The Festus City Council agreed in a special meeting Thursday, Feb. 26, to hire an Overland Park, Kan., economic development consultant to negotiate incentives for a proposed data center development in town.
Council members voted 7-0 to hire MarksNelson Advisors LLC for consulting services. Councilman Jim Collier of Ward 1 did not attend the meeting.
An hour before the special meeting, about 80 data center opponents began protesting the data center project along West Main Street. Many of them came inside Festus City Hall and continued voicing their objections during the meeting.
In the consulting agreement, the city agreed to pay MarksNelson a $20,000 minimum engagement (for up to 50 hours of consulting), with additional hours billed at $400 per hour, with pre-authorization. Other fees are listed based on the success of the project.
Steve Etcher of MarksNelson is scheduled to attend a council work session at 5 p.m. Monday, March 2. The City Hall work session will bring together council members with representatives of the Festus R-6 School District, Jefferson College, Jefferson County, the Joachim-Plattin Ambulance District and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to discuss their expectations for a community benefit agreement with the developer, Mayor Sam Richards said.
Richards said the point of hiring MarksNelson is for the company to help the city negotiate potential incentives for a proposed data center development with CRG, a St. Louis-based data center development arm for Clayco. No operator for such a data center has yet been identified.
The city had announced Feb. 25 that CRG, through its attorneys, was ready to begin negotiations on a proposed data center project on property north of Hwy. 67 and west of Hwy. CC.
“The only thing that was approved (at the special meeting) was the contract for the negotiations,” Richards said this morning, Feb. 27. “We feel this will benefit the city.”
Michael Christopher, the Festus public works director who is also serving as interim city manager, said there was no bidding process for the economic development consulting services because Etcher has consulted on several data center development agreements and is considered a sole provider of the service.
“No one else has negotiated a community betterment agreement like this in Missouri,” Christopher said.
Prior to the vote, Ward 2 Councilwoman Staci Templeton asked, “If in a week into this, if it all falls apart, are we still out the $20,000?”
Brian Malone, the city attorney, said that under Missouri law the city would only be obligated to pay MarksNelson for the work it had done up to the point of CRG ending the project.
Immediately after the meeting, data center opponents said their opinions and concerns about a data center are being ignored by city officials.
“I feel this proves the city has made the decisions about the data center behind closed doors,” said John Youmans of Festus.