🔒 Five NDAs and Counting: What Else Is Tucson Hiding? | BUCKMASTER
Tim Thomure's transparency tour exposes municipal government's corporate capture. How NDAs dating back to 2022 nearly delivered Tucson to data center developers.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
Some big companies 🏢💰 wanted to build huge computer warehouses 💻🏭 in Tucson 🌵.
These places would gulp down tons of water 💧💧💧 and massive electricity ⚡⚡⚡.
But here’s the twist 🤫—
City workers 👷 had to keep it a secret 🕵️ for three years ⏳…
Why? Because they signed special papers 📝 that forced them to stay silent 🤐.
When people finally found out 😱, they were furious 😡🔥.
After all, those giant warehouses might drain the desert’s fragile water supply 🚱🏜️.
The City Council 🏛️ stepped in and said, “No thanks!” 🙅♀️🙅♂️.
But now, everyone’s wondering aloud 🤔💭:
👉 What other secrets is the city hiding? 🕳️🐍
And while all this unfolds…
Local newspapers 📰 are shutting down one by one 🚪🔒.
With fewer reporters 👀✍️ keeping watch, it’s getting harder for people to know
what their government is really up to 🏢🕶️.
Project Blue's Black Box: When Corporate Secrecy Nearly Colonized Tucson's Democracy
How non-disclosure agreements dating back to 2022 almost delivered our desert homeland to data center developers on a silicon platter
🗝️ Takeaways
🤫 Secret Deals: Tucson operates under 5-6 active NDAs, with Project Blue's dating back to 2022
💧 Water Skepticism: Residents rightfully questioned "water positive" promises in drought-stricken desert
🗳️ Democratic Vacuum: City council's July break created a six-week window for corporate maneuvering
📰 Journalism Crisis: Five Arizona newspapers shuttered while corporate media prioritizes profit over public service
🚌 Transit Hope: RTA-NEXT offers potential for improved public transportation and road repairs
👮 Police Priorities: Current focus on equipment over hiring reveals misplaced public safety investments
The Friday, August 15th edition of The Buckmaster Show delivered a master class in government accountability, featuring Tucson City Manager Tim Thomure and TucsonSentinel.com political reporter Jim Nintzel dissecting the corpse of Project Blue—the data center scheme that nearly transformed our Sonoran sanctuary into a server farm.
Because apparently, nothing says "respect for Indigenous land" after reading a Land Acknowledgement quite like converting sacred desert into corporate cooling centers for cryptocurrency mining.
The Three-Year Silence: Democracy Under Digital Detention
For those just tuning into this technological telenovela, Project Blue represented the kind of corporate colonization that would make Spanish conquistadors blush. Developers promised to build massive data centers in Tucson while claiming their operations would be "water positive"—a term so slippery it could lubricate a lobbyist's lunch meeting.
Water positive in the desert? That's like claiming coal plants are carbon negative because they create pretty clouds.
City Manager Tim Thomure revealed the project's most disturbing dimension: "The first initial non-disclosure agreements were signed in 2022. Before I was city manager," he told Buckmaster.
These NDAs effectively gagged city staff for three years while developers plotted their digital dominion behind closed courthouse doors.
Think about that timeline, herman@s.
While families across Tucson struggled with rising rents, water restrictions, and climate change impacts, city officials were bound by corporate silence agreements that prevented any public discussion of a project that would have fundamentally altered our community's future.
"Having the non-disclosure agreements constrained the ability to have a dialogue with the public before it was emergent right there in the public," Thomure admitted, acknowledging what Indigenous communities have known for centuries: when powerful interests operate in secret, the people always pay the price.
Tucson is Under 5-6 NDA Today!
The city manager revealed another bombshell—Tucson currently operates under five or six active NDAs.
That's five or six more corporate secrets potentially cooking in our city's confidential corridors, shielded from the democratic scrutiny that should govern every public decision.
