South Bend officials are fighting against non-disclosure agreements following confirmation of Amazon data center NDA
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- ABC57 is investigating new concerns that non-disclosure agreements are preventing the public from knowing the true impact of data centers like the Amazon data center in New Carlisle.
South Bend Common Council members Dr. Oliver Davis and Sherry Bolden-Simpson are taking action, filing Bill 67-26, the transparency ordinance.
According to council member Sherry Bolden-Simpson, she questioned the City's Public Works Director, Eric Horvath, about what is in the wastewater sent to the city from the Amazon data center in New Carlisle. The questions were raised prior to an August 20 utilities meeting. Dr. Oliver Davis shared he had heard rumors about a non-disclosure agreement relating to the Amazon data center several times since December 2025 and now had confirmation following Councilwoman Bolden-Simpson's questions.
There, she says, Horvath could not answer her questions "because of the NDAs."
Now, she and Dr. Oliver Davis are introducing bill 67-26. The ordinance calls for three key things:
- Prohibition of City employees and elected officials from signing future non-disclosure agreements
- Legal challenge and review of past agreements
- Penalties if anyone violates the ordinance
"This is not hide and seek; this is government. We are here to duly bound to publicly represent the people and not hide behind any kind of legislation, not hide behind caucus, not hide behind some non-disclosure, let’s put it on the floor. Let the people debate," said Davis.
The ordinance was filed on Wednesday, September 9. Davis says he filed on time, however, the city attorney informed Davis it would not be on the agenda Monday, September 14 because Council officers found it necessary to hold a caucus, or private meeting, to fully understand the reasoning behind the ordinance.
The Council officers are Council President Canneth Lee, Vice President Sheila Niezgodski and Councilwoman Ophelia Gooden-Rodgers.
"There is no rule that we have to have a caucus and he has to be aware of things before we file it. We just have to file it before the deadline," said Davis.
He continued, "We, first of all, met the deadline by sending our announcement to him (Canneth Lee). We shared the announcement over the weekend that we would be doing this. Okay? No surprise. We did it over Labor Day."
ABC57 spoke to Councilwoman Sherry Bolden Simpson who confirmed there is no rule that ordinances must be brought before the Council during a caucus before being put on the agenda. ABC57 asked Canneth Lee "does every ordinance have to go through caucus first before a first reading or did council officers feel a few things were wrong with this ordinance and wanted those cleared up before going to first reading?
We did not receive a response to this question. However, prior to asking this question, we asked for his thoughts on the ordinance.
Canneth Lee telling ABC57 the following:
"It's an important issue; it shouldn't be rushed and so we want to make sure that we have an opportunity to have some discussion on it. It just kind of came out of nowhere. We want to do our due diligence and give him an opportunity before the council to have discussions so we can have clarity because there were a couple things that were not right about it."
Councilman and Chief of Staff Troy Warner responded to ABC57's questions to "provide some context given the misinformation spreading on this issue."
Warner shared the following:
"There is no NDA that prevents the disclosure of public data regarding data centers like amazon. In fact, the city's director of public works presented utility information publicly on the amazon facility to the common council on Tuesday. An NDA cannot legally prohibit or hide publicly disclosable information from being disclosed through the state's access to public records act."
Co-sponsor of bill 67-26, Councilwoman Sherry Bolden-Simpson, said the following:
"The Transparency Bill that I am co-sponsoring is our effort to maintain transparency in our City Government. Non-disclosure agreements have no place in government. That is a private business practice. As elected officials, we answer to the people — not to a private business."
ABC57 reached out to the City's Public Works Director, Eric Horvath and asked "can you confirm whether you signed an NDA with Amazon relating to the data center in New Carlisle? If not you, who signed the NDA?"
As of Thursday night, we have not received a response from Eric Horavth.
The ordinance will be on the agenda for Monday, September 28.
You can view the full ordinance below: