He towed a guillotine past the library steps and the room went colder. Verrus representatives left the hearing early, saying they did not feel safe. Hundreds of Salem residents stayed, jeering, demanding answers that had been kept behind locked doors.
I follow these fights because you learn where power really sits — and you can see how citizens can take it back when they show up. You should know what happened in Salem, because the tactics the developer used and the council’s initial secrecy are not unique.
Hundreds gathered outside Loucks Auditorium with a trailer-mounted guillotine — then the meeting inside unraveled
The image dominated the night: a guillotine on a trailer, parked near the Salem Public Library while a public hearing unfolded. The trailer-mounted guillotine was a punctuation mark on a secretive deal.
I’m not condoning theatrics, but you can’t ignore what the device communicated: the community felt betrayed. Verrus, a California-based data center developer, had come to pitch a proposed $5.1 billion (€4.7 billion) server campus on 75 acres of state-owned land. Instead of a sober town hall, they found a crowd that had been simmering for months — and the representatives left early, claiming safety concerns.
@its.addie.rose Dear Salem City Council, We heard about your NDA with Verrus. No AI! | No Data Centers! -Salem residents #salemoregon #oregon #noai #nodatacenters
One council member missed the meeting and the mayor attended remotely — the public smelled secrecy
Attendance details matter. One council member didn’t show and sent a substitute; Mayor Julie Hoy dialed in instead of sitting with the crowd. When official presence is thin, suspicion thickens.
The real source of the anger was an NDA the city reportedly signed with Verrus when the project was first discussed. Residents say the NDA hid the proposal for more than a year, and by the time the company publicly pitched the plan, a lot of the community had already decided it had been excluded from a meaningful conversation.
What is an NDA with a developer?
An NDA, or non-disclosure agreement, is a contract that limits who can see certain documents. In practice, some developers use NDAs to keep technical studies and town-hall materials out of public view while they firm up deals with landowners and financiers. The NDA in Salem became a flashpoint because it prevented citizens from reviewing water, power, and traffic projections until late in the process — the very questions people wanted answered.
Verrus couldn’t answer basic utility questions in public — and a financier took the heat
Verrus reps reportedly stumbled on questions about water and power during the hearing — and they hadn’t even filed a land use application. Aaron Stickney, a co-founder of SilverSphere Capital (the project’s financier), stayed to speak and was jeered and called a liar by parts of the crowd.
When developers and financiers can’t specify water usage, electrical load, or grid impacts, you should be skeptical. Big tech and major hyperscalers — think Amazon, Google, Microsoft — have all driven demand for large campuses in recent years, and local utilities, environmental groups, and planners now treat those numbers as central to any permit review.
Why are communities opposing data centers?
People worry about water and energy strain, noise, heat, and lost land for housing or agriculture. They also mistrust opaque processes and corporate secrecy. Data centers are capital-intensive and draw resources; when citizens feel information is withheld, opposition coalesces quickly.
The council voted to explore an NDA ban and put a 120-day moratorium in place — public pressure rebalanced the scales
By the end of the special session, the council had moved. They unanimously voted to explore banning NDAs with developers and formed a data center task force. A follow-up hearing resulted in a temporary moratorium barring data center approvals for at least 120 days.
Those are tentative wins: they buy time to demand documentation, solicit independent technical reviews, and draft policy. The NDA that once hid plans is now the very item the council will scrutinize. The NDA was a velvet curtain hiding the blueprints.
There are practical steps you can push for if you live in a community facing a similar project: require public disclosure of environmental and utility studies, demand that land-use applications be filed before negotiations proceed behind closed doors, and insist financiers — like SilverSphere Capital in this case — answer questions in open sessions. Tools such as local public records portals, energy use calculators, and GIS layers on platforms like Google Maps are all useful when you’re assembling civic testimony.
Salem’s episode is proof that a loud turnout and targeted pressure can change a project’s timeline and force transparency. I watched the hearing unfold and I can tell you: secrecy is no longer a safe strategy for developers who expect to move quietly. What will your town do when a developer shows up with plans you weren’t allowed to see?