How much is Google contributing to Fort Wayne?

Hey Locals,

The drama surrounding Tuesday night's City Council meeting provides a good starting point for today's deep dive on the Google data center.

In case you missed it: New City Council President Marty Bender, R-At Large, started his tenure with a bang: Quietly pulling the regularly scheduled public comment session from council's agenda – despite a room full of citizens eager to speak. 

• You might remember: This week was not only a second Tuesday regularly scheduled for public comment, but also the first opportunity for citizens to speak at council since Dec. 9 – when many lined up to voice opposition to the data center.
• So what happened? Although a crowd of citizens gathered to speak at Council again, Bender pulled public comment from the agenda, later telling The JG* it was a “special meeting to allow time to recognize City Clerk Lana Keesling.” However, The JG notes: While special meetings don't include public comment, this meeting was "not advertised as a special meeting." 
• Adding insult to injury: Many citizens have felt shut out of conversations about the Google data center from the start. Tuesday's meeting signals that some city leaders still aren't getting the message. On top of that, time which could have been used for public comment was spent praising Keesling – a leader who's drawn criticism recently for controversial dual office holding at taxpayers' expense. 
• So what happens now? Bender says Council is “reviewing all meeting-related activities” to ensure actions were above board. He also confirmed that the Jan. 27 meeting will include public comment.

So... what have we learned about Google in all this? The data center was still a hot topic at council Tuesday night, where former Presidents Geoff Paddock (D-5) and Russ Jehl (R-2) took the tech giant to task for shortchanging the city in its dealmaking.

Let's start with the most recent information.

• You might remember: On Dec. 9, city leaders sought approval from council to use about $200,000 of local funding to support a cost-share project with Google, which would repair and expand drainage systems at 6015 Adams Center Rd. – partly for citizen use and partly for the data center. 
• Since then: Council held the vote and met with Google, securing what Paddock feels is a better deal with the tech giant. He announced this week that council convinced Google to foot the entire bill for the drainage project as an act of "good faith" with the city. 
• Looking to the future: There's still more work to do to get citizens on board with Google's plans, Jehl noted. “Frankly, everything about it is just not tackling the core issue,” he said. “The core issue is whether or not Google’s presence is going to become a de facto electric tax on our community. That hasn’t been answered.” He also questioned the nature of Google's deal with the city, asking: Is Google simply extracting “tremendous tax abatements” and then “writing a couple of little checks for some employment skills?”

So let's take a deeper look at that question.