Effingham County residents allege in a new lawsuit that local elected officials, public employees and others conspired illegally and secretly to lay the groundwork for a data center to the benefit of OpenAI, spoiling land values for everybody else.
Residents Michelle Finch-Mincey, Lehman Mincey Jr. and Raymond Carver are asking the Effingham County State Court to let a jury decide on punitive damages against the members of the county commission; County Manager Tim Callanan; the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority; its executive director, Brandt Herndon; an associate firm, Savannah Industrial Development LLC; software company OpenAI, and its Georgia affiliate, Octans GA.
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The lawsuit recounts how the negotiations between these officials and the tech company known for developing ChatGPT evolved, citing many facts revealed by The Current GA since the deal was made public in July. The terms of the deal include approximately $870 million in tax revenue over 15 years from OpenAI, as well as the company investing $4 billion and creating 80 jobs during each of the five phases of construction from 2028 to 2034, according to the memorandum of understanding.
Even at its discounted tax rate laid out in the MOU, the project would make OpenAI the biggest taxpayer in the county. But it would also be the biggest electricity user in the state, demanding power generated from fossil- and nuclear-fuelled grid, plus the massive amounts of water needed to run power plants.
Herndon was aware of OpenAI’s interest in the county as far back as October 27, 2025, as evidenced by a nondisclosure agreement signed by both parties. By February 2026, other officials had received OpenAI briefings, as reported by The Current. By April, the development authority had signed on extra public relations help. By May 14, a company that has the development authority’s power of attorney had signed an agreement to sell publicly owned land to OpenAI’s affiliate. The next week, OpenAI met with Gov. Brian Kemp.
But the only information the public was aware of regarding data centers in Effingham was a December county commission vote on numerous zoning rules — one of which was to allow data centers in industrial areas by default.
The lawsuit alleges that the negotiations amounted to civil racketeering, a conspiracy to keep the process secret until public objection could no longer affect the outcome.
“Government power should come from the consent of the people, not multi-billion-dollar corporations having secret meetings with public officials,” said plaintiffs’ attorney and former federal prosecutor Greg Gilluly in a press release Monday morning.
This is the third lawsuit related to OpenAI’s arrival in the community. In early September, the same group of plaintiffs sued the county, asking a judge to invalidate the data center zoning. Later that month, residents and environmental group One Hundred Miles asked a judge to throw out the development authority’s deals with the software company’s affiliate.
The Effingham County Board of Commissioners does not comment on any pending or ongoing litigation, said county spokesperson Jake Zeigler via email.
The Current reached out to the Effingham development authority and OpenAI for comment, but received no reply before publication.
