Emotions were high at the Oldham County Fiscal Court meeting on Tuesday, as both elected officials and the public aired grievances over a company’s controversial attempts to bring a data center to the county and how local officials have handled the matter.
By the end of the meeting, the fiscal court passed a moratorium by a 4-2 vote that pauses any application to build a data center in the county for 150 days. It struck language from any earlier draft of the ordinance that would have exempted the application already submitted by Western Hospitality Partners to build a 100 megawatt data center. ...
The company announced in March it planned to build a massive 600 megawatt hyperscale data center in Oldham County — which would make it one of the most powerful in the world — on land zoned for agriculture. That announcement produced a torrent of local opposition to both the project and local officials, culminating in the company’s announcement last month that it would scrap the original project and instead apply to build a smaller data center on land where a drive-in theater currently operates. ...
Before addressing the moratorium, the meeting opened with Judge-Executive David Voegele giving a five-minute speech to explain why he had just fired Deputy Judge-Executive Joe Ender. Hours earlier, Ender’s attorney indicated he would file a whistleblower lawsuit against the county, alleging he was fired due to exposing corruption involving the data center.
Voegele said that Ender secretly recorded a May 22 meeting that they, three fiscal court magistrates and company representatives attended. When We Are Oldham County began posting audio clips of the meeting, Voegele said he confronted everyone who attended the meeting about the recording. Only Ender refused to answer if he recorded it, which Voegele said “is a response I cannot and will not accept from any employee.”
“The reason for Mr. Ender's termination is my complete loss of faith in him,” Voegele said. “I've always conducted myself in accordance with the highest ethical standards of integrity, transparency, accountability throughout my career in public service.”
That last remark drew laughs and groans from some in the audience, with Voegele addressing them to deny the allegations made by Ender’s attorney in a public letter sent that morning to county officials and the media.
Read the rest at Louisville Public Media.
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