My favorite moment during Wednesday's long public hearing on a proposed data center in Groton came at the very end, when the final speaker suggested that there must be a map somewhere used to help people running scams to find gullible communities.

And Groton, he said, must be part of a bull's-eye on that map.

His final physical comment, a thumbs-down, ending the evening, got a hearty round of applause from the dozens of people who had sat through more than three hours of public testimony, just about all of it overwhelmingly against the project.

Indeed, one common thread in remarks at the hearing is that Groton seems to be once again strangely falling under the spell of an unknown, unvetted developer who will take far more from the town with an overwrought development than he'll ever give back.

Related article: Groton residents raise concerns about data center proposal

My biggest chuckle of the hearing came when Councilor Rachel Franco, during discussion over a vote on whether to give the public five instead of three minutes to speak, said she needed to do the math and promptly started scribbling, head down, with her pencil.

As the entire room awaited her silent math work, Mayor Juan Melendez Jr., who ran a pretty good meeting, jumped in and quickly spoke the simple math out loud as he did it in his head: Fifty speakers at five minutes each could lead to some four hours and 16 minutes of hearing time.

"I don't care what the numbers are," said Councilor Portia Bordelon, who introduced the motion for more time and was joined by Councilor Aundré Bumgardner as the only two councilors to speak up and demand that the people who had turned out by the dozens get a chance to say their piece, as long as it took.

The motion for more time passed by a voice vote, with the only no vote cast by Councilor Juliette Parker.

I'm glad I reached out later to Franco because she responded by email to say she was doing the math to determine whether a second session might need to be held.

That's good to know, because it looked to me at the time like another attempt by town officialdom to limit public comment, similar to an earlier hearing where speakers were only allowed to ask questions and not offer an opinion.

The opinions that the public brought up to the microphone were varied and smart, ranging from outrage at the paltry payments in lieu of taxes, which won't go up over time, like real taxes, to the enormous environmental impact of a vast paved development near the watershed of many acres of conserved land.

The center won't employ many permanent workers, and Groton doesn't have an unemployment problem anyway, they said. The center will use more electricity than one of the new offshore wind farms being developed at what will eventually be a great expense for ratepayers, they said.

I wanted to hug the woman who complained about the ineptitude of paid town staff, who have let things like this get so far.

Another resident made a wonderful argument that this is Groton not New Jersey, and why spoil the natural beauty that makes so many people want to spend money to come here to visit.

About the only people who spoke positively about the project was one of the local partners, who stands to make money from it, and his mother. 

I felt the most sorry for the people who live near the proposed site, many of whom said the noisy, unsightly center will drive them from their homes, which will be worth less money.

One husband and wife testified together. Another man said it will ruin a road he's lived on all his life.

One resident brought his young daughter up with him to the microphone, a reminder that a whole new generation of Groton residents would have to live with this very bad decision.

The evening was heartening, a sign that Groton is filled with smart, engaged residents who care about their town, even though their current government is dysfunctional.

For the life of me I can't understand why any of the councilors would vote for this, especially after such a resounding no from the public. Some labor representatives lobbied at another session about the construction jobs it would create, but none of them bothered to turn out Wednesday.

And yet the council came very close to making a rushed decision this week — almost certainly a yes — with the ink barely dry on the final text of the tax-waiving deal.

I'm also puzzled why so many of the councilors themselves won't comment on the deal.

The notion that they can't express an opinion on something until they vote is preposterous. They are politicians who are supposed to have and express opinions, not court jurists.

It's true that the town lawyers cautioned councilors about comments on the now-failed Mystic Oral School project, as it was clearly headed toward litigation, because of their bad lawyering and language they put into a deal councilors signed saying they would support the project.

There's no signed deal here, and if some councilor won't tell you what they think about building tax-free, electricity-sucking, environmentally problematic data centers here, ask them why not.

They need to rip the tape off their mouths and express their opinions. It's why they were elected.

Also tell them to try out this math: Zero taxes equal zero yes votes.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

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