also, and I quote, use no routine
water consumption or discharge. This is misleading in two ways. While air cooled systems do not
use water, they require a substation, a substantial amount of power, and you're
just trading water usage for energy usage. The closed used closed loop systems that they
are talking about. Nobody asked questions about that. They just say it's closed loop and that
there's no water usage. But that's not true. All of these lines have to be flushed and
backwashed. There are also chemicals added to the water. There was a. Food and water
watch.org website that says even closed loop systems, you lose 25% of their water volume
per month. So you're still using water. You're not using millions of gallons, maybe, but
you're using a lot. In february, the michigan house of representatives had a
subcommittee meeting and tammy clark spoke. There's a youtube video that's an hour long with
her speaking. She is in the industrial hygiene sector for 20 years, and she works with
large industrial companies. She's not against data centers. She says that. But she said
that the misinformation coming out from the data centers about closed loop systems is a
blatant lie, and that people need to be more informed that the systems are still picking
up water, chemicals are added to the water, and then the water is discharged and flushed,
and that water is usually discharged and flushed just back into the river, back into
the groundwater. And there's no. There's no rules or laws right now stating that they can't do
that. So I just really worry about our well, water nearby. And that's, that's really all I
had to say. Thank you ma'am. Judith brewer followed by stan randall, nathan regula and
billy boniface. Good evening ma'am. Name is judith brewer 21085. I'm actually not going
to start the way I was going to. I'm actually pretty angry at you, mister bennett. And you
miss imhoff for the unprofessional way that you talked about our county
executive when it was not when you were doing that for your own personal gain. That is,
you're not there to sway our opinion. You were on that side of the podium. If you were on
this side, it would be different. So I just want to start with that. And now I'll
continue. I'm not going to go over all the harmful effects of data centers because you
already know them. But what I want to point out is how ridiculous bill vassilakopoulos,
owner of mountain branch, sounds when he tries to tout the benefits as if you, the
county council and we, the residents of harford county, are stupid. At the meeting of
june 2nd, he says that the data center will bring jobs. Actually, mountain branch golf
course employs more people than a data center would after construction. So we actually
would be losing jobs. So if it's jobs he cares about, keep the golf course open. He said
it would bring tax revenue. What good is tax revenue when no one wants to live in harford
county anymore because of the effects of data centers? And if the county needs money, maybe
bill should pay the approximate $1.22 million or more owed in tax and bankruptcy liabilities.
so now it's almost time to vote. And it comes down to whom can we trust? This scares me. You
know the old saying, beware of the wolf in sheep's clothing. I've seen the video of mr.
vincente winking at the maryland data center alliance, and I was at the meeting when
he allowed the general manager of mountain branch to speak longer than the allotted two
minutes, ordering everyone not to interrupt her when her time was up. Mr. Vincente, are you
that wolf in sheep's clothing? I did hear bill vassilakopoulos try to throw bob cassilly under
the bus, which gives me more reason to vote for bob cassilly. So again, when voting. Think
hard and do your research. There are some that invite data centers in, and there are some
that want to ban them out. Let's keep our county green and approve this emergency bill to
ban data centers in all of harford county. Thank you ma'am. Stan randall. Call your next
speaker, stan randall, followed by nathan regula and billy boniface. Nathan. Good evening,
sir nathan. Nathan regula two 1014. I have a phd in computer science and engineering from
the university of notre dame in indiana and a law degree from george washington university. I have a lot of experience with computing and storage infrastructure that is housed
in data centers, and have had access to data centers owned or leased by the university of
notre dame, a fortune 500 company, and the federal government. I have worked at three fortune 500 companies in my career before starting my cybersecurity company
headquartered in hartford county. All of these roles focused on large scale data analysis or cloud infrastructures. Data centers do not belong in hartford
county. At hyperscale, the benefits aren't worth the cost, and I'll explain why. I used to
live in northern virginia and had access to data centers and data center alley. So when I
worked at a fortune 500 company, it was on a private cloud team that designed and operated
significant internal cloud infrastructure across multiple data centers. Essentially, we designed the cloud and bought servers by the tractor trailer load and then operated the
systems 24 over seven. We could remotely manage and update the systems in the data center in
the industry. The people that provide hands on support are called smart hands because they
might plug in a cable or install a server in a rack. They provide basic physical
labor in a noisy environment. I'm not criticizing these individuals jobs. I'm providing
reality as these aren't jobs that are going to support purchasing a home in harford county. Data center companies don't usually design the applications. That is the role
of the customer or the corporate engineering and architecture teams. If we are talking about a hyperscale cloud provider, if there are engineers and cloud architects,
they will likely be shared across the country and located outside of harford county. So
there are very few high paying jobs per acre, which is one of the benefits touted.
construction jobs will likely be temporary, and it seems unlikely that electricians and other trades will all be local companies. The presentation from the maryland data center
alliance talked about 240 electrical apprentices for frederick county, but I don't think harford county has ever had 240 electrical apprentices. So it is likely some of these
individuals would be from out of the county. News stories are full of out of town tradespeople that work on data centers because of their specific experience and skills
that are required to wire data centers such as medium voltage and significant arc flash training. And of course, working 24 over seven helps. Harford county law allows
restricted electricians within a facility, so it would seem obvious that a hyperscale provider will have an internal restricted electrician instead of hiring a local company 24
over seven, it's 17 minutes and 48 seconds into the video from the maryland data center
alliance, miss schultz says there is no data center that has come online since we have been having this conversation, so the energy usage right now has nothing to do with the data
centers that are here. This statement is not transparent because it does not factor in
energy increases to existing data centers. What can happen is equivalent to increasing the
size of your power feed from bge to support an electric vehicle and saying, no new houses have been built and therefore houses are not the cause of the power increase.
but if you and your neighbors upgraded their electrical equipment to support electric vehicle charging and more demand, there is more electric demand. Even though new no new
houses have been built in this example. So I'm confident that examining existing data centers
in maryland would support that. At least some maryland data centers are increasing their electrical load to support ai within the same physical footprint. I suspect most
existing data centers in maryland are not generating the power on site, but consuming power from the grid because that is more cost effective and the state just enabled on site
generation on april 13th. So we don't build houses with natural gas fired whole house
generators as the primary source of electricity. We would all find this absurd. I think
it is obvious that a. Thank you sir. I'll continue. Thank you, thank you. Sir. Billy boniface
21034. I'll keep my comments brief because it's quite apparent each one of you are
going to support this tonight, and I commend you for doing that. As jim said, it's an
election year and very easily any one of you could have played election shenanigans on
this, but you're supporting the county executive because it's the right thing to do. And it
including you, council president, you control the agenda. You introduce legislation on behalf of the county executive. So you could have made this a tough process,
but you did not, and that is commendable. Thank you. I do hope that you continue to work
together with meiko over the summer as you take your summer recess, because this is not
going away. This will become a state issue at some point. I do want to take one minute to
recognize brian cornell. If you would have told me he called me several months ago because he
heard about the data center going in, and he asked, how do I get involved? Because he
didn't even know that there was a county council. And I said, I, I explained to him who to call
and who to get involved with, that it would grow from that. And having that first meeting
to all of you being here and still lined up and down the street, that is commendable.
that is him and his family. That that shows true activism in its finest. So thank you.
and he even has his own first facebook page. He'll probably regret having that at some
point. But thank you very much, council. So all of this is your fault. Is that what you're
saying? You have to ask him that. Thank you. Diana sadowski followed by jay kiel and amber
metallo. Name. Is it? Diana sadowski 21047. Tonight I stand in support of the county
executive's bill 26011, the data center ban. The fact that we're even here debating this
issue is the direct result of a lack of transparency surrounding the proposed plans
for mountain branch golf course. For more than a year, conversations occurred quietly.
discussions with the property owner remained behind closed doors. The public was largely
left in the dark until the prospect of a data center was finally brought into these
chambers. Why? Because everyone knew what would happen when the public learned the truth.
people would ask questions. Residents would demand answers, communities would push back.
and that's exactly what's happened. The people of harford county have spent weeks
educating themselves. They've attended meetings. They've reviewed reports, they've
spoken to experts. They've shared concerns about energy consumption, water usage,
environmental impacts, noise infrastructure strain, and the long term consequences of
placing massive industrial facilities in our communities. Meanwhile, we've heard every
sales pitch in imaginable. We've heard promises of opportunity. We've heard
promises of prosperity, and we've heard promises that everything will be fine.
they've even given these projects a friendlier name. They're not data centers
anymore. They're campuses, a campus that sounds welcoming, doesn't it? But no amount of
rebranding changes what these facilities are, or the impacts they can have on the
communities around them. So tonight, you have an opportunity to do something
simple and important. Protect harford county and protect the communities you were elected to
represent. And I'll be honest, every night lately I've found myself thanking god that this
happens to be an election season because without the scrutiny that comes with
elections, without citizens paying close attention, without accountability, who knows where
some people's allegiances might have been. So tonight is your opportunity to show exactly
where they are. Vote yes on this bill. Vote yes to ban data centers in harford county. And
finally, a message to mountain branch bill. If this doesn't work out, don't worry. There's
always that solar farm option thanks to wes moore. Wink wink. Excellent. Good evening sir.
name and zip. Brennan kiel 218085. Did you say kiel? Kiel. Thank you. Keil. I've been a
resident of harford county since I was ten years old. I was lucky enough to buy my
family farm on stockton road in 2018 to raise my own children right here in our beautiful
county. Speaking in support of the data center ban, no one is asking for ai, google, facebook
and every other internet service I use work just fine before ai. It's being forced on
us by these tech billionaires. Every day I'm disabling a new ai feature that came up with
the update that downloaded overnight on my phone. An ai and data centers are not
popular. 70% of americans view them negatively. I'm confident that any council member where
you foolish enough to vote against this ban would not be sitting in that seat come
november. It's already happened in multiple districts across our country where entire
councils have been voted out for, not for allowing these data centers into their
communities and for the data center itself. Ai and data centers are absolutely a bubble,
like the subprime mortgages like the dot coms. There's currently 5000 proposed data
centers across our country. Elon and spacex want to put them in space. Once that land
is developed, it's gone forever. Even when the proposed data centers shuttered, it's going
to be an abandoned industrial eyesore in the middle of an otherwise pristine agricultural
and residential area. And let's say I'm wrong. It's not a bubble. The proposed site is
300mw, with aspirations of expanding to 1.3mw gigawatts. I apologize, one gigawatt is
enough energy to power every single one of harford county's 100,000 households three times
over. So here we are in a statewide energy crisis, discussing solar farms all over
our green spaces of this county. But suddenly, one facility on mountain branch golf course is
going to generate three times the power the entire rest of our county uses. And they claim
that they're going to do it completely emissions free. What happened to global warming, the
dangers of fossil fuels? Apparently, we've had the technology all along, and bill
vasilopoulos and his partners have been holding out on us. There is the alternative,
though. Bill and his friends are lying about their emissions and capacities. And let's
discuss that much power usage. The heat islands have already been brought up, so I won't
bore you with that, although I will say the heat islands can expand up to 6.2 miles from the
site right here where we all sit today. You're four miles from it. So the temperature
spike would be right here today. So with that said, that's what I have to say. And I just want
you to know all these notes are handwritten. There was no ai involved with this, nor will
there ever be. Thanks. Good evening ma'am. Name and zip. Good evening. Amber. Metallo
21014. But I'm not here tonight to advocate for my house in bel air, which, for the record, is
within the noise distance of a proposed data center at mountain branch. I'm here
tonight to advocate for my parents farm, my farm, my future, which is located across
the street from mountain branch golf course. You know, it's easy to take a place for
granted when you're living there because that's what you're used to. The mature oak
trees, fresh air, bird singing, crickets chirping, sitting on the back deck, watching the
horses graze, and hearing that flick and swish of a tail when a fly annoys them. As dusk
arrives and you see the first few lightning bugs come out, that quiet and stillness washes
over you. It's almost palpable. If someone asked me to define home, that's how I would
describe it. I spent eight years of my adult life outside of maryland, four of those in
florida working on a graduate degree and four in alaska. Building my career. When I got
the opportunity to take a lateral job move to baltimore with my agency, I didn't
hesitate. No promotion, no increase in benefits, actually a significant pay cut. But that
move brought me home. There's that word again. Home. Why do you ask? Because there's
nowhere else where I wanted to put down roots and start a family. I want to raise my kids
how? I was raised on a farm in the country. I can't think of a better childhood. Most of the
people I've heard speak have addressed the council directly, so I'm going to take my
remaining time and address the people in this room and our neighbors who couldn't be with
us tonight or are still standing outside. This vote tonight is not the end. It's
just the beginning. Our fight is just getting started. Data centers shouldn't be in harford
county. Data centers shouldn't be in anyone's backyard. I'm proud to stand with all of you.
