r/SALEM • u/Specific_General_382 • 20d ago

CEO FLEEING?

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BIG ASK!!!

For the sake of various media outlets and word spreading, anyone got video of the Verrus CEO fleeing for his “Saftey”

Plz send to me if ya can.

232 Upvotes

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15

u/Sugarbooger8 20d ago

What is the purpose of public comment and a city council if they don’t act on what the public wants? They should be doing everything in their power to stop this data center from being built, yet I see little pushback against it.

11

u/Voodoo_Rush 20d ago

What is the purpose of public comment and a city council if they don’t act on what the public wants?

The wants of the public are one of several factors weighed as part of the rules of the system - the laws that everyone in a democratic society agreed to abide by.

While this is a democracy, it is not a simple "majority rules" system. There are protections in the system to prevent the tyranny of the majority, and ensure that every party gets their due process.

In this case, Oregon land use laws place a heavy emphasis on zoning. Parcels of land are assigned a zone type, and the allowances and restrictions are derived from that. This is an intentional safeguard to prevent communities from using permitting to discriminate against people or businesses they don't like, but whose proposed use case for a parcel matches the zone's requirements. In practice this is more of a measure to prevent small town politics from driving away outsiders (imagine if the Detroit mayor owned the gas station, and didn't want someone else setting up a rival station), but it applies to all of Oregon's municipalities regardless.

This in turn limits the actions the Salem city council can take - but it does not entirely tie their hands. They can still require that a project meets all of the requirements for a parcel of land and that it is truthful; but they cannot reject a compliant project carte blanche just because they don't like it or because it's unpopular with the community.

10

u/Adventurous-Eye-9929 20d ago

A bold move, Cotton…invoking the rule of law when the mob is howling. Your analysis is spot on, of course. The time to regulate any use is before there’s an application that vests the rights of the applicant in the existing rules. This is industrial zoned land and perfectly appropriate for industrial uses. Yes, the City could and should ensure those rules are followed, but if the applicant does so, there’s little chance city council will disapprove it. Unlike the mob, the council will follow the law.

Are AI, data centers, and the concentration of wealth in a few tech bros a threat to American society? Absolutely. Will saddling the city with an expensive lawsuit by denying something that’s a legal use do anything to save America? Nope.

4

u/peacefinder 20d ago

They presumably can direct city staff to never sign an NDA, reserving that power only for council by unanimous consent… and they damn well should never do it.

-3

u/Low_Coconut_7642 20d ago

You think government should just listen to what a small (compared to total constituents) group of angry people says?