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    Missouri Town Council Approves Data Center. A Week Later, Voters Fire Half of Council
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    Missouri Town Council Approves Data Center. A Week Later, Voters Fire Half of Council


    Missouri Town Council Approves Data Center. A Week Later, Voters Fire Half of Council

    https://gizmodo.com/missouri-town-council-approves-data-center-a-week-later-voters-fire-half-of-council-2000746005

    View 32 Comments

    32 Comments

    1. BiggsBounds on

      If only more constituents held their elected reps accountable for not representing them.

    2. Marginallyhuman on

      I’m sure the council members were paid handsomely to be fired. Unregulated capitalism is a horror show.

    5. Cautious_Boat_999 on

      The other half will be gone as well – recalled or voted out in the next election. People in the STL area are PISSED about this shit.

    10. carlcarlington2 on

      I was on the fence about data centers till I found out that each of these buildings hires an average of 5 guys.

    11. outerproduct on

      It used to be that the rich didn’t have enough money to bribe everyone involved in government. They do now, which is why you’re seeing this play out around the country.

    12. Fake_William_Shatner on

      This is inspiring. 

      Maybe they need to fire councils that even hold a vote and don’t proactively reject the data centers. 

      And while we are at it; counsels that don’t allow municipal broadband or off grid power sources. They are just lackeys for monopoly abuse otherwise. 

    13. mountaindoom on

      Politicians will do whatever they want until people start riding them on rails out of town.

    15. morganfreenomorph on

      I used to work in Festus and live like 20 minutes away from there, people are pissed. They’re even collecting signatures from non residents to show how unpopular data centers are, I went to a mead festival and people were walking up and down main street collecting signatures. I hope this sends the message.

    16. Kasspa on

      Does this then revert the council members decision since the voters obviously did NOT want a data center being built in their area? No? Go figure…

    17. Due-Environment-9774 on

      What part of “we don’t want this” don’t city councils understand?

    18. excusetheblood on

      Sounds like a potential “all you had to do was pay us enough to live” moment

    19. ZexMarquies01 on

      The residents need to have the new council members do an investigation, and find out if any of the previous council members got some kind of bribe, or kickback, or lucrative contracts that had zero bidding, to help build the data center.

      If they can show some kind of illegal activity took place to secure the vote, they then may have a legal way to void the agreement, and stop it from being built.

      And also punish anyone who received bribes or kickbacks.

      Either way, they need lawyers to look through whatever contracts were signed, to see if they can find any way out of this deal, or if they have the power to change things like zoning, or taxes, or water rights or other costs in general, to make the center too expensive to run, or at the very least, inject actual money into the city.

    22. Diplomat_of_swing on

      Most people are like “so you are telling me that my water, electric and gas bills are going to go up AGAIN in order to build a facility that may make my job obsolete and might pollute my water? No thanks.”

      The fact that these political and business leaders are not even trying to assuage the public concerns is living proof that they do not fear public rebuke and do not believe they have to be concerned about the financial or electoral consequences of their actions.

      People need to unify and have a say in the AI future that is being built without our consent.

    23. whitepawn23 on

      It’s crooked as fuck, these local councils approving things almost none of their constituents want. I’d love to know how much bribe money each is being paid.

      These council members deserve prison time. How come no one is suing their asses, class action vs individuals, not the town.

    26. scoobynoodles on

      So can’t the data center vote be null and void now based on the will of the people?! No one wants these.

    27. Icy-person666 on

      The whole crazy thing is there are whole abandoned neighborhoods in the St Louis/ East st Louis Metro and somehow “let’s go to a suburban community that isn’t abandoned and force people out of their homes” was thought to be a good idea

    28. Z3t4 on

      Odd, they rejected steep utility price hikes for almost no jobs or local spending in return. 

    30. buyongmafanle on

      I think it’s time politicians sign election contracts that state “I’m not allowed to …” or “I am required to … by date…” and once they do that thing or fail to do that thing, they immediately lose office and a special election is triggered. For example, if you run on a platform of “No new data centers.” then when you take office and vote yes for a data center construction contract, you immediately lose your position. If you run on a position of balancing the budget, then when the budget bill arrives and it fails to improve the budget situation, immediately fired.

      I hate that politicians are hired on a time-based contract instead of a success-based one.