and I will see you in annapolis. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Scott perdue, followed by
victoria virgil. John gaffney and chrissy flatau. Good evening sir. Hello, I'm doctor
scott perdue from 21014. And I would like to highlight an issue with ai data centers that
I haven't heard discussed in the previous meetings. The proposed upside of building ai
data centers in anywhere is the tax revenue that would be generated from them. However, I
think we should be skeptical of that premise. There is currently no profitable ai data
company, not open ai, not xai, not anthropic. They're all all currently operating at a loss
funded by venture capital investments. These companies operate at a loss on every
customer, every prompt sent to chat. Gpt costs openai money even their highest tier
subscription that costs $200 a month is reportedly unprofitable. And this is
happening while data centers are operating with the fewest restrictions possible. I'm sure
we've all heard claims that the ai industry is massive and expanding, but the truth behind
these claims is that most of these profits are given to chip manufacturers and infrastructure builders like nvidia and broadcom. Once the ai is built, it generates less
than no value. It actively destroys value with heavily subsidized services that are
funded by private investors. Much of what has been discussed in these meetings is whether
the value this data center will bring to our county is worth the damage it will do, but I
believe we should be asking, how can this data center provide any value when it can't
provide any value for itself? I support a full ban on ai data centers in harford county.
thank you for your time. Thank you sir. Good evening ma'am. Victoria. Virgil 21009. Good
evening, council president, members and guests. My name is victoria virgil. I'm a
sophomore at bel air high school and a member of my high school student government
association. I am sure we can all agree that harford county is a beautiful place to live,
with a rich history and natural beauty from the suburbs and more populated areas to the rural farmlands. Imagine waking up to the smell of diesel exhaust and a persistent
humming sound as loud as a highway while watching your community's water supply run low. As resident harford county, this is not something I would ever think of happening, but
this will become a daily reality. Due to the massive water and energy demand of nearby data center. Data centers are an extreme threat to sustainability of harford
county and its quality of life. According to the environmental and energy study institute, a
medium sized data center can consume about 110 million gallons of water per year for
cooling purposes, equivalent to annual water consumption of about 1000 households. A larger
data center could consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day, which is about 1.8 billion
gallons annually. Chemical runoff in these cooling systems can contaminate soil and
waterways, which has the potential to travel directly to our crops and damage the
environment. Supporting local farmers it is also important to mention that fossil fuels are
heavily relied on by our data centers, emitting air pollutants and fine particles
that raise serious public health risks and worsen the condition of residents that have respiratory diseases, such as asthma. A legacy is planting seeds in the garden you never
get to see. Do we wish for harford county's legacy to be built around data center that
strips it of its sustainability and quality of life, or a place that offers somewhere to thrive
for the citizens that live there and its future. To build this legacy, we can start making efforts to find sustainable and water efficient ways to support innovating
technology and eliminating the construction of a data center in harford county. As a community, we must focus on what's truly important, providing the best possible
life for the future and building a place we are proud to call home. Thank you, thank
you ma'am. Good evening sir. Name is it? Good evening. My name is patrick gaffney from
joppa, maryland 21085. Thank you for this opportunity to oppose dennis centers in
harford county. Thanks to the council members already in opposition. However, the state
of maryland can always supersede the council's authority and undermine your zoning decisions, issue special permits, and shift harford county into a spiraling
industrialization hazard. We're all aware of the impact of data centers on water power,
pollution and the community. You simply cannot put one in a residential area on well water
unless the goal is to cause a disaster, one like we've seen in newton county, georgia. The
dalles, oregon, and amarillo, texas. Entire town, entire towns were destroyed. So we
need to stand up against the state, make sure we keep these data centers out of areas with
limited water supply such as joppa, fallston, bel air, everywhere in harford county.
right. So I'm confident the council will do its part and block data centers at the
county level, but you need to oppose the state of maryland, and that's going to hit us soon.
the citizens of harford county can help, but we need your expertise. We need you to inform us, provide impactful, powerful guidance and action items to fight against. Data
center battle with the state. We need you to harness the power of your people. Can you
please put together and advertise a website, for example, which includes contact
names and email addresses for state officials, phone numbers to call, suggestions for
impactful comments, references to legal precedents, timeline of events, you know, time
sensitive data and e mailing lists so we can all be alerted quickly so we can act. And
whatever else you would feel would be helpful to sway the state's decisions in our favor.
there are a lot of concerned people who want to fight. Data centers. Use us to be a tool so
we can be seen and heard at the state level. I mean, you've seen miss robert, mr. Bennett,
you've seen what we can do when it comes to things like ridgely's, reserve, days cove, the park and rides, you know, the warehouses, zoning conflicts that we have. So, you
know, we've got a voice locally, but we can take that and we can develop a plan before it's
needed, and we can start telling the state what we want and how to react when it's time
for us to do so. So I'm asking whatever you can do to facilitate the people in your
favor. So we have a strong force and a strong voice now rather than later. Man against
machine. Right. Thank you for your time this evening. Hold on just a second. I'll let that
big crowd get away from you. Folks, can you find a seat, please? Ma'am? Whenever you're
ready. Name and zip. Chrissy flato two 1085. Good evening. Tonight, I want to speak not
just as a resident of stockton road in harford county, but as someone who believes in the
responsibility we have to protect the land that sustains us. Many of us grew up reading
doctor seuss. The lorax is a children's book. Yes, but it's also a warning. And as someone
who works in a library, I turn to books because they help us understand the world around us
and the choices we face. In this story, the onceler looks at a beautiful, thriving
landscape and sees only what he can take from it. He cuts down the truffula trees one by one,
insisting I'm doing no harm, I'm being quite useful. And each time he takes more, the
lorax appears to say, I speak for the trees tonight. I feel like the lorax is speaking
through most of us, because what is happening in harford county mirrors that story far
too closely. Just like in the lorax, this project is presented as harmless, even
beneficial. But the cumulative impact tells us a different story. Noise pollution,
industrial lighting, miles of pipeline, and the permanent loss of agriculturally zoned
land. These are not small things. These are not temporary things. And once this land is
gone, it is gone forever. In the book, the onceler keeps asking more and more of the
land until there is nothing left to give. And that is the question before us. Now, how
much more can harford county give before the damage is permanent? At the end of the
lorax, the onceler hands over the last truffula seed and says, unless someone like you cares a
whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. We are the someone. We are the
ones who care. We are the ones asking you, our elected officials, to care with us.
protect this land, protect this community. Protect the future we will hand to our children.
last time I spoke here. I gave each of you a copy of the giving tree. And someone did
offer for to purchase copies of the lorax for each of you. But instead of that, I asked for
her to give to donate to the harford county boys and girls club. Because I feel like
protecting the future of harford county means investing in the children that will inherit it. So I hope you guys understand why you didn't get another book today. Thank you.
thank you ma'am. Nathan beck, followed by justine hendrix, daniel billings and paula
etting. Good evening sir. Name and zip. Nathan beck 21050. I'm coming here today. As someone
who has not only been to, but actively helped construct the data center out in frederick,
I'm paid to go there and I do my job. Having said that, the proposed data center at
mountain branch is the same style as up in frederick. The only difference being that they
also intend to have a natural gas power plant. There's not much need for that in harford
county, but at the same time, I disagree with the outright ban of all data centers. Most data
centers since the invention of the internet are small scale buildings, which allow ip to be
hosted websites, calling services, things that we use every single day without even
thinking about it. The tvs you have on go through a data center at some point, unless
you have a small locally hosted server in the building somewhere. If we ban all data
centers, we're relying on the other counties and states around us to supply that to us
in perpetuity. That's not guaranteed, and small scale data centers exist as close by
as rosedale. It's not far away. You've probably seen it before. If you've driven through there,
it just looks like a building and it's no bigger than the one we're in right now. I think
it's actually smaller than this building. I believe it's working. It's number of workers
is about ten people, and most of them are custodians. It's not much. But if we can make
some of our abandoned light industrial land or heavy commercial land into that, if
somebody wants to set that up, I don't think we should stop them. The impact is minimal,
and it does provide something more than an abandoned building, which we have a a lot of. In
some areas of the county. Thank you sir. Good evening ma'am. Good evening, justine hendricks
21078. I am here to speak. Supporting the bill that bans the data centers in harford
county. And I am hopeful to hear that it will be unanimously voted on today.
there are more than 3000 proposed data center projects in the united states that have
already been postponed or completely canceled due to pushback. Like you've seen and
heard from this room in the last few weeks. That's because communities like ours have seen
the short term implications of these projects in other areas. There are health issues, noise
pollution, light pollution, and lots of water usage. The communities near these massive
complexes have been asked to reduce water usage, while the data centers continue to use it
for their servers. There are increased incidences of health conditions like asthma and copd,
even among people who have not ever been smokers. In virginia, where there are plenty of data
centers, they estimate that the annual health damages from pollution could be in the tens
of millions of dollars. And those are just the short term implications. We haven't had
massive hyperscale data centers of this size long enough to know the long term
ramifications and consequences. Data centers bring short term jobs during construction, but
as many people have noted, most of those are not local jobs. And even the largest of the
data centers create fewer than 150 permanent jobs. That's according to a survey of 6300
data centers. They do drive up energy costs. They have poisoned water in local wells
nearby, which is a huge concern for this one. And they disrupt also the patterns of local and
migratory animals. A monterey park, california voters just voted to permanently ban data
center construction. The state of new york has introduced a moratorium, as has the city of
denver, oklahoma city and tulsa and smaller cities in new jersey, illinois, wisconsin and
pennsylvania. These are not popular projects because we have had the benefit of seeing
and learning from the experiences of other communities, and this is our
opportunity to stand up for ourselves, for our health and for the future of harford
county by banning these data centers. Thank you. Thank you. Miss dixon. You say everyone's
inside now? Yes. Thank you. Good evening, sir. Name and zip. Daniel billings 21771. Good
evening, council leaders. I'm not currently a resident of harford county, but this is my
childhood home. And it pains me to see this beautiful place corrupted by those who do not
live here and won't suffer the consequences of their greed. Last session, there was a large
portion of the speakers in favor of the ban who spoke to the strains of the county's
infrastructure, and this is of great concern. I do want to add, as a generator technician, one
of the facilities down in virginia has 55,500 kilowatt backup generators. Each one of
those units being large enough to not so comfortably fit into a semi truck. But I want to
speak on the parts that were glossed over missed entirely. That being of the looming ai
bubble burst. Ai hallucinations and how the companies react. Now, I wasn't old enough to
understand the.com bubble burst back in 2000, but I can clearly see the similarities to the
current ai bubble, and that will soon that it will soon burst. One of the keystone
companies behind ai, open ai is is begging other corporations to use ai while they are
hemorrhaging money billions at a time, and as the potential of going bankrupt by mid next year.
this will throw all ai development into chaos, which would leave the county with a
massive facility with a big fat for lease sign out front. While the building leaches off the
infrastructure. Along with this, new issues facing these companies of ai just making
things up called ai hallucination. This can make up almost half of the responses
that are spat out by the system, and is a glaring issue in the long term. Use of and brings a
is a glaring issue, bringing the long term use of ai into question. And when a
corporation starts to question whether or not something will be profitable, well, I'm sure we all remember the amazon fresh market that was supposed to be here. With this ban.
we're not finished with this unpleasant business and must now push the advantage before
annapolis can null the will of the people of harford county. This is a call to action to the
council. Do not sit idle, for the opposition will scream long into the night, so they may
pillage and pervert our beautiful county. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening mayor.
good evening paula. Adding 21014. Good evening, president vincente and council members. I
serve as the mayor for the town of bel air, and I am a candidate for district c, where
I have lived for over 40 years. And I'm here tonight to speak to you in support of the county
executive's bill on the data ban data center ban. I'm very happy to hear that. Apparently
it's going to pass 7 to 0 tonight, so I have much fewer things to say. But the bill
does the one important thing that we need, which is it permanently bans data centers here in harford county. We are fortunate that we have been able to learn from the mistakes
of others. They were the guinea pigs in a terrible failed experiment, aberdeen on monday
passed a data center ban. The town of bel air will have a public hearing on its data
center ban bill on the 22nd of june, and this is our one chance to protect harford
county from the damage that data centers will do to our communities and to our county.
