Officials with Lacy Lakeview and Infrakey traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii, this month to promote their data center project at one the world’s biggest events for technology and finance leaders.
Their destination was the annual conference of Pacific Telecommunications Council, nicknamed the “Data Center Davos” in reference to the Swiss summit for global elites.
Tech industry power brokers flock to the beachside PTC summit each year to exchange information, announce deals and assess opportunities and risks for the coming year.
Lacy Lakeview City Manager Calvin Hodde and Infrakey CEO Braham Singh used the summit to pitch the proposed $10 billion project partnership between the city and data center developer.
The trip cost the City of Lacy Lakeview $3,874, according to receipts the city provided to the Bridge. Costs included travel, lodging, dining and the conference registration fee.
Hodde said the trip was part of the “due diligence” process for Lacy Lakeview as it pursues the project.
“We were looking for a couple consultants to kind of help us along the way,” Hodde told The Waco Bridge last week on a call. “I learned a lot about power generation and really what all these data centers do. You know, what they can bring to the community.”
Lacy Lakeview Mayor Chuck Wilson said the trip fulfilled the city’s responsibility to understand what it was getting into.
“The first thing that we take seriously is our obligation, on the behalf of our citizens, to make sure that we understand the industry that is coming to us,” Wilson said. The mayor said Hodde had a chance to meet potential lenders for the development.
Pacific Telecommunications Council Chairman Bill Barney is a senior advisor for Infrakey.
Last Tuesday, Singh and Hodde headlined a launch event for the “Lacy Lakeview Data District,” a catch-all name for the project and the public private partnership intended to facilitate it.
Infrakey spokesperson Sujeeth Draksharam said the launch event was intended to promote the Lacy Lakeview and Central Texas area, in addition to sharing the company’s vision for selling treated wastewater and fiber connectivity to surrounding businesses. No binding agreements were signed during the event, he said.
The initial flyer for the launch event indicated Lacy Lakeview Mayor Chuck Wilson, not Hodde, would introduce the data district, but Wilson ultimately decided not to attend.
“We agonized a little bit about sending anybody to Honolulu,” Wilson told The Bridge last week. “It’s like, really, a small city is going to send somebody at the city’s expense to Hawaii in January?
“They actually asked me to come as well. And I’m like, No, I think not. I think an elected official going makes it look a little more like a junket than having a city manager go,” Wilson said.
Rural opponents of the data center project argued Hodde’s attendance amounted to a tropical victory lap on the public’s dime at a moment when key questions about the facility’s environmental impact remain unanswered.
“This project was not announced first to the people whose land, water, roads, and grid will be impacted,” Ross resident Sean Terrell said in a news release published by project opponents.
“It was announced to industry insiders, on the city’s time, with the city’s participation, while residents back home were still being told to wait for more information.”
Other opponents contrasted the trip against Lacy Lakeview’s budgetary woes, which city officials routinely cite when defending the project.
“I think the (conference) was more fun in the sun, rubbing elbows,” said Chris Gravitt, a Ross-area resident and lead organizer against the Infrakey data center.
“That, to me, is not the ethical behavior of a city leader,” Gravitt said. “It’s one thing to go to a lunch meeting and have that paid for, … but this seems a bit more extravagant and wasteful.”
“I understand Lacy Lakeview’s position, but man, even if you’re in that position, just as a person, you begin to think, or at least I would think, ‘Yeah, I know this gives a lot of economic opportunity, but at what costs and who is this affecting?’” Gravitt said.
