Data center foes challenge closed Port meetings

Great Lakes Neighbors United last week filed an open meetings complaint with the Ozaukee County District Attorney’s Office alleging the City of Port Washington improperly negotiated a developer’s agreement with Vantage Data Centers in closed session meetings.

The complaint has been referred to the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office for investigation, District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay said, adding that after the investigation is complete, he will decide whether to take action against the city.

“I generally am not going to take action before I get the results of the investigation,” Lindsay said.

If the District Attorney’s Office has not acted within 20 days of receiving a complaint, Great Lakes Neighbors may file a lawsuit regarding the alleged violations against the city.

Even as the complaint is being investigated, the city issued a statement saying it has complied with the open meetings requirements throughout the process that led to construction of the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus.

“City officials have gone well beyond what is required as they communicated information to the public for more than a year,” the statement reads. “The City of Port Washington has been in compliance with all open meetings requirements throughout the process.”

In its complaint, Great Lakes United questioned closed sessions held by the city on July 1 and Aug. 6, 2025, to discuss and deliberate the developer’s agreement, which was ultimately approved by the Common Council on Aug. 19.

It states that while the Common Council noticed the closed sessions, “no discussion took place in (the July 1) open session describing the specific subject matter that was to be discussed and considered ... nor was there any discussion or statements made in open session demonstrating why the closed session was necessary due to competitive or bargaining reasons.”

The complaint also alleges that no draft agreements were made public until “just prior to the date of its approval.”

Great Lakes Neighbors argues that there was no compelling competitive or bargaining reason for the Common Council to discuss the agreement in closed session, noting that Vantage was the only data center developer the city was working with at the time.

“Once the council came out of closed session at both the July 1 and Aug. 6 meetings, no substantive discussion was had regarding the terms and conditions and nature of the proposed developer’s agreement,” the complaint states, adding that the agreement “includes provisions that raise significant concerns regarding transparency and the legal authority of the city to agree to such terms.”

The agenda for both the July 1 and Aug. 6 meetings specified the closed session was to discuss negotiating strategies related to the potential development agreement with Vantage.

Great Lakes Neighbors is seeking a finding that the closed sessions were conducted in violation of the open meetings law and an order voiding the developer’s agreement.

In its response, the city noted that officials discussed aspects of the developer’s agreement during meetings that were open to the public throughout the summer, including an hour-long presentation on the tax incremental financing component on June 10 and a presentation that included “takeaways on development agreements” on June 17.

Neitzke and Attorney Chris Smith gave a public overview of the data center project, including details on the potential developer’s agreement, on Aug. 6, the statement says, adding that a draft development agreement was posted on the city’s website on Aug. 8 and in the council’s meeting packet posted on Aug. 19.

Ozaukee Press also ran a story outlining details of the proposed agreement in its Aug. 13 issue, the city states.

  “We welcome the opportunity to review the entire complaint with the district attorney,” the statement adds. “The group’s complaint is based on a false premise and contains a troubling number of statements that are blatantly false — many of which could have been easily verified with a simple web search.

“Inaccuracies in this complaint are so blatant and easily disproven that we wonder whether they are simply the result of sloppy work or committed on purpose to continue pushing false narratives.”