we cannot let it go by. Once we've lost, we've lost. But the vote tonight, as several others
have mentioned, cannot be the end. We cannot let down our guard, governor moore and his
friends in annapolis have shown that they are very happy to take away local control and
force their bad ideas on counties like harford that have no interest in data centers or
high density housing, or any number of other things that are not appropriate for harford
county. Annapolis thinks it knows what is best for us out here in harford county, but we
know what is best for harford county. We live here, so we have to remain vigilant. The
report that was ordered by the general assembly on data centers in maryland is due to the legislature on september 1st. I'm anxiously awaiting that report. Once we have that
in hand, we'll have a better idea of where the state is heading. And then all of us
residents, everyone here in this room, elected officials, local, state, all of us have to
work together to prevent data centers from being forced on us here in harford county. And if
annapolis attempts to send data centers here, despite local opposition, which I'm sure
there will be, we have to be prepared to fight those efforts and minimize any harm that they
could cause to our county. I look forward to the unanimous vote passing bill 26-011, and I
thank you for your time this evening. Thank you ma'am. John astro, followed by rico alba,
carries j. Evans and christopher anderson. Good evening sir. Good evening,
council president. My name is john astro. My zip code is 210 nine three. Good evening. I'm
here on behalf of a light industrial landowner here in harford county, and I urge this
council to vote no on 2611. Much of tonight's concern has centered on agricultural land,
and I understand that. But there's been little contemplation of industrial
land here in harford county. This bill touches the property rights of every industrial
landowner in the county, because a blanket ban is the wrong tool, and because it
exposes the county to a real legal risk while foreclosing a better solution. The county's
zoning code permits by right, uses far more intensive than a data center. Within lee and g I,
rubble fields are permitted by right sanitary landfills permitted by right mineral
extraction processing equivalent to mining. Mining here in harford county,
permitted by right. So are concrete and asphalt plants, abattoirs and slaughterhouses
here in harford county. Yet this bill would make a data center the one use prohibited
in every district. And that is not that's not a measured land use policy. It singles out one
one use treatment that one use for treatment. And it's a treatment that we do not apply
demonstrably to heavier industrial neighbors. So the ban I would suggest to this
council is a riskier path. And it runs against state policy. Under the critical
infrastructure streamlining act of 2024, maryland statutory framework framework treats data
centers as critical infrastructure. A county that prohibits the use outright is
setting itself on a collision course with state law and inviting the exact preemption
concerns that the county has seen on energy projects. I would point to the council. I
would also point the council I sent to you this afternoon. The attorney general's letter to
delegate mark fisher, dated april 1st, advising that a temporary infrastructure based
moratorium is likely within the county's delegated zoning authority. However, the sharper
constitutional exposure takings and contract private contract impairment attaches to
restrictions that strip a property of its value. A permanent prohibition is far
more vulnerable to those claims than a temporary pause would have been. Passage of this bill
could lead the county to litigation. Councilman bennett, you had the right instinct with
the moratorium. A pause would have given this body time to write real standards. Real
standards on water, noise, environmental safeguards, just as the code already imposes
conditions on other heavy uses. Unfortunately, that pause was set aside in favor of an
outright ban. It should be considered that no maryland county has adopted such a ban.
not even loudoun county, the epicenter for data center development, has done this.
they have. And loudoun county has faced far greater pressure. It chose instead, in 2025 to
require and to regulate approval in its industrial districts, as opposed to an
outright ban. Council president members of the council. You should oppose this ban. Instead,
adopt an amendment that pauses the approval of any data center. Thank you, sir. Until, mr.
chair, I'd appreciate. Thank you, sir, your time is up. I would suggest to regulate and
set standards. Sir, your time is up. Sit down. Go ahead, sir. Good evening sir. Name and zip.
rico. Albert carries 21014. Thank you. Council president, county council members, as I
try to find an argument that might resonate with folks here tonight in the council. I know
where all of your heads are. I kept coming back to the same issue. It's hard for me to find
an argument that maybe would resonate, because I don't actually know the principles
that all of you hold dear. And what I mean by that is that harford county is a red county,
right? Like that's we all know that normally that means private property rights, free
enterprise, and keeping government out of the way of business. But tonight we're discussing a law that would permanently ban an entire industry, not regulate it, not
negotiate with it, not establish standards for it, just ban it outright. I've
heard warnings about corporate greed, putting people over profit concerns over money,
changing the character of our county. And those are arguments you usually hear from liberals
and progressives, something you might expect in montgomery county or pg county or
baltimore city, something I frankly did not expect here in harford county. Are we saying
my property rights only matter if my neighbor agrees? Are we arguing against private
investment making its way down to working folks? As a lifelong democrat, I find that
fascinating. And maybe I'm a little encouraged to hear progressive talking points like
concerns over global warming and corporate greed. I hope these democratic tendencies
manifest themselves in other places outside of this one conversation. Things like being
in support of clean energy initiatives, because I hear a lot of people talking about
energy prices, but some of those same folks are opposed to solar projects and battery storage projects, things that will lower energy prices and make make energy. Yes, ma'am.
yes they will, folks, but we don't want energy generation. We don't want new
infrastructure. We don't want new industry. We don't want new investment, but we don't want
higher utility bills. We don't want higher taxes. We don't want underfunded schools or
fewer job opportunities. An outright ban does not alleviate those problems. And I think as
a resident, the county will be better served having a discussion about where to build
infrastructure and industry and how to use it to our advantage. Thank you very much. Thank you
sir. Jay evans two 1050. Good evening, council president, members of the council. I'm a
resident of forest hill, but I raise my kids in fallston, not far from the mountain branch
complex, so I feel very tied to it. I'm a former planning and zoning commissioner, and I'm
also a candidate for county council in district d. I'm here tonight in support of this bill
and this moratorium. And let me be clear, I support this bill because I believe harford
county should prohibit large scale dentist data centers all together, not because I'm
anti-technology and not because I'm anti-business, but because I'm unapologetically pro.
harford county as a former planning and zoning commissioner, I've learned that
every major land decision comes down to one question what are we willing to give up? Because
every yes comes at a cost. We're told data centers bring jobs and tax revenues, but good
leadership doesn't simply ask what can be built. Good leadership asks if it should be
built at all. When I look around harford county, I see a productive farmland, open space,
forests and communities where families put down roots for generations. People choose
harford county because it still feels different. They want it to stay that way. What concerns
me most is what these facilities could take away farmland, open space in our
rural character, the very things that make harford county special. These facilities
consume enormous amounts of electricity, require major infrastructure and provide
relatively few permanent jobs once construction is complete. And once they're built, they're
built. You can't turn a data center back into a farm. You can't restore rural character
after it's been industrialized. Once that land is gone, it's gone. I want to thank the
members of this council for joining with bob cassilly by recognizing that some decisions
are too important to rush by supporting this moratorium, you're giving our community the
time needed to fully understand the long term consequences before before decisions are
made. Residents are here because they love harford county and believe some things
are worth protecting. Their message is simple, and I say to you and to annapolis, we don't
want industrial scale data centers in harford county ever. Not on our farmland, not at
mountain branch and not in our rural communities. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Good evening
sir. Name and zip. Chris anderson 21219. I am not a county resident. I am a
representative of plumbers and steamfitters local 486 data centers are rapidly growing
component in the nation's digital infrastructure and represent a significant income
opportunity for. For harford county, these projects support thousands of jobs throughout
the construction, maintenance and operation sectors. Local 486 represents nearly 3000
highly skilled plumbers, steamfitters, welders and hvac techs. 400 of those men, 472 of
those members call harford county their home. We are excited about the opportunity
to keep our members working close to home, while creating pathways for county residents
to enter rewarding careers through our registered registered apprenticeship.
these projects allow us to invest in local workforce while helping build the next
generation of digital infrastructure, as a lot of people have mentioned, you know
the construction, there is thousands of jobs and people always like to say, oh, it's
temporary jobs. These temporary jobs are what my career was built on up until two, well, 18
months ago, I was in the field building buildings, building johns hopkins hospital,
building data centers. That is what our livelihood is built on. That's what my retirement is
going to be built on, is building the infrastructure and the hospitals and data centers
that we use on a daily basis. With that being said, I also wanted to touch a little bit on
the water as an expert in the field and doing this over 20 years. The water usage, as you
know, people have mentioned here and there that it uses millions of gallons of water on a daily basis. It does not. They are closed loop systems. They the closed loop systems do
have flaws here and there, but they do not use the amount of water that is being portrayed
all over social media, a data center. And they are using air cooled. Everything that's being.
every data center that's currently being built is using air cooled chillers, not
evaporative cooling. With cooling towers where the water is evaporating into the
atmosphere on a daily basis, where you have that make up water of millions of gallons of
water. I kind of went off script. So I respectfully urge you to consider the long term
economic, workforce and fiscal benefits that a project of this nature would bring to harford
county, this opportunity to strengthen the local economy, create family sustaining
careers, generate significant tax revenue, and invest in the county's future. Thank you for
your time and consideration. Thank you, sir ray baker, followed by alan cichero,
nathan ogola, and christopher blocker. Good evening or good evening, sir. Name and zip. Ray
baker 20746. I'm not going to be here before you all long. I appreciate and respect that the
community has made their voice heard. The last time I was here with you, they made it heard
before I asked council president vicente when he asked me, how am I doing? I said, you
can make me do a lot better. And he said, no, no. And so I respect that council president
and I appreciate that. I also want to appreciate something that we heard a little bit earlier and speak about the notion of trade offs, the same way that we heard someone who
was a candidate for county council allude to. We cannot merely say yes without
understanding what we're saying no to what we're losing out on. I invite us to consider that
what happens when we say no? I recognize people have this strong and intense desire for a
complete and permanent ban. I stood before you all just some weeks ago, supportive of a
moratorium, believing that through a moratorium, we might get to a place that would
ultimately provide the people that I represent with the baltimore, dc building
construction trades an opportunity to come to work right here in harford county.
we even heard, well, we don't have enough apprentices in harford county. When I'm at
joppatowne high school, they're asking me, so how can I get in when I'm at harford tech?
they're asking me so. So what work opportunities do you have? And the only time that I can
expand our apprenticeship classes is if we have more work on the horizon. Again, I am
aware that you all are not interested in building a data center. What I am asking of us
to consider, even with the decisions that we're making around permanence, is that we
think about that which we're giving and that which we're getting. I understand that
we're all apparently very big fans of solar farms here. I understand we're not fans of
solar farms, and we're not fans of the state mandates telling us what has to happen. And yet
the actions that we are prepared to urge our council people here to take tonight
invite that same behavior. It invites that same hostility. Now, where we are now, we have
some degree of leverage. And I'm including myself in the why. Why? Because I am a resident of
maryland. I also pay bg and e prices. I also have to grab my energy from the pjm. And so I
understand some of the concerns and complaints that are present. And so at this juncture, if we
do not have a permanent ban, the council, the county executive, whomever it may be,
that is you guys election, not mine, has better leverage an opportunity to engage in
negotiate with developers to set the terms that are fitting for any industrial project that
will take place here. I would like to put my members to work. I've had some of my colleagues
come and tell you that they've worked in the field, and it provides job and life changing
opportunities to build the thing that you all are saying you all do not want, but you
have leverage. Now, you may not have that leverage soon. I would much prefer harford
county to be able to participate in a conversation where they have leverage than where they do not, but that decision is ultimately yours. I hope, sincerely, that the
council will reconsider the permanence of the ban. I hope the public would reconsider the
permanence of the ban, but nonetheless, the decision is yours. Thank you for your time.
thank you sir. Good evening sir. Good evening. My name is alan 021009. I'm going to try and
talk fast. Three minutes. Not a ton of time. I had a whole bunch of stuff that I wanted to
talk about, a lot of which echoes a lot of sentiments we've heard tonight already. I do understand some of the arguments on the other side to people who are supporting this
and, and want to build these. We are talking about jobs. We're talking about things like that. To be clear, I am on the other side of the fence. I fully support a ban on this. So
I'm going to take some of the numbers that I've researched and looked up today and
throughout the past week. We're going to cut some of them in half. So young lady mentioned
earlier that a large scale data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water a day,
which I think is actually probably pretty accurate given the size of some of these. So let's cut that in half. Let's call it 2.5 million. So at 5 million gallons a day, the epa
says the average person uses 82 gallons of water a day for washing clothes, drinking,
showering, all that kind of stuff. So with the 5 million gallon number, that's the daily
supply for 61,000 people. So if we cut that in half, that's still 3000 people. According to
harford county, maryland.gov website, the demographic data, we have over 100,000 residents
that are 65 and older or 18 and under. We are talking about putting their water supply at
risk, all of our water supply. But if we want to like hit home and make it emotional, minors
and the elderly. So we're going to take 3000 people and say, maybe you get clean water.
we're not sure, right? Let's gamble. Let's flip a coin and see what happens. I don't
support that. We all know there's going to be energy price increases. I had a whole
thing written about that. But the fact is they're not going to pay their own bill that's
coming to us. We we know that. And I have yet to see a tenant of any data center cut
everybody that it affects a check. Say, we got your bill overages. Don't worry, it's on us. I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think that the county government or the
state government is going to do that. Right. It's not going to happen. So we're now paying the
bill for something that, generally speaking, I think people in this room do not want.
