Grimes County residents' group asks an Austin court to order Terafab records released and to deny SpaceX's secrecy request

A residents' group in neighboring Grimes County has gone to court to pry loose the paperwork behind the tax deal for Terafab, the large semiconductor plant SpaceX is building a few miles from College Station.

Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development filed a petition Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Travis County's 126th District Court, KBTX reported. The filing asks a judge for a writ of mandamus ordering Grimes County to release public records, and it also intervenes in a lawsuit SpaceX filed against the county and Attorney General Ken Paxton in September.

The group's attorney is Bill Aleshire of Austin, a former Travis County judge.

What the group wants

The requests date to June, after Grimes County commissioners approved a reinvestment zone, a tax abatement and economic development agreements for the project on June 3. The group is seeking emails among county officials, consultants and SpaceX; the company's abatement application and drafts; records showing how the incentives were negotiated and approved; and correspondence about a Chapter 381 economic development agreement, according to KBTX.

Grimes County had asked the attorney general's office what it could hold back. On July 28, that office ruled the county could withhold certain attorney-client communications but had to release the rest. The group says the county still has not turned over the remaining records.

SpaceX's side

SpaceX sued on Sept. 8 to keep several categories of records private, Spectrum News reported, including land acquisition files, the full tax break application, negotiation correspondence, project costs, structural design details and employee contact information. The company argues that releasing them would expose trade secrets and cause "substantial competitive harm." The group asks the court to reject that request.

Aleshire told KBTX that Texas law shields incentive negotiations only until a deal is signed. "Once they've signed it, all of that information becomes public information, unless it's confidential by law," he said. He estimated a hearing could come in December, with orders possibly by spring, and said he hopes the county releases the records on its own.

Marie Egyed, the group's director of operations, said residents have felt left out since commissioners first took up the project at an April 1 meeting. "We don't understand why we've been left out of a monumental, historical, generational change," she told the station.

The filing also takes issue with the company's name. It refers to the plaintiff as "SETC," citing Texas secretary of state records that it says list "SpaceX" as an assumed name of a different company, and asks the judge to require the company to use its legal name or its own assumed name.

Sources

KBTX

spectrumlocalnews.com