Washington County officials have spent the past few months talking about data centers as though this is an industry they are only beginning to understand. County Administrator Michelle Gordon recently told the public that the county is “just now” learning about best practices and potential zoning and policy changes related to data centers.
That statement was already difficult to reconcile with what we have uncovered about years of data center recruitment efforts and private meetings with developers, but we have now found something that makes it even harder to take seriously: Washington County’s own Director of Business Development, Jonathan Horowitz, is a member of the Steering Committee for the Data Center Alliance of Maryland.
This is not speculation or another connection we had to piece together through corporate records. On February 2, 2026, the Maryland Tech Council officially announced the members of the Data Center Alliance of Maryland Steering Committee, and right there on the list is “Jonathan Horowitz — Director, Washington County DBED.” Even more important is what this organization actually does. The Data Center Alliance of Maryland says its mission is to “improve and align public policies to advance a dynamic data center industry” in Maryland. Its three core areas include Public Policy, Best Practices & Innovation, and Education, and the Alliance says it works with state and local policymakers while tracking and sharing data center industry innovations and best practices.
That makes Gordon’s claim that Washington County is “just now” learning about data center best practices particularly difficult to understand. The person who runs Washington County’s Department of Business and Economic Development is sitting on the Steering Committee of a statewide organization specifically involved in data center public policy and best practices. Horowitz is serving alongside representatives from Amazon, BGE, Constellation Energy, Catellus Development Corporation, Turner Construction, Rowan Digital Infrastructure, the Maryland Department of Commerce, the Maryland Economic Development Corporation, and others involved in Maryland’s data center industry. This is considerably more than a county employee attending a seminar or reading up on a new issue. Washington County has a department director with a formal leadership role inside an organization devoted specifically to this industry.
The timeline makes this even more important. The Data Center Alliance of Maryland launched in August 2025, just four days before the CFO of data center developer Diversified Capital, Moshe Rubin, donated to Jeff Cline’s campaign. Then just a handful of months later, Washington County officials including all of the commissioners; the county administrator, Michelle Gordon; county attorneys; and Washington County Director of Business Development Director, Jonathan Horowitz, met privately with the same data center developer CFO in December 2025 under nondisclosure agreements. Also in that meeting included:
Chris Shank, a former Washington County state senator and Hogan administration official with extensive lobbying and government-relations experience. The County minutes also identify Shank as part of the “Project Team.”
Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, now an attorney with Davis, Agnor, Rapaport & Skalny (DARS). The County identifies Rutherford as the project’s land-use attorney.
Connor McManus, a civil engineer with Dynamic Engineering, a land-development consulting firm with data center experience. Dynamic Engineering also worked with Diversified Capital on the Martin Farm/Burkholder Lane project.
Zack Fritz, COO of Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore economic and policy consulting firm that has produced multiple studies making the economic case for data center development in Maryland.
Then, less than two months later, Washington County Business Development Director, Jonathan Horowitz, was publicly announced as a member of the Steering Committee for the Data Center Alliance of Maryland. And Horowitz isn’t sitting on this committee by himself with a bunch of other county bureaucrats. The steering committee includes representatives from Amazon, BGE, Constellation Energy, Catellus Development Corporation, Turner Construction, Rowan Digital Infrastructure, the Maryland Department of Commerce, the Maryland Economic Development Corporation, and other organizations with direct interests in Maryland’s data center industry.
Side note: To our friends at Indivisible Calvert County and other allies in Calvert County fighting to stop data centers there, this is for you. It looks like Julie Oberg, the co-chair of the Steering Committee on data centers and Director of Economic Development in Calvert County has some explaining to do…
And we have already documented Washington County’s much longer history of supporting policies designed to attract data center investment. Horowitz himself signed a Washington County letter supporting Maryland’s data center tax incentive legislation all the way back in 2020. This is not a government that first encountered the data center industry when residents started asking questions this summer.
So when Washington County Administrator, Michelle Gordon, tells the public they are “just now” learning about data center best practices, while the person who runs Washington County’s Department of Business and Economic Development sits on the Steering Committee of an organization whose stated purpose includes advising stakeholders on data center best practices and shaping public policy surrounding the industry, we have a problem. This county administrator is either lying to the public, totally incompetent and unqualified for the position, OR BOTH.
That is why the public deserves a much clearer explanation of what Washington County officials have known and when they knew it. If the county’s Director of Business Development team has been participating in the leadership of an organization whose stated work includes data center public policy and best practices, then residents deserve to know what information he received through that role, what meetings he attended, what conversations he had with developers and other industry representatives, and what information was shared with the County Commissioners and County Administrator. The issue is no longer simply whether Washington County has been learning about data centers. It is how long county officials have been involved with the industry, what they have been doing behind the scenes, and why the public seems to be learning about so much of it only after digging through the records ourselves.
The Washington County Commissioners and County Administrator love to claim that there is nothing to see here and they have no involvement, but they have yet to prove us wrong about anything. Just a reminder that you have a choice on November 3rd and those currently running for re-election signed NDAs with the data center developer which is working on a data center now at
The NDAs have to go! Great research and reporting, thank you.
Anyone in an elected office is supposed to be serving the public interest. That requires integrity and transparancy. NDA's are red flags signalling the lack of both.