right. I understand there's two sides to every story at least, but it seems like that's not
what we want. The jobs thing has been brought up. So I'm going to again summarize. Yes,
there are construction jobs that will spike for a couple of years and then they will go
away. I know a gentleman just mentioned that the a career has been made off of these
temporary jobs. Absolutely understandable. Right. We all need to work. We've been
building other things. The data center conversation is new over the past couple of years. Did
nobody have a job prior to that? I don't see how this is is required. Right. So overall, I
just kind of feel that the job here is to figure out what's good for harford county and
what's good for harford county is what's good for their residents. So I'm not stupid enough to say something is all good or all bad. That's not how it works. But I think that to
have data centers anywhere in harford county, given the current landscape of how we all
work and live and operate, is a net negative, which is why we do need to be in favor of this
ban. I've got four seconds left. I thank you all for inviting us out to talk. And real quick,
thank you. If anybody else is still in the room, I don't know who's come and gone, but the
firefighters. Another big round of applause for them. I appreciate everything they do. Thank you guys. Good point. I think it's my turn. I don't know. I hope I'm not skipping
someone. My name is christopher blocker. Zip code 21085. Some things in life are inevitable
sickness, suffering, death. These are things that as human beings, we ought to learn to
bear with grace. They are existential facts. Then there are things in life that are not inevitable that others want us to believe are inevitable. They only become inevitable when we
accept their reasoning without question. The point is to make us complacent, resigned,
discouraged. These are not existential facts, but entirely dependent on the choices that
we make here and now. History is full of examples. It happens in the political sphere all the
time. X candidate is too extreme. So even if you like their policies, you should vote
for the establishment candidate. It's only the fact that everyone believes this, that we end up with lukewarm representatives who would rather toe the party line than
advocate for the interests of their constituents. It's half the reason so many people in
our country end up supporting wars that cost countless innocent lives. War is
inevitable. It's the only way to protect our financial or national security interests. And it's simply an unfortunate reality that so many innocent civilians will die. There is
nothing we can do to mitigate the disastrous effects of climate change, and no viable
alternatives to burning fossil fuels, fossil fuels. It's far too ingrained in the global
economy to give it up. In every case, it is not the people who benefit from believing in these
alleged inevitabilities. It is the profiteers who traffic in the hopelessness and
resignation they manufacture. Once upon a time, slavery was considered an inevitable fact
of daily life. We fought a war over it in ordinary citizens below the mason-dixon line
believe that the southern economy would collapse without the institution of owning other human beings. In the early 20th century, people believed that working themselves to the bone
in filthy, dangerous factories was just the way that life was. But with the tireless work of
labor organizers, we won the eight hour work day and the benefits that many of us workers enjoy today without even noticing, once upon a time, the idea that a woman would
ever have the right to vote to participate in democracy was seen as absolutely absurd.
right now, we are at a precipice. As human beings, we can accept the reality that tech giants like peter thiel, mark zuckerberg and elon musk want a fetus, that it is time
for us to adapt to an inevitable future where ai is embedded into every aspect of
our lives, spying on us, collecting our data, selling our attention off to the highest bidder, to the point where our daily lives are nothing but an endless stream
of advertisements. On the next rung down are the opportunistic owners of property golf clubs,
for example, who stand to make a modest sum of tens of millions of dollars by acting
as their faithful lackeys. They will do things like lie and manipulate manipulate you to
believe that data centers are actually good for you. Or at the very least, not bad. I'm
not going to counter their claims, but the idea that they care a whit for their community is utterly laughable. If they did, they would sell their property to build a homeless
shelter, a wildlife sanctuary, a public gymnasium, a learning center for underprivileged
youth. Use your imagination. The biggest lie that they need you to believe, however, is
that this is inevitable when they can't convince you that the data center will benefit
you as they surely cannot, they will convince you that it is inevitable. But the future of
humanity belongs to human beings, and the future of harford county belongs to harford county residents. Thank you sir. Sir, I believe you spoke, haven't you? Yes. I'm
here to represent consulting, inc. Or cybersecurity company. So continuing my speech. So
speaking as a citizen and then again as a representative for corporation, an organization.
yes. Part of a corporation. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thanking our founding fathers for the
first amendment. So I think it is obvious that a data center, starting with on site
generation, will eventually connect to the grid when the laws change and there is adequate transmission capability, whether they continue operating power and
pushing it into the grid or consuming it locally probably depends on the cost. Certainly,
folks in perimeter fighting enhanced generation capability in their neighborhood and
neighbors are fighting the transmission lines. So there are too many unanswered
questions to permit data centers, as others have. Others pointed out, the fight is
probably just getting started. If the state overrides and some ideas on legislation that the
council can do so. I say the potential risks are enormous to the health and finances of
harford countians, as they could impact tens of thousands of water users and not to mention our electricity cost. The. In the presentation with the data center, maryland data
center alliance, mr. Bennett asked who sponsored the maryland data center alliance. Their website shows the logos of amazon. Turner turner, a construction company, and
constellation, the power company. I think this would have been the transparent answer to mr. Bennett's question, but that's not the answer he received. So later in
the video, mr. Schultz acknowledges the limits of her knowledge outside of the talking points and states that she isn't an engineer and can't comment on pfas and water. So
virginia requires pfas to be treated by polluters in fairfax waters territory because the
public was paying for pfas cleanup as a result of data center pollution. You can look at fairfax water's website. I believe they also sued a number of pfas polluters, and virginia
passed house bill 2050 to create a special water district for fairfax water, where, of
course, a lot of the data centers are. So in the future, I think harford county citizens
would prefer to hear from electrical engineers with experience in power distribution, computer engineers that can discuss hyperscale infrastructure,
electricians, well, drillers that know our aquifers, civil engineers with experience in
water treatment and wastewater treatment, and mechanical engineers that design cooling
systems. Sadly, it seems that very little has been learned from the warehouse battle that
the courageous citizens launched and won. Taxpayers are better served by avoiding
litigation, as the approvals for the warehouses were ultimately rescinded. When the facts emerged and the litigation went to the supreme court. Maryland supreme court.
my advice to the council president is to invite experts, not industry cheerleaders or
lobbyists, so that the facts are determined earlier in the process. Citizens deserve real
answers when we are talking about our land, our home, our harford. So a few other points
people have talked a bit on on facebook about glycol cooling systems. So I think today they
they could theoretically be banned in harford county via the harford county mechanical
code. I sent that feedback to county executive cassilly and he acknowledged sending it or
one of his staff, I should say, acknowledged sending that to the department of planning, licensing and zoning for review. I also sent that to the council member from district c, since
he is endorsed by p three as the next council president. So I specifically focus on glycol
cooling because one of the civil engineers that was here mentioned, you know, it's mixed
with the water and then that water gets discharged, whether that's discharged into the
water, the rivers, groundwater, aquifers is really important. And thank you, sir. Thank you.
todd wetzel berger, followed by michelle christman, ellen evelyn bischoff and carrie
kelly. Call your first speaker again. Oh, never mind. Todd wetzel. Berger, can you hear me?
okay. Yes 21047. I am pretty cynical of dealing with the government, as probably most of
you aren't here. I think I have a unique perspective, otherwise I wouldn't have spoken tonight.
I'm a real estate investor. Private lender. I 100% support private property rights.
mountain branch is zoned agricultural. Never in a million years. What I thought
it would contemplate to put an industrial cooling center or data center on an agricultural
property. I've gotten zoning variances. I've done all this before. It's unfathomable. I
zoning laws exist for a reason. That said, my experience is in a past life. 2008 crash. I have
a finance background. I became a whistleblower and a litigator, exposing the multibillion dollar fraud of the banks. It was totally by chance. It wasn't planned, and I went
naively to the fbi, irs, sec. I think doug gansler was the attorney general at the time.
special prosecutors. Nobody would touch it. I decided to expose it myself, all driven by
rage, people's lives immensely destroyed. And so I went down this path, and I got the death
threats and the harassment and the hacking and all the stuff you can't even imagine. I met a
lot of whistleblowers, nsa, cia, world bank, and I went down that path for about a half a
decade and end up litigating. And 8 or 9 states, state federal bankruptcy court,
appellate court. I went to panama docketed a case against citibank with panamanian
attorney. And what I found back to these data centers, when there's this much money at
stake here, they will not stop. Thank all of you for voting tonight to ban this. One
gentleman mentioned about the state level. My experience is to think about what they're
going to do next. I've dealt with crooked judges, crooked politicians. I can't even begin
to tell you. Think about the next steps ahead because there's so much money involved. They will not stop. So it's a win here tonight. Think about the next level at the state
level, and think about the federal level, how they're going to try to steamroll over us. Think ten steps ahead. Where's the money going to go? And my personal experience is
this is a huge, huge win. There's strength in numbers. What I found this is huge. And
another thing I found is a winning strategy is the court of public opinion. I learned
that from tom drake, who was a whistleblower at nsa. And the court of public opinion is very
powerful. And the last thing is shining a big light on the corruption. And everybody here
has the ability to do that. Shine a big light. Because what I found, and I'm mindful of my
time every time I expose crooked judges, got crooked politicians. They ran when the
light was shine on them. Super, super powerful. So I hope this is helpful. Think ahead, ten
steps ahead because this is not going to stop. The owner of mountain branch, I invited him
to a public debate and I said, hey, any time, any place, invite the media. Crickets. So
make it personal and make your voice heard. I'm so grateful for all of you coming out in
the last saying, this is literally a fight of good versus evil, and I pray to god
that we all succeed. Thank you. Thank you sir. Good evening ma'am. Good evening. I'm
michelle christmann 21132. I thank you very much for your time. My dad volunteered for 61
years running fire and ambulance calls in harford county, maryland. So thank you for your 027 vote. I appreciate that I stand here before you this evening as someone who
believes deeply in what harford county represents family history and the responsibility
to protect both, I'm also the legislative chair for harford county republican women and
also running for maryland house of delegates 35, a harford and cecil county, maryland. I grew
up in kingsville, maryland. I remember clean streams, open land, and a community built by
hard working families like my mom and dad. Roads like jerusalem mill aren't just
roads routes on a map. They are part of our heritage. Once traveled by george washington
himself. That is not just land, that is a legacy. And now we are being asked to give it up
for massive data centers, industrial complexes that do not belong in rural communities,
steel towers cutting through our countryside, solar farms that do not grow vegetables or
grazing cattle, and battery energy storage systems, facilities that consume
enormous amounts of water, millions of gallons of day and damage huge amounts of
electricity. Tricity driving up costs for residents. We are told this is progress, but
progress should not come at the cost of our history, our environment or our quality of
life. These projects threaten our farms, our property values and our natural resources,
including places like deer creek that we have worked so hard to preserve. They bring
noise, industrial strain, and long term consequences that cannot simply be undone. Once
this land is lost, it's gone. This is not about resisting change. It is about making
responsible decisions that protect the people who live here, not outside interests.
the harford county council has a choice to stand with the citizens by passing bill number
two, 6011 and putting a stop to this, I'm asking you to stand up, speak out and make it clear
harford county is not for sale. Once elected, I do intend to repeal sb 931 and keep land use
decisions in local communities and not annapolis bureaucrats. If we do not protect harford
county now, we will not get another chance. Again, thank you very much for your time,
and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening and god bless you all. Good evening ma'am.
name and zip. Good evening. My name is evelyn bischoff and my zip code is 21047. And first, I
just want to congratulate all of us and our council for being the second on the books data
ban. I think that everybody's pointing out all of the how it opens doors for the state to
steamroll us. And I have to say, I think maryland can try to steamroll us, but I have a
feeling that all across this country right now, there are people fighting this exact
thing. If we all band together and we all speak out and we all stand up, and if you join all
of us, we can stop this. So with that being said, I support the emergency bill 26-011. On
the ban on data centers. Today I would like to talk about jobs. You're probably going to hear
from some of the union fellows tonight that want you to think that data centers will bring
hundreds of jobs. Of course, most of them have left already, but whatever. I will admit,
there will be workers employed at every data center construction site. However,
will they be workers from harford county, maryland? I know people that live near
other data construction sites report long caravans of rvs showing up at the beginning of
the construction to house workers. Because they do not live near the area they are
working, business insider.com says construction workers often travel to data center sites and
stay for extended periods of time. Has anyone ever thought about the other jobs? Fortune
magazine just published an article stating big tech is desperate. Imagine that amazon
is spending 200 billion to build data infrastructure while cutting 30,000 workers.
microsoft is spending 190 billion while laying off 30,000 corporate employees in the last
eight months. Meta dismissed 10% of its staff in may after announcing it would double its
ai apex of 72 billion from 2025, and oracle reduced its staff of 20 to 30 000 employees, which
coincided with the company's 248 billion investment in future data center leases.
sounds to me like the bubble is bursting out of just those four companies. That is 87,886 jobs
that have been cut. When the construction is done and the dust settles, how many
permanent jobs will reside at a single data center? 2030. In no way will those 2 or 3 dozen
jobs offset the hundreds of thousands of permanent jobs that will eventually be lost
across the country? Do not let them manipulate you into thinking that they are
beneficiaries, bringing jobs to the masses because they are not. Good evening ma'am. Hello, my
name is carrie kelley 21048 and I'm here to represent food and water watch. Good evening,
council president and council members. My name is carrie kelley, and I'm here tonight on
behalf of food and water watch and a few hundred of our members and supporters across
harford county. We strongly encourage you to pass the bill banning data centers in harford
county to permanently prohibit prohibit this development in the county. Food and water
watch is a nonprofit that works to protect the resources that our communities depend on every
day, including clean water, affordable utilities and a healthy environment. Data
center development raises serious concerns about all three. While data centers some
people like to assume are simple, like office buildings, they are large and industrial
and cause astronomical effects on the community and the environment that they surround.
