Don’t Say Data Center!!! Another Woman Removed From Joliet City Council
The short version: Joliet officials voted through data-center-linked land annexations, then had residents removed from the meeting for daring to say the words "data center" out loud.
Our Take
Credit to The Transparency Project for staying in that room and rolling camera while Joliet's council chair, Pat Mudron, gaveled down resident after resident for using the phrase "data center" during public comment — on a night when two annexations widely understood to be future data center sites were voted on before public comment even started. If the words can't be spoken but the land can be rezoned, that's not a technicality, that's the whole ballgame.
This is the playbook we keep seeing nationwide: local governments treat data center annexations as routine land-use housekeeping, fast-tracking the zoning and utility groundwork before residents fully grasp what's coming — the substation upgrades, the water draw, the noise, the traffic, the property tax deals nobody voted on directly. By the time neighbors show up to ask questions, the vote's already done and the mic gets cut for relevance. Silencing the public on the exact issue driving the agenda item isn't procedure, it's a message about who these meetings are actually for.
If you live near a proposed or existing site, don't wait for your council to slip it past you. Check our facility map to see what's already been approved near you, and use our take-action guide to learn how to get real answers before the annexation vote, not after.
This is GridWatch the USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of The Transparency Project, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.