This is in reagards to the recent Courier & Press story: Posey County Commission: ‘We signed an NDA’ with data center developer.”
While I do understand why a developer would want to keep their efforts to gain local approval and tax breaks from Indiana communities secret, I do not understand why political representatives and those they financially support to bring “economic development” to their community should sign Non-Disclosure Agreements.
In the first place, when an elected official signs such an agreement, it automatically alters whom they are representing and is little more than flipping off the people who elected them to their position. It is almost as if they become an employee of the developer, refusing to share information with the public they are supposed to serve.
Economic development staff, like those who work for E-REP, including its CEO, former Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, almost always sign such an agreement to prevent any flow of information about what they are about to impose on a naive community, whether that community would welcome them or not.
I find it disgusting that I might not know until after most approvals are granted − such as special use zoning for a large polluter that could be injurious to the health of local citizens − is even looking at the area.
The last few years have produced reduced transparency of government at every level, eroding our democracy even further. On July 24, the Courier & Press published a story about how the Braun Administration is violating both the spirit and letter of the law regarding public records requests.
These efforts to hide nefarious information from the public must stop and be disallowed.
Government should be open and transparent, and that includes quasi-public operations for economic development authorities like E-REP and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation which seemingly operate on behalf of corporations instead of citizens.
John Blair, Evansville
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Letter: NDAs can hide nefarious information from public
Reporting by John Blair, Evansville / Evansville Courier & Press
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By John Blair, Evansville | USA TODAY Network