as ai technology continues to expand, so does the demand for electrical and water facilities
and the growth places, increasing pressure on local infrastructure and natural resources infrastructure that harford county does not currently have. Harford county
should not have to risk higher utility costs, greater strain on water resources or
additional pressure on our power grid to accommodate a project whose impacts are still not fully understood. Once these facilities are built, the effects on the surrounding
communities can be very difficult to reverse. I appreciate the council's
willingness to take this issue seriously and to act before these developments become a reality in our county, protecting our residents, our resources and our quality of
life should come first. And I would like to thank you on behalf of food and water watch
and residents across harford county for taking this seriously and voting yes on the bill to ban data centers. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you,
william blocker, followed by debbie schreiber, stephanie flash, and sean maloney. Good
evening sir. Name and zip bill blocker 21085. As everybody else, I'm not going to go
statistics or anything else. This is really personal. I'm here to express strong opposition to the proposed data center at mountain ranch golf course. However, my purpose is
not solely to oppose the proposal. It is also to encourage thoughtful
consideration of more appropriate use of the land. I live on stockton road, approximately one quarter mile from the golf course. My family and I have been members of
mountain ranch golf course for about 20 years. I have enjoyed my membership, the course
itself, the people that work there. It is a fine facility. Over the years I have
participated in many tournaments and have helped to sponsor charitable events at the course. This issue is again deeply personal to me. However, I am deeply concerned about the
potential loss of natural habitat in the area, including federally protected great blue
heron painted turtles on number one, the monarch butterflies and the on the milkweed and the
fourth and fifth fairways and the piloted woodpeckers, the kingfishers and the red tailed
hawks that nest in the woods behind the pond on number four. This may be the end of the
property's use as a golf course. However, I strongly oppose the destruction of the area for an
incompatible use, particularly proposed data campus. We are all still learning about the
potential environmental and public health impacts of such facilities. I'm also concerned
about the potential impact on pollinators and other sensitive species that may be affected by
noise, vibration and other operational factors associated with the data center. I urge
the owners and this council to consider alternatives that are environmentally responsible,
compatible with surrounding neighborhoods and protective of public health and property values. I ask the council to consider a broader question. Baltimore county owns five golf
courses. Harford county has zero. Should harford county explore preserving this
property as a recreational or public asset that would serve residents now and in the future?
I disagree with the proposal to convert this property to a data center. Instead, I encourage
all parties to look forward and identify a use that preserves this beauty and environmental
value community benefit, rather than allowing it to become a detriment to our homes and our
environment. Bring on the state. Let's do it. Thank you sir. Good evening, madam debbie
schreiber two 1047. I was going to thank the fire and ems for all their work 24 over seven
protecting us, but I believe they left. Tonight. We vote for a bill to ban data centers in
harford county. I have lived in fallston for 48 years. Many years ago, there was an article
in the newspaper titled fallston the best kept secret. And all I thought was, why are
you telling everyone now, decades later, we have been fighting together as a
community to keep our land rural. The mountain branch property is zoned ag. The
definition of zoning refers to local government laws and regulations that dictate how
physical land and property can be used within a specific geographic area. It it
partitions the county into zones to ensure development is orderly, safe, compatible with
the surrounding neighborhoods. Yes, our best kept secret is now developers dream. While
progress is inevitable and the so-called data campus will change our landscape forever,
there will be no going back once this is done. I'd like most of all the people here
tonight. Live in the area, live in that area that we'll hear the 24 over seven humming. And
what about our water sources? Considering we all live on, well, water. In closing, this
is not the place for a data center now or ever. There is a right place and a right time
and this property is neither. Thank you, thank you ma'am. Good evening stephanie flash
21047. I'm speaking on behalf of friends of harford. So since 1997, friends of harvard has
worked to give citizens a voice in land use decisions that affect our community's natural
resources and infrastructure, and especially our quality of life. And friends of harford
supports this bill to prohibit the permitted use in any zoning district. Harford county
supports balancing growth with preserving agricultural land, open space, natural resources
and our community character, and these priorities are already reflected in what our
county council has put forward regarding the master land use plan, zoning regulations,
agricultural preservation programs, and recently completed the comprehensive rezoning process. Two planning efforts should guide this council on this decision. First,
harford county's master land use plan is now entering the update process and it will
establish county legislation, long term vision for growth, preservation, infrastructure
and our community character. So residents should have the opportunity to participate in
shaping the vision and discussing the long term implications of emerging land
uses in our county. Second, the recently completed comprehensive rezoning provided
a county wide evaluation on land use and development intensity. Already, and through
that process, the county carefully considered where growth should occur and the
level of intensity appropriate in the various areas. And that was not up zoned. Friends of
harford believes that huge data centers like the one proposed represents a land use that is
fundamentally different in scale, infrastructure demands and long term impacts of the
types of developments permitted through our planning efforts. And so the potential of the
impacts on our agricultural land, infrastructure planning, natural resources, community
character warrant careful consideration by the context of the county's long term planning
for our growth. Bill 26011 supports harford county's long standing commitment to
protecting these areas and preserving our community character. We need to plan for
growth in a manner that reflects the values and priorities in establishing
within our master land use plan. Already, for these reasons, friends of harford respectfully
urges you to support 26-011. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, president vicente and the rest
of the council. Shaun maloney 21085. I'm currently building a new house in 21047. Starting to
worry. It was a bad, bad decision. So I appreciate your your ban on this. Put me put me
back in a good frame of mind. As a small business owner and president of an association
that represents over 200 contractors, I work with the psc, the utility companies and
legislators at the state level to advocate on behalf of what's best for the ratepayers of the
state of maryland in their legislation. I've always hate to say I told you so in my
testimony, but I've had no problem doing it. I spoke with u.s. Senator chris van hollen
about four years ago, and I warned him that the newly passed climate solutions now act of 2022 would cause sky high utility rates and rolling blackouts and brownouts. I told
him that I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that voters don't like sky high
utility rates and blackouts and brownouts. You know, he came out the following week and
recommended that we look more into it. So I like to think that I had something to do with
that. But here we are today, and I told you so. But we're pushing forward anyway. Governor moore has increased the already aggressive goals of that legislation, including
full electrification of the state of maryland, including the ban of gas powered vehicles in 2035 and the ban on the sale of gas, oil and propane heating systems and water heaters in
2029. This was all before data centers came into the equation, which has exponentially
compounded the impending problems. But governor moore apparently doesn't have the same fear of it being an election year as some in this room do. After the recently
vetoed two bipartisan bills to perform studies on data centers and their effects in maryland,
his veto was overturned, which shows you that even in maryland, the system works. In an
election year, you see money talks, but money doesn't vote. Data centers may bring in
substantial amounts of revenue, but the voters of harford county and baltimore county as well, with their moratorium, have recognized that. They also bring in the many obvious
problems with an increasing likelihood that not only in the hottest weather, but is more
and more electricity is required for heating systems and ev charging. There will be
blackouts and brownouts in extreme cold weather as well as a result, since it will take
billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades that we don't have and can't afford, especially with the horrendous amortization deals that multiply the costs that are
expensed through our utility bills so legislators can impress high dollar donors from special interest groups. I appreciate your likely unanimous vote on the ban at
the county level tonight, but this is not the end. After the ban, the data center lobbyists
and lawyers will ultimately push the state legislator for a ban on data center bans at the
county levels. So I want to remind and recommend to people to reach out to their local
delegates and senators to make them aware of how important this is to you as their constituents. I've spoken to multiple legislators that I've worked with over the years and
recommended to them the importance of this issue. That will be on par with utility rate issue that's dominated election year politics for the last several months. The
council should have letters in support for the ban from senator jb jennings and delegates teresa riley, ryan naraqi and kathy schlager, to name a few. So do your part and
reach out to your representatives, make your voices heard, and also talk to people that you know who live in other counties, who have other delegates and other
senators, and let them know how important, if it can happen in harford county, it can happen
there as well. Thank you for your time. Thank you sir. Don rossi, followed by angelia
galati. I don't know if the previous person came up. Yeah, I'm anjali galati here from
21009. Good evening. Esteemed council members and fellow harford county residents. I'm
here representing the organization. I work with interfaith power and light dmv,
which is a faith based nonprofit working with congregations across the dc,
maryland, northern virginia region to respond to climate change and to protect our climate, environment and communities. This is very close to home, as I was, you know,
born and raised right in abingdon, right off singer road with the woods in my back yard,
touching the woods that are behind the golf course while I now live in baltimore city.
harford county will always be home. And, you know, driving past mountain ranch golf club
nearly every day I've been around the world. Nowhere is more beautiful than our shared
home here in harford county. From the landscapes, the waterways, farms and
communities of this county that's shaped who I am. So that's why I'm here tonight. In
support of the proposed ban on hyperscale data centers, the people of faith. We are called
to be good stewards of creation and to leave future generations a world that is healthy,
livable, and abundant. That responsibility requires us to carefully consider projects
that would place extraordinary demands on our land, water and energy systems. We don't really
have to speculate about what these facilities can mean for communities, because we've
already seen it in northern virginia, just down the road where hyperscale data center
development has transformed entire landscapes and placed enormous pressure on energy
infrastructure, maryland residents are already struggling with some of the sharpest utility bill increases in the country, adding massive new electricity demands to an
already strained grid raises serious questions about affordability, reliability and
ultimately, who bears the cost. Water is another major concern. Data centers can consume
millions of gallons of water annually for cooling, and even where operators promise
efficient technologies, those commitments can change over time. We don't have the
regulations in place to mandate those, and once construction begins, local governments have
much more limited leverage to address the unforeseen impacts. Harford county shouldn't gamble
with resources that families, farms, ecosystems and future generations depend upon.
residents across the country have also reported significant quality of life impacts from
data centers, including constant noise from cooling equipment and backup generators.
beyond the impacts on nearby neighborhoods, persistent industrial noise can disrupt
wildlife, including pollinators and other species that are essential to healthy ecosystems
and food systems. You know, we're constantly told that rapid ai expansion is
inevitable and what we need and we simply must accommodate, but what we actually need is water
and food and air to breathe and land to live on. And we know that we're data centers are
built. All of these are negatively impacted. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Brian cornell, followed by lisa mathis, jessica riley hammond and christy heisey.
well, the first one again, brian cornell.
good evening, sir. Good evening, brian cornell two 1085. What we
experienced in the last two months, I like to compare to what I imagined feels like
getting smashed by a once in a lifetime storm. Our small community was rocked by this
unexpected storm and immediately went into action by going door to door, checking on
everyone to see if they were okay. And then our small community quickly grew and
spread across the county and into neighboring counties. Neighbors started coming out of
their homes and started supporting one another, shaking hands and hugging folks that
they've lived down the road from their entire lives. And some were meeting for the first,
very first time, but they all had the same concerns. Looking back, I would never wish these
circumstances on any community. But in a strange way, I'm very thankful for this chapter of my
life. I'm thankful for the lifelong friendships and the bond that has been forged from
being in the trenches together. There are many new friends sitting in this room tonight
that have each other's backs, and we never would have met if this storm never showed up. I'd
like to say something else about another neighbor that we share, and I like to reference
scripture to help explain. In the book of luke, there's a situation where an expert of
the law challenges jesus. He asked jesus, what must I do to gain eternal life? Jesus's
answer was simple, but probably somewhat annoying to the expert. Jesus simply said, love god
with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And then jesus added
one more command love your neighbor. With that said, I'd like to reiterate something
that we prayed about the first time we met up as a group. We prayed for bill, the owner of
mountain branch. We pray because we learn that bill has been struggling as a business
owner owner, and it was difficult to know that one of our neighbors was struggling,
even though we didn't agree with his plans for a solution. I just want bill to know that
he is my neighbor, who I also care about. We are just trying to do what we know is right for
all our families and all our neighbors for generations to come. So that brings us to
tonight and the decision that we must make. Let me just admit that sometimes as I listen to
the local news, I wonder if there is a perfect place in this country to live in these
moments, I often look past our neighborhoods imagining that perfect place. But tonight, we
have an opportunity to lead our state. We have an opportunity to be the first county in the
state and the second county in the nation to ban data center development and boldly say,
there are some things that you just can't put a price tag on. With that said, knowing that
there really is only one perfect place that we're trying to all trying to get to. I
believe that a very special, great place might just be right under our nose, right? Your
time is up. That great place to live and raise a family that is worth protecting is our land,
our home, and our harford county. Thank you. Good evening, ma'am. Name and zip. Lisa
mathis 21085. A happy, productive, thriving community is what we all want. And a
community like that that has trust in their local government, in the people around them, in
their neighborhoods, it's priceless. As a newborn, I came home from the hospital to olney
farm, which is between stockton and old joppa road, and I live there now. Multiple generations
of my family have lived there on the farm. It's a working farm. My cousin kate keeps it
thriving. When we grew up, we were like a. My cousins and my siblings and I. We were like a
pack of hoodlums running around, climbing trees, playing in the streams. We turn around now and
we say, what? Where were our mothers? Did they not know what we were doing? You know, we
climbed up in the hay barn. Fell out of the hay barn. My brother taught me how to drive
a tractor. I couldn't figure out the brakes. And I did happen to go halfway over a
pile of firewood. I lived anyway. Many people in harford county grew up like this. At
least I think so. It's part of what we are. It's a rural county. It's beautiful. It's
full of history and agriculture. My cousin kate, who runs a good bit of olney farm, she has
summer camps, summer equestrian camps. She also has farm camp for little kids. My niece and
nephew from nashville come up because these kids get to experience what it's like to
live on a farm. They get to play in the streams, catch minnows, crayfish. They get to
forage around and pick up acorns and see what they can do with them. They get to make
butter. They play with the ponies. They ride the ponies. You know, when we were growing
up, we we rode shetlands. We used to go out in the field and put a little rope on them and
ride around the fields, grateful we didn't break our necks. We'd like to keep that.
