Following Pima County’s lead, Tucson officials instructed city administrators to create new transparency rules for non-disclosure agreements tied to economic development projects, part of a broader shift in policy following the public outrage over how the Project Blue proposal was handled.
“There were a lot of challenges we experienced leading up to Project Blue,” said council member Nikki Lee, who proposed the new rules. “I think it would be useful for us to consider something similar [to the county] in the spirit of transparency.”
Elected officials for both the city of Tucson and Pima County said they wished they had more information about Project Blue, a massive data center proposed for Tucson — and could have shared more with the public — but said non-disclosure agreements limited what they could say.
On Sept. 3, Pima County passed a series of policy changes related to NDAs that could create a blueprint for Tucson, said council members.
The adopted policy changes were spelled out by county administrator Jan Lesher in an Aug. 28 memo, including specifying how long NDAs should last (initially 180 days, with possible extensions); requiring a confidential list of NDAs to be shared with the supervisors on a quarterly basis; requiring a confidential report to be shared with the supervisors about the project’s scope, user and other characteristics; and creates a template for NDAs.
The memo also creates a 90-day sunshine period, before any public body has a decision, the NDA will expire and there will be full disclosure about details and “what potential impacts” there are on land, water, air and communities.
While the mayor and council don’t sign NDAs, economic development staff do, impacting what information elected officials and the public receive.
On Project Blue, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero was partially aware of the proposal as early as March 2023, according to county documents obtained by Arizona Luminaria via public records requests and confirmed by the mayor in an interview. She says she was not beholden to an NDA.
Lee, who suggested the NDA discussion, said that the NDA process around Project Blue had presented challenges. “It has limited the ability of Mayor and Council and the community to access key information during critical decision-making,” she said.
Council members discussed a revised NDA process that would include some information shared with council members and a maximum period of time that non-disclosure agreements should last.
The mayor said she supported the effort to clarify NDA processes, and to have a policy that aligned with the county. She also wanted to create a way to make sure the economic team was looking for the right opportunities for Tucson. “It’s really about aligning the vision of mayor and council and the community to economic opportunity initiatives our team goes out and looks for.”
Council member Kevin Dahl said he felt economic initiatives often clashed with climate or labor goals. “Let’s go out and reach the companies that share our values and will be an asset to our community,” he said. He also wanted all council members, not just one whose ward would be affected, to receive information about economic development options being courted by the city.
City Manager Tim Thomure said he would plan a briefing for the five or six active non-disclosure agreements for city council during a future executive session. He also said bringing a full proposal for the counsel to vote on could happen in the next two months. “A 60-day time frame is very reasonable,” he said.
Romero, who has championed economic development projects in Tucson, said it was also important to know the impact of companies interested in coming to the city. “What are their needs in terms of use of water and energy and impact on the environment,” she said. “I too believe that the more information we can share with the community as quickly as we can is important.”
Council member Karin Uhlich said a public records exemption proposal was also key: if the city or county received a public records request for information considered confidential, the city would notify the private entity who would then be required to get a court order to keep the information private. “This is kind of what would be more expected and what all of us as electeds and city officials are more accustomed to in terms of transparency,” she said.
Council members voted unanimously in favor of putting in motion a new policy, which would be formally proposed and voted on in a future council meeting.
City Attorney Mike Rankin, who is retiring from his position this month, suggested revisiting the NDA proposal later this fall. At that point, the city is likely to have already hired a new city attorney, he said.
Meanwhile, the secretive Project Blue data center is seemingly moving ahead in unincorporated Pima County.
Beale Infrastructure and Tucson Electric Power filed a special agreement request with state regulators to lock in energy for the first phase of Project Blue.
The application, filed Aug. 25 with the Arizona Corporation Commission, outlines plans for Tucson Electric Power to begin supplying energy to the center in May 2027. No hearing date has been set yet, and the commission is currently accepting public comments at this link.
Tucson renews contract for city manager
During a more than four-hour executive session, the council conducted an annual review of City Manager Thomure’s performance. Soon after they began the public portion of the study session, council members unanimously renewed Thomure’s employment contract with the city of Tucson, and said he had met or exceeded expectations in his work.
Romero said she appreciated the time she had spent working with Thomure so far, as well as his wit and intelligence. “Thank you for your service to our community,” said Romero. “I know that we are in good hands with you.”
Thomure was appointed as city manager by the mayor and council in March 2024. He previously served as the deputy and assistant city manager, and before that as the director of Tucson Water.
In recent weeks, organizers against the data center had criticized Thomure for how he presented Project Blue to residents, and say they disagreed with the information shared by Thomure around water and energy on the city’s website.
“I think it’s pretty egregious that this unelected individual is in such a position of power for influencing policy creation in our local government,” said No Desert Data Center member April Putney. “Because he is unelected, he is not as accountable to the residents of Tucson as our elected officials are.”
In response to those concerns, Thomure said in a statement that the data regarding water and energy use for Project Blue was provided by Beale.
“ While unpopular, I am not aware of the information being incorrect,” the statement from Thomure said. “There were community members who opposed the amount of resources the project would use, which is fair and exactly the type of feedback we were looking for from the community.”
Thomure said that while the city manager does have significant policy influence, the decision to consider annexing the land for Project Blue was made by the council, not the city manager.
“The City Manager is accountable to the elected officials, and our Council has made it clear that the Manager is accountable to the public,” he said. “In the case of Project Blue, the process I led was intended to collect data and input for the Council.”
On the request of council member Lane Santa Cruz, the city will also schedule a study session item in November to begin formalizing a review process for the city manager, city attorney and city clerk.
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