The NDA Question

In May 2026, at the Grant County Area Plan Commission, a resident said in public comment that officials in this county had told people they were under non-disclosure agreements about data center development. That was the resident's account, and we have not located the record it refers to. Then came a question the board could answer itself.

A member asked whether an agreement like that would have to be disclosed to the board under its own rules. The answer came back in four words.

That is one board, on one night, and it is the only body in Grant County that has answered this question on the record. So we are putting it to everyone else.

The question

Have you signed a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement relating to data center development in Grant County?

We are not asking anyone to break an agreement. We are not asking what is in one, who the other party is, or what was discussed. Only whether one exists.

If you hold one of these offices

Find your office, choose yes, no, or that you would rather not say, and add anything you want printed.

Or type it in: ourweek.in/nda

If you have signed one. Answering takes nothing but a yes. If you believe your agreement prevents you from confirming even that much, choose I would rather not say, and we will print exactly that. It is a real answer and it will not be characterized.

Two things are worth knowing, and neither is legal advice — the terms of your own agreement govern, and only your counsel can read them. Confidentiality agreements commonly carve out disclosures required by law, and Indiana's public records and open meetings statutes apply to officials acting in an official capacity. And when this question reached the area plan commission in May 2026, a member's own understanding was that an approach would be reportable to the board: "if I was approached by one, I'm supposed to tell you guys I got approached by one."

You can also email hello@ourweek.in or write to us. A reply in any form is recorded and published the same way.

Where it stands

Mayor Ronald Morrell Jr. answered before anyone asked him. On August 23, releasing the Project Riverjump summary, he wrote that he has not signed a non-disclosure agreement. No one had put the question to him; he addressed it on his own. On August 27, asked directly by the Chronicle-Tribune, he widened the answer: "I can only speak on behalf of myself and my administration. I have not signed an NDA related to Project Riverjump or data center development, and I am not aware of any City of Marion staff members who have signed such an agreement." And he drew its boundary himself: "I cannot speak to whether individuals or officials outside of the City of Marion, including those at the county level or within other organizations, entered into NDAs." The officials he cannot speak for are the rest of this list.

Commissioner Chuck Poling answered from the dais. At the commissioners' meeting on May 18, 2026, a resident, Michael Duke, asked the commissioners whether they have signed NDA forms and asked them to answer. The official minutes record the reply: "Commissioner Poling expressed he has not."

Mayor Bill Rock Jr. answered in a public statement. Addressing what he called rumors about Gas City and a potential data center, he wrote that Gas City has not signed a non-disclosure agreement about a data center, and that it has signed two concerning potential manufacturing jobs. His is the only answer on this board so far to disclose signing any non-disclosure agreement at all.

Those are the three answers on this board, and they are why the rest of the list exists.

The question is not being mailed to anyone. It is published here, addressed to each office by name, at a moment when this is the most-discussed subject in the county. Every official on this list can answer at any time, from any device, and the line beside their name changes the day they do. Until then it reads as no response, which is what it is.

Who is on the list

Every state and local elected official on the Grant County ballot, plus the three members of Congress who represent this county — 178 offices, from the county commissioners down through township boards, town councils and school boards.

The list is wide on purpose. A handful of these offices vote on where a building may go. Many more have a stake in what it pays: our report on this subject sets out how a tax increment financing district freezes the assessed value that schools, libraries, townships and the county's general fund go on taxing, and generally sends the tax on value above that base to a redevelopment commission instead. An official with no vote on siting may still have a vote on an abatement, or may simply have been told something.

Six elected judges appear on the county's ballot roster — the four county court seats, plus the municipal judges in Marion and Gas City — and none of them is on this list. Indiana's Code of Judicial Conduct limits what a judge may say publicly about matters that could come before the court, and data center disputes in Indiana have already reached the courts. Rather than put a judge in the position of deciding whether answering could implicate that rule, we left the six seats off the list.

Names and offices are the clerk's own, read from the county's roster of elected officials. We use the contact information published there and do not reprint it here.

Nothing you send goes on this page by itself, and we do not confirm an answer using only the contact details that came with it — whoever fills in the form chooses those, so on their own they prove nothing. Your contact details are never published.

How an answer gets confirmed. Beside every published answer this page says which of these it was:

• Confirmed from an official email address. The answer came from an address at a government domain, and a one-time link sent to that address was followed. The office controls who holds such an address, which is what makes this worth something.
• Stated publicly by the officeholder. The official said it themselves, on a platform they control, and we link it.
• Confirmed with the office directly. We reached the office using contact details we looked up ourselves — from the clerk's roster or the unit's own site — not details supplied with the answer.

An answer from a personal email address is not treated as suspicious; plenty of officeholders do not have a government address. It simply cannot be confirmed by email alone, so we contact the office before publishing it. Until one of the three standards above is met, an answer stays off this page.

What gets published

Every answer, in the words it arrives in. Every non-answer as a non-answer, with the date of the ask.

And the result either way. The likeliest outcome of a canvass like this one is that everybody says no. That would be a finding, not a failure — nobody has put this question to these offices before, and a list of "No" would be a better answer than this county has now.

A dash means we have no answer from that office yet — not a refusal, and not a no. Yes, No and Rather not say appear only once an answer has been confirmed.

Congress

State of Indiana

The clerk's roster still lists Andy Zay in Senate District 17. He resigned in January 2026 on his appointment to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, and Nick McKinley was sworn in on February 9, 2026. McKinley sat on the Marion Common Council as an at-large member from 2024 until then, and chairs the Grant County Republican Party.

Grant County

Commissioner Poling answered in open session on May 18, 2026, when Michael Duke asked from the podium whether the commissioners have signed NDA forms. The official minutes record: "Commissioner Poling expressed he has not." We have not put the question to him directly.

The clerk's roster still lists Shane Middlesworth in District 1. He resigned effective August 2, 2026, and a Republican caucus chose Chris Oliver to serve the rest of the term on August 20.

Marion, and the towns

City of Marion

The mayor answered before we asked. In the statement he posted on August 23, 2026 releasing the Project Riverjump summary, he wrote: "I have not signed an NDA." Asked directly by the Chronicle-Tribune on August 27, he expanded it — not one "related to Project Riverjump or data center development," and he is not aware of any City of Marion staff member who has signed one — while adding: "I cannot speak to whether individuals or officials outside of the City of Marion, including those at the county level or within other organizations, entered into NDAs."

Fairmount

Fowlerton

Gas City

Mayor Rock answered in a public statement addressing rumors about Gas City and a potential data center: "We have NOT signed an NDA regarding a data center. We have signed two NDAs concerning potential manufacturing jobs coming to Gas City." He answers for his administration — "we" — rather than for himself alone. We have not put the question to him directly.

Jonesboro

Matthews

Swayzee

Sweetser

Upland

Van Buren

Townships

Center Township

Fairmount Township

Franklin Township

Green Township

Jefferson Township

Liberty Township

Mill Township

Monroe Township

Pleasant Township

Richland Township

Sims Township

Van Buren Township

Washington Township

School boards

Eastbrook schools

Madison Grant schools

Marion schools

Mississinewa schools

Oak Hill schools