PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Scioto County commissioners have blocked The Scioto Valley Guardian’s official newsroom email account, preventing the outlet from requesting public copies of non-disclosure agreements tied to Google’s proposed $1 billion data center in Franklin Furnace.
The block occurred as the Guardian sought the signed NDAs that all three commissioners entered with the tech giant for the 500,000-square-foot project. Messages sent from the outlet’s verified newsroom addresses were automatically rejected with a notice stating the account had been blocked by the commissioners’ office. Multiple attempts using different newsroom email addresses produced the same result.
Only after switching to personal email accounts did messages reach the office. A clerk replied: “Your request has been forwarded to our legal services.” The Guardian immediately followed up, asking why its official newsroom accounts were blocked. No response has been received as of this reporting.
The episode has intensified local concerns about government transparency surrounding the high-profile data center proposal.
Last Thursday, the commissioners unanimously approved a 15-year, 75% property tax abatement for the project. If Google proceeds with purchasing the land and constructing the facility, the company would pay just 25% of standard property taxes for 15 years. In exchange, the agreement includes an annual payment in lieu of taxes of $500,000, plus additional compensation based on the completed square footage.
The transparency dispute unfolds against the backdrop of a major corruption case involving a former commissioner. In August 2025, Bryan Davis, who previously served on the Scioto County Board of Commissioners, and his wife, Lorinda Sue Davis, were indicted following an investigation by the Ohio Auditor of State.
Bryan Davis faces 13 felony counts, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, theft in office, money laundering, aggravated theft, tampering with evidence, forgery, obstructing justice and related charges. Lorinda Sue Davis faces 10 felony counts on similar allegations.
“This is an outright abuse of the public trust,” Ohio Auditor Keith Faber said following the indictments. “We will work to ensure justice is served for the people of Scioto County.”
The Scioto Valley Guardian will continue to pursue the release of the NDAs and answers regarding the email block. “Residents have a right to know the details of agreements made by their elected officials on projects of this scale,” said one Scioto County resident.
The commissioners’ office did not respond to requests for comment on the email restriction or the status of the public records request.
(Editor’s Note: Shortly after releasing this article, The Guardian received a message from a firm representing the county. The firm provided the requested signed NDA, which can be found below. In addition, the firm stated that The Guardian being blocked was a technical issue. Their full statement appears below.)
Our firm represents the County and I am in receipt of the public-records requests that you made regarding NDAs. The responsive records are attached.
In addition, you have indicated that the County has blocked your emails from coming in. This is not true. It looks like your email got hung up in the County’s firewall—which has fairly strict firewalls due to having been compromised in the past. This likely stems from the Scioto Valley Guardian’s server being unsecure or not having the appropriate certificates to interact with the County’s firewall and system. It certainly was no attempt to prevent you (or anyone else at the Scioto Valley Guardian) from being able to contact the County. We are having the County’s IT group look into this and see if there is an ability to grant a special permission for you and others at the paper to not be flagged in the system.
But, we did want to make sure that you received the records you requested.
Thanks,
The Guardian disputes the claim that its servers were flagged in the county’s system. The Guardian emails dozens of government offices and agencies daily and has never had a single issue or error, nor received any message indicating that its emails were blocked.