I'm grateful to the council for passing this bill tonight. I hope you haven't changed your
minds. But our trust has been shaken. The the misinformation or the omission of information
on the data center that they've proposed. You know, I'm getting pretty darn tired of hearing
about this magic closed loop system. You know, it didn't take that much sleuthing for me
to figure out that it does have to be flushed. You know, as as it's been pointed out multiple
times. We don't have public water and sewer out there, so let's not brush it all under
the rug. Well, I'm running out of time. Shucks. Golly. I would just like to say it would be
nice to stand firm and preserve. Thank you. Ma'am. Agricultural zoning. Thank you. Jessica
riley hammond, followed by kristi heisey and ellie corney. Good evening, jessica riley
hammond, bel air, two 1015. I'm a candidate for county council in district c as well. Lisa, I
don't know where you went, but I want you to know I learned how to ride at olney as a child.
I wholeheartedly support this ban. Harford county has made its position clear and it's
just the right thing to do. Residents have shown up, spoken out and repeatedly said they do
not want large scale data centers in our community. This is not about being
anti-technology. It's about protecting our water, our farmland, our natural
environment, our infrastructure and the character of our county. Once these facilities are built,
the impacts can last for decades. Tonight, we have an opportunity to put our
community first and provide certainty to the many residents that have been asking for it. I
urge you to vote in favor of the ban, and luckily, I believe you will. The next step will be
pushing for this at the state level, which I've already been already begun doing. I spoke to
delegate susan mccomas on the phone yesterday. I've been in touch with mary delaney james.
this is going to require probably more of a fight than we've already had so far. The
encouraging thing is how organized and strong our community has been. I have to
say, I started posting about this on social media, and bill paulsen here got in touch with
me, I believe, and invited me to the meeting that I went to at brian cornell's farm, and
all I knew was that a community member was asking me to come do something that was important. I
was already really into the data center situation. I didn't know the people. I knew it was
at someone's house. I was afraid I might be murdered, but it was that important that I
went anyway. And here I am. I'm alive and well, and I've met these wonderful people and this
wonderful organization. So I want to thank you all for inviting me, for coming
together to fight this and just know that I'm here with you. And we're going to need to keep
doing this going forward. And there's no reason to wait. Start the fight now at the state level. Thank you. And thank you all for supporting the ban. Thank you ma'am. Don't
worry. I'm not talking. Not worried at all. Good evening ma'am. Name and zip. Christine
heisey 21047. I have been in harford county my entire life, which is more years than I want
to admit. I remember when box hill was a was a dirt track for a long time. Our whole lives we
learned that we're stewards of the chesapeake bay, and we want to put this data center in an
area where it's going to impact all of our rivers. We've got the gunpowder, we've got deer
creek, we've got winters run, we've got the susquehanna. It's not going to be limited to this
six miles that they show on maps. There's going to be things that are going to happen.
they've talked about the increase in the temperatures. What is that going to do
overall? How is this going to fan out? What's it going to do to the bay? What's it going to
do to the crab population. What's it going to do to the bass population. There's a lot
more things involved here. If you look at the maps of all the data centers in the us, this
just kind of clicked for me earlier tonight. We talk all about global warming. Maybe
there's a lot more to it than the cows. Maybe it has something to do with the data
centers and they're just not going to tell us, you know, the, the, the key people at the top
are making decisions for all of us. They're they're multibillionaires trillionaires,
and they have an end game. And we're just little ants in that end game, they really don't
care. So what is this push for all of these data centers? Why do we need all of this? We
really don't. We don't. I don't need to be told at every training that I go to for real
estate, that I need to use ai, that I need to make it create songs for me, that I need it to
do this, that, and the other thing, the big thing with all of those trainings that I go to,
the big concern everybody has is they say the public wants to know what's real and down the
road, we're not going to know what's real. They want to see people in the flesh. We don't
need more ai. As far as mountain branch goes, it's just a sad situation, and I feel bad
for the owner that he's mismanaged things the way that he has. He should not be in
this situation. He's told us a lot of things and made a lot of promises. I feel like he's a
two tongued snake. I love eating at mountain branch. I go there a lot, you know, but I
just don't feel that he would ever follow through on anything that he's promised. From a real
estate standpoint. I had a lot of people ask me what would happen to the values of their
homes. Would they be able to sell their homes in the fallston area, joppa area? I
pulled numbers a couple weeks ago, and I want to say that probably between two and
047210852109210 is one three for kingsville. That no. One eight that there's there's
about 7000 homes. I don't know how that aquifer moves under that, but we are all well and
septic. So sure, as sure as we're all here that water is going to get contaminated.
there's wells that are going to go dry and there's people's perks that are going to fail.
and then what do we do? What do you do with those houses? Nobody's going to want them.
it's a huge tax base. So please don't turn your back on the people of those areas. Please
vote for this ban. And thank you. Thank you ma'am. Good evening ma'am. Good evening.
I'm ellie torney 21085. Good evening, council members, member of the community,
friends, family and special guests. My name is ellie torney. I am 16 years old and I am a
rising junior in high school. My whole life I've lived in this area and will always
consider this slice of maryland. My home. Harford county, has a special place in my heart with
its beautiful farmland and dense woods. I love how harford is not crowded with tall
buildings and apartments, even though yes, there are big neighborhoods, they are not
very crowded and there is still trees wherever you look. Growing up in a more rural area,
I learned a lot about life, like how to get my hands dirty, take care of myself, ride
horses at only farm, hunt fish, and how to be a master at playing tag in the woods. All
jokes aside for now, if these data centers were to be built on land that's covered by trees
and on land that's used for agriculture, not only would it ruin harford, but the damage to
the environment would be detrimental. Mass removal of trees takes away habitats for
wildlife, putting their lives in danger. With less woods, more deer would wander into
heavily populated areas and roads, causing more car accidents, and harmed the
community. Along with biodiversity going down, carbon emissions would go up, there
would be soil erosion and altered microclimate, and property value would drop
significantly. Now I ask you, are you willing to destroy woods and farmland for
something like data centers? Data centers also produce loud noise, which would cause even
more problems for our community. Besides destroying the environment, you would be
destroying the lives of generations to come. No farmland means no petting zoos where kids can experience animals and get hands on experience. No woods means kids
won't go outside, climb trees, ride horses, or learn how to hunt and fish. You'd be setting
up future generations for failure. So what I ask from all of you is to look into your
heart and ask yourself, are these data centers really necessary in harford county and
worth the cost of our children? Please pass the emergency legislation to ban data centers
in harford county. Doing so will honor the present and protect our future. Because
this is our land, our home, our harford. Thank you and have a good night. Thank you ma'am.
paul de manado and matthew brown. Paul de manado 21014. First I'm going to start with
jimmy was right. Harford county. We do have more data centers than a lot of people are aware
of. There's depending upon the standards bodies, there's 4 to 5 different tiers of data
centers, with the smallest being only a couple hundred square feet. I am adamantly
opposed to harford county hosting hyperscale data centers. The size and mass of those in
loudoun county. Bill 26-011, as written and introduced, is flawed. Maybe it was a rush by
the county administration with little consultation to score political points in an election
year. They said during the testimony that the research that comprehensively there's
some flaws in the definition that they're using. The bill text data center shall be
defined as a building or group of buildings, a substantial portion of which is used to
house computer systems, computer storage equipment, network systems, and associated
infrastructure that individuals or entities use to organize, process, store and disseminate
voluminous amounts of data, often for a fee. Who in the room has a smartphone? Who has
internet to your house? A lot of people don't realize a cell tower actually has a building
behind it that is roughly 200 to 400ft■!s. The building is dedicated with nothing but
racks of computer equipment, carrier equipment. This band means no more cell towers, not
the towers themselves, but the carrier equipment that feeds our cell phones to work. Edge
processing nodes. Internet going to your house, the old telephone switch buildings so
south, a street in bel air, the brick building from verizon that is a data center. The old
telephone switches. What it was all copper and everything. It's now software defined networking.
it's all software based equipment racks, computer equipment, network equipment.
jimmy was right. We have a lot of those buildings around there means no more expansion in our
county. It means you can forget about technology upgrades. If we get new cell phones, we're
going to be in the dark ages. Now, I'm not advocating that we don't do the ban. I'm
advocating that we actually amend our ban language. Some of the ban language out there
actually put some size limitations and power consumption and that type of stuff. Aberdeen proving ground is the largest employer in harford county, with 21000
civilians. Military and contractor support an army across technology, spectrum and
innovation. There is a large push for partnerships with industry, a move towards
commercial technology to include pilot programs and commercial connectivity, not
just on the posts but also in the surrounding areas. This will severely limit harford
county's ability to support our largest employer. If they go that route, the band's going to
be challenged in court. We've already heard that our present county administration seems to
always want to go to court as a norm, wasting our taxpayer dollars, and they don't have a
stellar record. I would have rather seen the moratorium that councilman bennett proposed
with very strict zoning criteria based on residential proximity to residential zones,
environmental protections, infrastructure, noise size limitations. I'm all for the
ban, but I think we have to amend it. Thank you. Good evening, sir damon. Matthew
brown 21015. Good evening everybody. My name is matthew brown. I'm one of your primary
county executive candidates, and I don't want to rehash what we've talked about for hours
now when it comes to data center, but I've spoken to a lot at this time, being here
almost weekly. We talk about an issue when it's arrived, been very reactionary. We speak
about proactiveness, but what I'd like to speak on is how did we get here? Does anyone know
the man named chris wright? That is your current secretary of energy. That is the man
appointed in february 3rd, 2025 by the current administration, who has been at the forefront
of this data center movement. In fact, february 12th on our own wb baltimore, he spoke to
how data centers would not lead to increased pricing and energy, not to lead to increased costs
of housing. He's a forefront of saying that this is not going to hurt the average american.
he's been at the forefront of combating everyone's favorite governor here. In fact, the
bill that was passed with the utilization of energy was made to directly combat the push for
data centers. Am I trying to say that everything our government has done is correct?
absolutely not. I disagree with him too. But what I am hearing is a lot of people are not
going far enough. A lot of people say this is just the beginning and that is correct.
it's not just the state, it's the federal level. It's the person in charge of the
entirety of american energy who's been pushing for these data centers and prioritizing
our energy. He has made it his mission that he wants to push this for the betterment of
america in his mind. And like you said, you feel like you're getting bullied. You feel like
the state is pushing you aside and disregarding your feelings for your area. But is it truly
the state? Did you dig deep enough? Because ultimately speaking, our governor is
trying. But just as the county can be bullied by the state, the state can be bullied by the
federal government. And I would hope people would do a little more due diligence to realize,
where does stuff start? There's always a beginning that we overlook because we're too
focused on the now. And the other thing I want to highlight is, while I am amazed at the
level of participation, involvement, groups, everything being done to preserve harford
county, I want to see that same level of energy in progressing the county. Where are the
people speaking to transportation? There was a whole thing when it comes to
transportation reform or transportation bill months ago. Haven't heard a peep about it.
there is issues bringing up when it comes to regulating the school board. We've had that
back and forth, of course. What about the loss of the hospital? That's how that's affecting
senior living homes and their ability to get their medication and their care. Where is that?
and this is not, I would say, a fault of the county council itself. I would say it's about
our priorities. We all unanimously agree that we don't want the data centers. We've
been talking about this for two months now. It was pretty much a unanimous decision, but where
is the time and energy spent to what is actively needed in the county right now? I understand
preserving the identity of harford county. I want to do that too, in my capacity as
county executive, but I also want to make sure that we look at the active problems currently facing before the problems that appear. Thank you, thank you. There are no more
speakers, mr. President. With no more speakers. Before I conclude this public hearing, I
want to take a minute. Council, if I may, and recognize senator jb jennings in the audience. Jb,
I don't know if you want to say anything, but you're more than welcome if you'd like to, on
this issue. Thank you, mr. President. Maybe I should come in a couple minutes later so I
didn't have to do this. Now, this is a tough subject. I've listened. I've been at sports
with my son listening to you guys on my phone. So thank you for public, public broadcasting
it. This is, as I said, it's a tough subject. Data centers are tough. It's a needed commodity
that we unfortunately need in the world we live in. The question is where are they
going to go? Do they belong at mountain branch? No. Do they belong in rural areas? No. They
belong in industrial areas. Places like tradepoint atlantic, which was sparrows point.