Five or six NDAs? What is this, a Fortune 500 boardroom or a municipal government? I'm starting to think Tucson's city hall needs more transparency and fewer trade secrets.
Water Lies and Corporate Alibis
The "water positive" promises that developers dangled like digital desert mirages faced justified skepticism from residents who remember when mining companies made similar environmental pledges.
Thomure acknowledged the public's distrust: "A lot of folks didn't believe that it could be done or didn't believe that it would be done. And that was a lot of the concern that folks expressed."
Gee, I wonder why Tucsonans might be skeptical of corporate environmental promises? Could it have anything to do with our region's long history of extraction industries leaving toxic legacies while executives collect golden parachutes?
For context, Tucson sits in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, where Indigenous peoples have practiced sustainable water management for millennia. The Tohono O'odham Nation and other tribal communities, such as the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, understand water as sacred, not as a commodity to be exploited for corporate profit.
When tech companies promise to be "water positive" while building massive cooling systems in a drought-stricken region, it sounds less like environmental stewardship and more like greenwashing with gigabytes.
The project's defenders, such as its biggest cheerleader, Pima County Board chairman Rex Scott, argued it would bring jobs and tax revenue—the same economic development song sung by every extractive industry from copper mining to casino capitalism.
But as Thomure noted, developers could still build their data centers elsewhere in the region: "There are certainly ways that they could develop that project outside the city limits and secure water supplies to do so."
Translation: They'll just colonize some other community's water supply. Because why solve the fundamental problem when you can just relocate it?
🏛️ Rex Scott's Democratic Dereliction: When County Supervisors Supervise Everything But Democracy
Rex Scott's most damning declaration came when Buckmaster asked directly about regrets on his support for Project Blue. The chairman's response was crystalline in its corporate clarity: "None whatsoever, Bill."
July's Democratic Vacation and Corporate Vultures
Perhaps the most damning revelation involved the "six-week vacuum" created when Tucson's city council took their traditional July break. While elected officials enjoyed summer recess, corporate lobbyists worked overtime, securing approval from county supervisors before city representatives could even discuss the project.
"Never let the council have the month of July off because we created a six-week vacuum where the council was not meeting and was not able to meet and was not able to address this issue," Thomure concluded.
Apparently, corporate democracy doesn't observe government holidays. While our elected representatives sipped margaritas, developers were cooking up schemes hotter than August asphalt.
This timing wasn't accidental—it represents the sophisticated political strategy corporations employ to minimize public participation. By securing county approval during the city council's absence, developers created momentum and political pressure that nearly steamrolled local opposition.
The Journalism Crisis and Democracy's Decline
TucsonSentinel.com reporter Jim Nintzel painted an equally disturbing picture of journalism's justified jitters.
Five small-town Arizona newspapers have recently shuttered, joining the Arizona Republic's editorial exodus and demonstrating how corporate consolidation crushes community coverage.
"It seems like you just get less and less from your daily paper, and they charge you more and more, and it just seems like it's a death spiral," Nintzel observed, describing the corporate media model that prioritizes profit over public service.
Because nothing strengthens democracy quite like eliminating the journalists who might actually investigate what those NDAs are hiding.
The contrast between corporate media's decline and TucsonSentinel.com's paywall-free approach highlights different visions for journalism's future. While hedge funds reap profits from newspaper sales like digital strip miners, independent outlets like the Tucson Sentinel and Three Sonorans prioritize community accountability over shareholder returns.
RTA-NEXT: Transportation or Wealth Transfer?
Shifting from data disasters to transportation promises, Thomure expressed rare optimism about RTA-NEXT's prospects. The Regional Transportation Authority's renewal would fund road improvements, transit enhancements, and safety upgrades across Pima County.
"What people really want in Tucson is they want their roads to not suck," Thomure declared with refreshing directness.
