A bill aimed at non-disclosure agreements used by some city officials in Oklahoma in quietly holding talks with data center developers won major support this week in the State House of Representatives.
The Oklahoma House voted 82-0 in support of HB299, a bill authored by Rep. Mike Dobrinski, R-Okeene and Sen. Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher.
While the measure does not indicate it is aimed against data center non-disclosure agreements, it would prevent such agreements from occurring.
“No elected or appointed public official shall be required to
sign any type of nondisclosure agreement with respect to a matter involving the performance of duties by the public official if the nondisclosure agreement relates to a project that would have
significant impact on the jurisdiction or jurisdictions in which the
project would be located or operate.”
The measure also defined significant impact as “facilities or operations that would affect electrical power usage, water, or other utility infrastructure and similar factors for at least ten percent (10%) of the residents of the area in which the project or facility is proposed to be located or operated.”
Non-disclosure agreements used by some cities have led to angry reaction from residents after they learned city leaders had known for months about efforts to obtain approval of a data center. In Coweta, city leaders admitted last year they had known for months of a proposed data center and used a non-disclosure agreement to hide it from the public.
Coweta city leaders had worked nearly a year before going public. City Manager Julie Casteen was heavily criticized for claiming the request for Project Atlas, a data center proposed by Beale Infrastructure, had just been made. She later admitted she had been aware of the data center project since May of 2024 when the city signed a non-disclosure agreement with digital infrastructure fund manager IPI Partners, an LLC later acquired by Blue Owl. City council members learned of the project in the summer of last year and they too were asked to sign NDAs, according to Casteen.