that's a place where you should put a data center before you do it. You've got to make sure we
have the electricity to power them. And of course, the water issues that we've dealt with. The only concern I have is with aberdeen proving grounds, with seacom being located there and
with this legislation may do I support the legislation with amendments? You've heard some
of them, data centers. You know, I live off of. For the record, I live at 21085 in joppa. I
hear the music from mountain branch on friday nights, saturday nights, when he has his concerts. But right on route seven, there's a data center. What it is, it's a
verizon switching center that's categorized as a data center. So I think, as it's been said
before, we need to make sure you do this legislation correctly with what type of
data center you're trying to go after, because with the wrong type of terminology, you know,
you're going to be shutting down a lot of other stuff that shouldn't be. We're going to
have to come back and open this thing up. But you know, for the record, this is something,
unfortunately, we're going to deal with in annapolis this upcoming session. We dealt with
it with, unfortunately, we're dealing with it with the solar farms, with the way that the state took the county jurisdiction out of it. But I will tell you this my
colleagues regret what they have done. I've listened to them because it's affecting a
lot of their jurisdictions. Data centers. Last session came up because they were trying to
put some out in western part of, I'm sorry, west baltimore county and the reynolds town
area. And it was amazing to watch these legislators jump up and try to ban them right away. And that's when, you know, different part of the county that I represent, because I
represent both baltimore and harford county. So the legislators have realized there's been a mistake. We saw that governor moore and I did write a letter to the council,
which is on my facebook page. You can read with all my insight on this. And I was not
prepared to speak. I just kind of wanted to come in and listen. So I don't have any notes here.
it's always better when you break the ai generated notes. You know, you sound more professional. But we are going to address this most probably this next session. And the goal
is not to take local jurisdiction out of it. I will not support that. It is up to
county council. You guys do zoning. We don't in the state, and I think that's the issue
you're going to need. You know, I'm going to have to ask each and every one of you to pay
attention come the second wednesday of january, when session starts, of what legislation is coming out. You know, we did pass several bills last session, two sessions ago,
2025 five that the governor vetoed, but the legislature did come back and override those
vetoes that said, no, we talked about it. Somebody talked about it earlier this evening about
the study. We're waiting on that. We're waiting to see. But I appreciate everybody coming
out. I appreciate the council listening to this. All I'm saying is that, you know, we got to look closer at the legislation on on the the technicalities of what data
centers are and what you're trying to ban, because otherwise it's going to be too broad. And I think we're going to be tied up in court. So thank you for your time, mr.
president. Thank you. Jb thank you for coming out. All right. With this. With that, we'll
close the public hearing for bill five. Four. Three two. One. Chair calls to order.
legislative session day 26019. I would ask you to please join us in standing for the pledge,
followed by the opening prayer by council member. Council vice president jan giordano. I
pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which
it stands one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Heavenly
father, as we gather this evening to serve the people of our county, we ask for your
wisdom, guidance and understanding. Help us to work together with respect and
integrity as we make decisions for the good of our community. Tonight, we lift up baltimore
county police officer who was shot in the line of duty, and the innocent bystander who was
injured. We pray for their healing, strength and recovery, and for comfort and peace for their families and loved ones. We also ask for your protection over all law enforcement
officers, first responders, and those who dedicate their lives to serving and protecting
others. Guide this council in our work tonight. May our words and actions reflect compassion,
fairness and a shared commitment to the people we are honored to serve. We ask you for your continued blessing upon our community and our nation. In your holy name we
pray. Amen. Amen, amen. Agenda number four presentation of proclamations. We have none.
five consideration of petitions, applications, appointments and nominations. We have none. Six
special presentations. We have none. Seven. Approval of minutes. Zoning board of
appeals, case number 6002. Matthew watson public hearing, june 2nd, 2026. Legislative day
26-0. 18 june 2nd 2026. Are there any corrections to the minutes? There being no
corrections, the minutes stand approved. Council. May I have general consent to move to
items nine through 12 on the agenda and then return to item eight thereafter, shall we?
nine introduction of bills we have none. Ten introduction and consideration of amendments.
mr. Ginger, please read memorandum of change one through three to resolution
01126 into the record for introduction memoranda. Memorandum of change number one
to resolution 11-26. Program fiscal year 2027 to 2032. Project regional workforce
training center this memorandum of change corrects the project title to regional workforce
training center to align with the budget ordinance and the bond bill. Memorandum of change
number two to resolution 011-26. Capital fiscal year 2027 to 2032. Project drop town area
watershed restoration. This memorandum of change corrects the project title to drop town
area watershed restoration to align with the budget ordinance and bond bill. Memorandum of
change number three resolution 011-26. Capital fiscal years 2027 to 2032. Project county
watershed restoration improvements. This memorandum of change corrects the project title to county watershed restorations improvement to align with the budget ordinance
on the and the bond bill. Thank you, mr. Lloyd. You want to come forward, please, miss
sullivan, mr. Sandler. Stephen, I didn't see you. Jimmy. Was that fast enough? Yes, yes.
good evening. Council. So, yes, these three memorandums of change. Just update the project
names to match what's in the bond bill and the budget ordinance. And just just for
consistency reasons. Okay. Anyone have any questions? Do the timing. We are considering
this memorandum of change this evening. May I have a motion? Council president, I move to
remove memorandum of change one, two, three to resolution 011-26. Fiscal year 27 capital
improvement program. May I have a second, please? Thank you, mr. Riley. It's been moved and
seconded to approve memorandum of change resolutions 01126. Is there any discussion? Miss
dixon? Mr. President, I mrs. Roberts I mrs. Emhoff I. Mr. Mr. Riley I mrs. I mr. Bennett
I. Even in our speed, there'd be seven votes in the affirmative, zero in a negative
memorandum. Change to resolution 01126 is hereby approved. Mr. Ginger, please
read amendments 29 through 37 to bill 26006 into the record for introduction amendments 29
to 37 to bill number 26-006. Annual budget appropriation ordinance introduced by council
president vicente request to the county executive amendment 29 on page 35. In line 13.
strike 111,000,440 000 and substitute 106,440,000. Amendment 30 on page 35 in line
12. Strike 3,500,000. Substitute zero. Amendment 31. On page 35. In line 21. Strike
222,385,000. Substitute 213,885,000. Amendment 32 on page 37. Line 15. Strike
222,385,000. Substitute 213,885,000. Amendment number 33. On page 45. In line 15.
strike 364,514,265 and substitute 356,014,265. Amendment 34 on page 59. Line
16. Strike 8,856,000. Substitute 5,356,000. Amendment 35. On page 59. In line 17.
strike 111,440,000. Substitute 106,440,000. Amendment 36 on page 59. Line 23. Strike
222,385,000. Substitute 213 885,000. Amendment 37 on page 59. Line 24. Strike 222,386,000.
substitute 213 885,000. Thank you, mr. Lloyd. So these are the balancing amendments that
are the result of the prior amendments that have been approved by the council, just
to make sure that the budget ordinance balances and that the numbers add up. Council. Anyone
have any questions? Again, due to the timing, we are considering these amendments
this evening. So amendment 29, voting block one. May I have a motion? Council president, I
move to approve amendment 29 to bill 26-006. May I have a second? Second. Thank you, mr.
rowley. It's been moved and seconded to approve voting block one. Is there any
discussion, mr. Ginger? Yes, sir. Council president. Tuesday night, majority of the harford
county council last week voted to take $2,325,000. Million away from the county. Critical
county priorities, including legal efforts to fight the proposed conestoga power
project and northville cybersecurity investments that protect residents and personal
information. Why. To send more payment tax dollars to harford county public schools.
councilman riley and I were the only ones who voted against it. What's most troubling is that
just one day earlier, retired eight cps accountability supervisor phil snyder, 26 year
veteran of the school system, publicly exposed concerns about administrative spending,
including 371,000 for conferences, massive administrative pay increases
and questionable work from home. No show practices. Part of that is that this includes a harford
county public schools ratified a compensation package that included both cola and market
adjustments. And apparently there was something like a maybe a me too provision extending increases across multiple bargaining units. The claim that the central office
remained position neutral to deserves closer scrutiny. While the number of the positions may
have not increased, significant salary increases appear to have resulted from reclassifying
positions into higher pay grades. Position neutral does not mean cost neutral. Harford
county is not montgomery county, prince george's county or baltimore city. Student
population is roughly one third the size of those larger districts. Taxpayers deserve to
know why central office positions are being reclassified to higher salary
grades and what the cost will be. The public should have full transparency on these increases
and their long term impact on the county budget. But going back here, the allegations did
not come from a political activist or an outside critic. They came from a 26 year
veteran of the school systems accountability office, a professional whose career was
dedicated to ensuring transparency and responsible stewardship of taxpayer
resources. The bite despite these serious allegations, the council received no
communication from cps. The superintendent council liaison, jacob bennett, before voting to
approve the additional funding so taxpayers deserve answers before millions are handed over.
not not after. It's unfortunate that the money got transferred. That should have jacobs should
have recused himself on on these things too, and he did not. But anyway, thank you,
council president. Anyone else? Miss dixon, mr. President, I mrs. Roberts I mrs. Emhoff I
mr. Giordano I mr. Riley I mrs. I mr. Bennett I there being seven votes in the affirmative
zero in the negative amendment 29 to bill 26006 is hereby approved. Amendment 30 voting
block 2nd may have a motion. Council president move to approve amendment 30 to bill
26-006. Second. Second. Thank you, mr. Riley. It's been moved. And second to approve voting
block two. Is there any discussion? Miss dixon? Mr. President, I mrs. Roberts, I
mrs. Emhoff, mr. Giordano I mr. Riley I mrs. I mr. Bennett I being seven votes in
affirmative zero negative amendments. Third amendment 30 to bill 26006 is hereby
approved amendments 31 through 33. Voting block 3rd may have a motion. Council president move
to approve amendments 31 through 33 to bill 26-006. May I have a second? Second. Thank
you, mr. Riley. It's been moved in second to move voting block number three. Is there any
discussion, miss dixon? Mr. President, I mrs. Roberts, I mrs. Emhoff, mr. Giordano. Hi,
mr. Riley. Hi. Mrs. I mr. Bennett, I being seven votes in the affirmative, zero negative
amendments 312 33 to 2606 are hereby approved. Amendments 34 through 37. Voting block 4th
may have a motion. Council president move to approve amendments 34 through 37 to bill 26-006. Have a second. Second. Thank you. Mr. Riley moved and second to approve
amendments 34 through 37, voting block four. Is there any discussion? Mr. Dixon mr.
president, I mrs. Roberts I mrs. Emhoff, mr. Giordano I mr. Riley I mrs. Mr. Bennett I
bring seven votes in affirmative zero negative amendments through 34, 34
through 37 to bill 26006 are hereby approved. Mr. Jan, please read amendments 14 and
15 to bill 26008 into the record for introduction amendments 14 and 15 to bill
26-008. Bond authorization cpi introduced by council president vicente at request of the
county executive amendment 14 on title page. On the title page, strike bill number 26-006
in the seventh line of the title paragraph and substitute bill number 26-006, as amended.
amendment number 15 on page one. Strike beginning with bill number in line 17 through
26-005 and line 18 is substitute bill number 26-006, as amended. Amendments 14
through 15 to bill 26008. Fiscal year 27 capital improvement program. May I have
a motion? Council president. I move to approve amendments 14 and 15 to bill 26-008. Bond
authorization cpi may have a second. Second. Thank you, mr. Riley. It's been moved. And
second, to approve amendments 14 and 15, bill 26008. Is there any discussion? Mr. Lloyd?
anything you want to add or anything, miss dixon? Mr. President, I mrs. Roberts I
mrs. Emhoff, mr. Giordano I mr. Riley I mrs. I mr. Bennett I being seven votes in the
affirmative zero negative amendments 14 and 15 to bill 26008 are hereby approved. 11
call for final reading of bills bill 26006 annual budget and appropriation ordinance, as
amended, may have a motion. Council president, I move to approve bill 2606 annual budget
appropriation ordinance, as amended, may have a second. Second. Thank you, mr. Riley.
bill 26006, as amended, has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion, mr.
bennett? Mr. President, I just want to say this isn't the budget I would write, but also
that's not my job, thank goodness. And of the four budgets that's been posed to us
in the past four years, this is the one I feel most comfortable with. I'm thankful that the
community college is going to get an increase in funding for the first time in four years.
