City of TD Votes to Settle suit with The Oregonian

By Tom Peterson

The Dalles City Council voted in favor of settling a lawsuit with the Oregonian on Monday, Nov. 14 at about 8 p.m.

The Oregonian and its parent company Advance Local Media Group sued the City when it was denied “public” records about the water usage of the first three Google data centers in The Port of The Dalles.

The City, which has signed non-disclosure agreements with Google, denied the request maintaining that water usage could reveal Google trade secrets.

On Monday Night Councilor Scott Randall made a motion on Monday night for the City to settle the suit. The motion also gave the City’s legal council clearance to pay up to $100,000 in the settlement.

Within the motion, Scott said that Google will reimburse the City for the cost of the settlement.

Google, in the past year, has held that its water usage would give its competitors an unfair advantage as the amounts of water could be reverse-engineered and utilized to understand their computer technology.

Read CCCNew’s original stories about the Oregonian suit here and here.