However, Thomure's timeline concerns—needing March approval to avoid a "nine-month funding gap"—sound suspiciously like the artificial urgency tactics used to rush Project Blue through approval processes.
Police Funding and Public Safety Politics
When discussing police staffing, Thomure revealed the department's current focus on "making sure they have all the proper equipment and all the stuff that comes along with being cops" rather than hiring additional officers.
Because apparently, the solution to public safety concerns is better-equipped cops, not addressing the root causes of community violence like poverty, housing insecurity, and lack of mental health services.
This approach reflects the broader conservative narrative that police need more resources rather than communities needing more support. Progressive alternatives might include investing in education, healthcare, mental health services, and economic opportunities that address crime's underlying causes.
The Ward 3 Wake-Up Call
Nintzel's coverage of the Ward 3 primary—where incumbent Kevin Dahl leads challenger Sadie Shaw by just 19 votes—demonstrates that even Democratic strongholds aren't immune to anti-establishment sentiment.
"Sadie really did tap into something here," Nintzel observed, noting that "The last time an elected Democrat lost a primary was in 1987."
Apparently, even Democratic incumbents can't coast on party labels when constituents feel ignored or betrayed. Who could have predicted that voters might actually care about representation?
This narrow margin reflects broader dissatisfaction with political establishments that prioritize corporate interests over community needs. When city officials sign secret agreements with developers while residents struggle with housing costs and climate impacts, electoral consequences become inevitable.
What This Means for You
The Project Blue saga affects every Tucsonan in multiple ways:
Housing and Development: Corporate data centers drive up land values and utility costs, making housing even less affordable for working families.
Water Security: Industrial water consumption threatens long-term sustainability in a region already facing climate-driven drought.
Democratic Participation: Secret NDAs prevent meaningful public input on decisions affecting community futures.
Environmental Justice: Data centers are typically located in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, externalizing environmental costs while concentrating profits elsewhere.
Hope in the Resistance
Despite corporate capture's concerning trajectory, Friday's show demonstrated journalism's vital role in dragging truth from the shadows. When public servants like Thomure submit to scrutiny and reporters like Nintzel refuse corporate talking points, our democratic system self-corrects.
The Project Blue rejection proves that informed communities can still triumph over corporate colonization—when they receive information necessary for meaningful participation. Indigenous and Chicano organizers understand this lesson intimately: sustained resistance, community education, and strategic organizing can defeat even well-funded corporate schemes.
How to Get Involved
Stay Informed: Support independent journalism by subscribing to Three Sonorans Substack for analysis that centers community voices over corporate interests.
Attend City Council Meetings: Monitor those remaining NDAs and demand transparency in all development decisions.
Register and Vote: The Ward 3 primary shows every vote matters, especially in local elections where corporate influence feels most concentrated.
Organize Your Community: Connect with neighbors, unions, and community organizations to build collective power capable of challenging corporate capture.
Indigenous communities survived colonization through solidarity, cultural preservation, and strategic resistance. The same principles apply to defending our democratic institutions against corporate colonization.
When we organize together, we win together.
What Do You Think?
The Project Blue battle reveals how corporate secrecy undermines democratic participation while independent journalism helps communities resist. Share your thoughts and experiences below:
How do you think Tucson should balance economic development with community input and environmental protection?
What concerns do you have about the city's remaining NDAs and how can residents ensure greater transparency in future development decisions?
Support Three Sonorans Substack to keep this critical news and analysis coming—because democracy depends on information, and information depends on independent media that serves communities rather than corporations.
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
I listened to the show and there is a lot there. I feel like it’s important to share that the Mayor and Council were not “given July off”. Many of us were working our tails off the entire month of July. There were no council meetings scheduled during the month of July, but I was in town working very hard. No margaritas or downtime for this girl.
The public needs to know more about the NDAs. Anyone could do a FOIA request and ask for the name of the organization involved, which city employee signed it, the date it was signed, the title, and any descriptive material or documents associated with the NDA.