I'm thankful to see the libraries get increased funding. Thankful to see our nonprofits
continue to be supported. I'm thankful that our volunteer fire companies are being fully
funded according to the formula for the first time, which is very exciting for all companies
to be fully funded and in many cases above the formula in their funding levels. It's not
everything I would want to see in the budget. I want to continue to see further work on
supporting the city of aberdeen to have adequate activity center. I want to see work done
to prepare ourselves for career fire down the line, and I want to understand how we can have
such wild fluctuations in budgeted versus actuals many years in a row. But that being
said, we can't let perfect get in the way of good. And I feel okay about where this budget
lands. Thank you. Anyone else, miss dixon? Mr. President, I mrs. Robert I mrs. Emhoff I mr.
giordano I mrs. Mr. Riley I mrs. Otto I mr. Bennett I there being seven votes in the
affirmative zero in a negative bill 26006, as amended, is hereby approved. I want to
commend all of you for the job that you did, as we talked about before. So. And your
teams for sure, bill 26007, revised prior year bond bills. May I have a motion? Council
president move to approve bill 26-007. Revise prior year bond bills. Have a second. Second.
thank you, mr. Riley. It's been moved. And second to approve bill 26007 revised prior year
bond bills. Is there any discussion? Miss dixon? Mr. President. Hi mrs. Robert I mr.
mrs. Emhoff I mr. Giordano I mr. Riley I mrs. I mr. Bennett I being seven votes in the
affirmative zero negative bill 26007 is hereby approved. Bill 26008 bond authorization c p as
amended. May I have a motion? Council president, I move to approve bill 26-008 bond
authorization cpi, as amended. If a second. Second. Thank you, mr. Riley. It's been moved and
seconded to approve bill 26008, as amended. Is there any discussion, miss dixon? Mr.
president, hi, mrs. Roberts. Hi, mrs. Emhoff. Hi, mr. Giordano. Hi, mr. Riley. Hi, mrs. Hi. Mr.
bennett. I bring seven votes in the affirmative. Zero negative. Bill 26008, as amended, is
hereby approved. Bill 260 ten loss amendment service benefit may have a motion. Council
president moved to approve bill 26-010 lozap amendment service benefits. Thank you. May have a
second. Second. Thank you, mr. Riley. It's been moved and second to approve bill 260 ten
amendment for lozap. Is there any other discussion? I think we kind of talked about it
quite a bit, but we do appreciate everything they do. And as we're sitting here
tonight, all we do is hear sirens running again. So. Miss dixon, mr. President, I mrs.
robert I. Mrs. Emhoff. Hi, mr. Giordano. Hi, mr. Reilly. Hi, mrs. Idols. Hi. Mr. Bennet. I
being seven votes in the affirmative, zero and a negative. Bill 260 ten is
hereby approved. Bill 26011, zoning data centers, as amended. May I have a motion? Council
president, I move to approve bill 26011 zoning data centers, as amended. May I have a second?
second. It's been moved and seconded to approve. Bill 26011, as amended. Is there any
discussion? Mr. Ginger? Dan, definitely. For the data centers there. There was some
other conversations I had earlier today with megan about defining data centers a little
bit more, as we've heard some people talk about and maybe saying that they're artificial,
intelligent ai computing, hyperscale computing, cloud computing, high performance
computing, hpc, server hosting or server farm digital information storage management,
and a couple other things. So I know going forward, once this is passed, we're going to look
down the road to maybe tighten this stuff up, talk to some different people, and see what
else we have to do to make sure that this is we cross everything, but I want to make
sure this gets through tonight. So definitely full support of this. Just want to make sure
that some people know there was other things we're looking at, but wanted to get this through.
thank you, mr. Chair. Mr. Bennett. I echo the council vice president's remarks. I
know the original version of this bill sent over to us. Miss allegy sent back, because it
basically would have banned any building that had a computer inside of it. And so this was
the better version that we received. It definitely all for the intent, but we do have to
clean up the definitions. And that's work that is going to take time and making sure we
get that language right so that we don't find ourselves in the courts or having unintended
consequences. But for now, this is awesome to have in place, and we can then take the time
to fix it without worrying about what could come in the meantime. Anyone else? I just
want to take a minute again to thank everyone for their patience this evening. I don't
know what the total number was of in attendance, but I do know the chamber was packed and we
probably had 60 or 70 people standing on the street waiting to get in. And I want to
appreciate the fact that you got up and gave seats to the firefighters so they could come
in and listen to their public hearing and participate. And then when they left, you guys
came back in. So I really appreciate that. Any other discussion? Miss dixon? Mr.
president, I mrs. Robert I, mrs. Emhoff, mr. Giordano, I. Mrs. Mr. Riley I miss mrs. I
mr. Bennett I I'm sorry. The person you should really apologize to is his wife. There
being seven votes in the affirmative zero and a negative bill 26011, as amended, is
hereby approved. 12 enrollment of bills bills 26006, as amended. 2600726008 as amended
26, zero ten and 26011, as amended. All serve as a text finally passed back to eight.
introduction and consideration of resolutions. Resolutions zero 1026 adoption of property
tax rate may have a motion. Council president I move to approve resolution ten dash 26
adoption of property tax rate. We have a second. Second. Thank you, mr. Riley. It's been moved
in second to approve resolution zero 1026. Is there any discussion? Miss dixon? Mr.
president, I mrs. Roberts I mrs. Emhoff, mr. Giordano I mr. Riley I mrs. I mr. Bennett I
there being seven votes in affirmative zero negative resolution zero 1026 is hereby
approved. Resolution 01126 fiscal year 27 capital improvement program, as amended.
may I have a motion? Council president, I move to approve resolution 011-26. Fiscal year
27 capital improvement program, as amended. I have a second. Second. Thank you, mr. Riley.
it's been moved in second to approve resolution 01126, as amended. Is there any
discussion? Hearing none, miss dixon. Mr. President, I mrs. Roberts, I mrs. Emhoff, mr.
giordano, I mr. Riley, mrs. Rosado I mr. Bennett I there being seven votes in
affirmative zero in the negative resolution 01126, as amended, is hereby approved. 13
unfinished business. We have none. 14 new business council letter of opposition. Public
service commission case 9847. Chatterton sola peters holding, llc. Miss emhoff, council
president. I move to approve the council leader of opposition. May I have a second?
second? Thank you, mr. Giordano. It's been moved in second to approve the letter of
opposition. Is there any discussion? Miss emhoff, I just appreciate that we are likely
to have unanimous support in this letter of opposition. Like I shared last week, I was able
to attend the meeting where they talked about the concerns for the chapatin sola peters
project, and there was a lot of community engagement, including members from actually the the
captain from the local volunteer fire company who expressed their concerns about
this type of project in that location, never mind the fact that there are some major
environmental concerns. And so I think it's just a great step forward that we are having this
unanimous vote. Anyone else? Mr. Bennett, I just want to say for the record that I am
someone who staunchly pro sola. As you know, tony likes to point out, I drive an electric
car that's charged by the solar panels on my roof. But I think what this letter does and
asking for the maryland public service commission to come and hear out our community, to look
at the comments presented by the council and by the county government, and to consider our
local zoning and what our local community asks for is important in a reasonable ask. And so for
that, I'm supporting this letter. Thank you. Anyone else, miss dixon? Mr. President, I
mrs. Roberts, mrs. Emhoff, I mr. Giordano I mr. Riley, mrs. I mr. Bennett I there being
seven votes in the affirmative zero and a negative. The letter of opposition is hereby approved. 15 comments and input from attending citizens. We have one this evening. Mr.
president. How did accidentally packed it away? John paul harris. Oh, very nice. Have you
been here all night, john? I have, I have john tavares 21084. And I thought it'd be
appropriate to end with thank you to the council for a lot of things. The data warehouse,
this vote you just had as well on the chambertin solar, but also specifically for me and I
represent 1800 petitioners to stop the chrome hill solar project and and also to thank
three of you for coming out to our home and to actually view the site, including council
president as well as council vice president, as well as councilman riley. So thank you
all very much. We're looking forward. Also found out today that yesterday that the county
counsel's office as well as the council, I'm sorry, the county executive's office, as well as
the council, will be combining forming a special group to kind of pursue the solar, the
battery storage, as well as the data warehouse issues with legal outside counsel. So
appreciate that. And we're looking forward to working with them, with our council so that
we can work on focus on the right things together. So again, just thank you for everything
you're doing in support of the citizens in these communities. Thank you john. All right.
that's it. There are no more speakers. Yay! 16 business for council members. Mr. Bennett.
hello. Good evening. Good to be with everyone. This evening. I'm going to cut out the things
that I've been to. And I hope that you just trust that I've been places. But I do want to
highlight a few things. Coming up tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. The law enforcement torch run
for special olympics will kick off from the lock house museum in havre de grace, and I'm very
excited to participate in that. I know they have degrees. Police department is selling t
shirts to support special olympics. So if you would like to support special olympics, I
have degrees. Police department is a continual, steadfast supporter of special olympics
in many ways. And so I encourage you to support that. Abingdon belcamp perryman
community advisory board meeting will be this thursday at 6:30 p.m. At abingdon fire
company. I encourage people to come out to that. And then there are many, many juneteenth
events happening over the weekend and into next week, with june 19th coming up, the
upper bay juneteenth festival will be happening all weekend, and the festival will take
place saturday from noon to 6 p.m. At the hosanna school museum in darlington. On top of
all that, early voting starts this week, starting thursday from 7 a.m. To 8 p.m. I
encourage people to vote early. You know, I know many people who are steadfast on voting on
election day, but you never know when your car is going to break down or when you're going
to get sick, or when a family emergency is going to come up. So it's nice to get that task
out of the way so you don't miss it. That's all I have this evening. Thank you, mr. Bennett.
miss robert, thank you. I'm just going to mention events this weekend, and I too will be
attending the special olympics torch at 7 a.m. But this saturday at hartford square is
going to be a national flag day of usa at 10 a.m. It's going to be a special ceremony there.
and in the evening, same location at hartford square. We're having our first family
movie night in honor of america. 250 the movie will be independence day, and that will
start at 6 p.m. You just need to bring a chair and there will be free complimentary
refreshments. And then I was going to mention upper bay juneteenth festival, which is
all weekend from june 12th to june 14th at the hosanna school. And that's it. Thank you, miss
robert. Miss emhoff, I just want to give a special congratulations to the hartford
academy graduate this year. Several of us were able to attend the hartford academy
graduation, and it was a remarkable experience. I was also able to attend the
hartford county public library summer reading program kickoff today, the hartford county
public library summer reading programs theme this year is unearth a story. It runs from
june 1st to august 15th. And so they have a whole bunch of jurassic park decorations all
over the place. Some of it little ones might not get, but adults will understand with
some of their props and everything. What I found to be both humorous and slightly
offensive, but I really appreciated was they have a technology fossils set up which
included things like tube tvs, weather radios, dvd players and vhs players, which I just
thought was a really cute play on the fossil theme. As councilman bennett shared, the
abington emerson community advisory board will be meeting this thursday, june 11th at 630
at the abington fire department. That's all I have. Thank you, miss emhoff. Mr. Ginger, thank
you, council president. So I'm glad we banned data centers. I am disappointed, though, that
we haven't banned solar farms that we tried to ban. Well, not ban, but we turned down solar
farm back in 2019, fielder's property on 136 and 543. And it wound up getting built. And now
all of a sudden, all around the county, we've got farms that are being turned into solar
fields and some we just had a meeting for that solar project. It winds up being five
megawatts, but not five megawatts in continuous. It's broken up in three little
parcels, so it's easier for them to get through. I wish our other delegates from harford
county would do something down in annapolis. The two johnsons married delaney james.
otherwise, we're going to have our entire county be solar farms anywhere where they can stick a solar farm. They're going to put a solar farm. And the generation that that does
isn't going to solve our problem and in the long haul. And so I'm really disappointed
that annapolis hasn't done more to that. Maybe they're going to look at the data centers and do
something. And same thing with the battery storage facilities. They're they're dangerous. If
they catch fire, they're going to burn forever. There's no way to put them out the pollute our
water system. So, you know, we need annapolis to do better. You know, everybody was on
board with the data centers, but I still didn't hear from any of the the other delegates
down there for that. So that's definitely disappointed. Attended harford leadership. My
legislative aide graduated joanne. So congratulations, joanne, for that. It's a great
program. If you get a chance to do that, please do that. I know council president myself. Me, I
think councilman riley did either one of you guys do harford leadership academy? Yeah. Okay. Cecil. Well, it's a great thing to do. So if you get a chance to do that. Boot
barn opened up. They don't have any boots that fit my wide feet, so I don't know where I'm going
to go get boots at. But bel air market is on june 14th, the summer concerts here at
shamrock park at 7 p.m. Is june 14th and june 19th is summer movie night at shamrock park.
that kicks off and I think I'm done. Thank you, council president. Thank you, mr. And mr. Riley. Yes, I want to send out congratulations to lisa's lavender and jarrettsville.
they celebrated their grand opening on friday. I had the privilege of attending. That's
it. Thank you, mr. Riley. Miss. Thank you. Council president. I would like to close the night
out with a quote. The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to
do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they
do it far and away, the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work
worth doing. Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Do what you
can with what you have, where you are. Get action. Be sane. Don't fritter your time
creating things for the rest of us to clean up. Thank you, thank you miss 17 business from
the president. I told my legislative aide this morning that I wasn't going to comment
on anything, that I figured the public hearings would take up enough time that that I wouldn't say anything. But miss emhoff hit on the hartford academy graduation. Just one
graduate and second time in their history that they had just one graduate. But that
young lady was amazing. She truly was. And it's worth mentioning again. And then also
future link at the college as well. So just really appreciate the fact that at this point, at
this stage, the data center conversation is over. Clearly there will be no data centers
in harford county at this point. Not not authorized by harford county for sure. So we're
moving forward. We'll see where it goes and be done with it. And with that, we'll