Pima County seeks to apply time limit on NDAs in response to data center transparency concerns

Communities want more transparency around data center development, but non-disclosure agreements can often stand in the way.

While companies say they’re necessary to remain competitive, some public officials have found them problematic for maintaining public trust. Amid the data center backlash, Microsoft has voluntarily agreed to avoid using them.

Last September — a few months after approving the Project Blue data center — Pima County decided project NDAs will need to be approved on a six-month basis and cannot exceed two years. But the new limit didn’t apply retroactively to existing NDAs or projects under consideration by local water and power utilities.

Following a vote on Tuesday, the county says it will begin reaching out to existing NDA holders, asking them to voluntarily agree to the new policy. The county is giving developers 30 days to respond. If no response is given, county officials will consider those agreements void.

Pima County administrator Jan Lesher explained that amending the policy to include language about large water and energy users should help centralize considerations between the county and utilities.

“We're really just expanding the large quantity of water and electric power users to make sure we're looking at all those different areas. Again, indicating updating reports, recommendations to the board, as well as a look to — how we what are we going to be doing with some of our previous agreements that have been in place?” Lesher said.

Pima County Supervisor Jennifer Allen has been outspoken about the challenges NDAs created for publicly discussing the Project Blue data center.

“I don't support NDAs in government. You know, there's for the purposes of negotiating purchase and sale prices and agreements, yes, but you know the obscuring of information from the public and the sort of lack of transparency that they can create, I just think is problematic,” Allen said.