Hagerstown is asking residents to comment tonight on the Burkholder-McDade annexation tied to data center development, while its Mayor and City Council minutes archive still stops at February 25, 2025.
The City knows about the problem. In an October 12 email responding to a public records request, Communications Director Wes Decker acknowledged that the latest minutes posted online were from December 2024. He attributed the backlog to a transition between archive systems and wrote: “It is anticipated that minutes will be up to date within the next two weeks.”
That period ended October 26. Our October 27 check found seven meetings from early 2025 in the linked archive, but no Mayor and Council minutes after February 25. Meanwhile, the Planning Commission and Historic District Commission have 2026 minutes online.
The missing records matter tonight. The September 15 agenda packet scheduled “Burkholder Lane Pre-Development Exploration and Potential Uses,” but its supporting page left the discussion, financial impact and recommendation fields blank.
Tonight’s Council meeting includes approval of the September 15 minutes. That was already listed in the October 20 preliminary agenda packet. Yet the minutes approval attachment contains only the motion, without the minutes themselves. We couldn’t find those minutes through the City’s published minutes links or broader searches.
Residents keep having to piece together what their own government is doing, chasing missing minutes, filing public records requests and digging through agenda packets to understand decisions affecting their community. Public participation shouldn’t depend on whether someone has the time and persistence to uncover the information officials should be making easy to find.
As we previously reported, Hagerstown has a nondisclosure agreement with data center developer Diversified Capital and refuses to release it. If the developer presents new plans or details tonight, residents deserve time to review them before being expected to offer informed comments, especially while records of the City’s earlier meetings remain hard to find.
For more on what officials should explain before this annexation moves forward, read our 12 Reasons to Demand Answers at Hagerstown’s Data Center Annexation Hearing on Tuesday, October 27