Thanks to The Van Wert Independent – Full statement on petition rejection

(7-28-26) Last night at the Van Wert City Council meeting members were made aware that a petition on zoning for a proposed data center failed to get the required number of valid signatures.

BACKGROUND

What is a data center?

A data center is a physical room, building or facility that houses IT infrastructure for building, running and delivering applications and services. It also stores and manages the data associated with those applications and services.

Data centers started out as privately owned, tightly controlled on-premises facilities housing traditional IT infrastructure for the exclusive use of one company. Recently, they’ve evolved into remote facilities or networks of facilities owned by cloud service providers (CSPs). These CSP data centers house virtualized IT infrastructure for the shared use of multiple companies and customers.

Van Wert City Council, City Auditor Erika Blackmore

As the City Auditor, I am presenting the certification received from the Van Wert County Board of Elections regarding the initiative petition filed with my office.

Pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 731.28, an initiative petition proposing an ordinance change must first be filed with the City Auditor. Upon receipt of the petition, I carried out the duties assigned to my office by the Ohio Revised Code. My responsibilities in this process are administrative and procedural, as prescribed by law. They do not include determining the merits of the proposed ordinance, interpreting its legality, or deciding whether it should be adopted.

In accordance with Ohio Revised Code Sections 731.28 and 731.34, the petition remained on file in my office for the required ten (10) day statutory period following its filing. During that time, the petition was kept open for public inspection during normal business hours, as required by law, and any member of the public had the opportunity to inspect it.

At the conclusion of the ten-day statutory period, I transmitted the original petition, together with a certified copy of the proposed ordinance, to the Van Wert County Board of Elections in accordance with Ohio Revised Code Section 731.28 for examination and certification.

Pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Sections 3501.11 (K) and 3501.38, the Board of Elections is responsible for examining the petition, reviewing its signatures, determining the number of valid signatures and certifying whether the petition satisfies the statutory requirements for placement on the ballot.

Today, I am presenting the Board of Elections’ certification exactly as it was received. This presentation should not be interpreted as an endorsement, recommendation, or opposition to either the petition or the proposed ordinance. My responsibility is to ensure that the procedures established by Ohio law have been followed and that the official certification of the Board of Elections is presented to Council as part of the public record.

The following Certification Statement was received in my office on Monday, July 27, 2026.

A copy of the Board of Elections’ certification has been provided to each member of Council and will be entered into the official record of these proceedings.

Attached was a Certification Statement that was provided by Pam Henderson, Director of the Van Wert County Board of Elections. It reads:

I certify that the valid signatures required for the above initiative petition is 323. This is to verify that the number of valid signatures confirmed for the above initiative petition is 255 which fails to meet the number of valid signatures required for passage.

The petition would have given Van Wert residents the opportunity to repeal an ordinance passed by Van Wert City Council in May that permits data centers in industrial zoned areas of the city.

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From VW Independent – Breaking: data center initiative falls short