WATCH MY LIPS: A Forensic Examination of the March 16, 2026 Statement by Rowan County Board of Commissioners Chairman Gregory C. Edds

Edds Lied

THE OUTLAW ARMORY outlawlivin.com Outlaw Livin' LLC R. Bryant Starnes

I. THE STATEMENT

On Monday, March 16, 2026, Chairman Gregory C. Edds stepped out from behind the dais of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners and addressed a meeting room of citizens who had come to speak against a proposed data center on Long Ferry Road.

In her account two days later, Salisbury Post reporter Janet Briggs noted that this was a departure from twelve years of Edds' practice on the Board. He had never before stepped out from behind the dais to address citizens this way. The room had filled with farmers, neighbors, and residents whose families had lived along Long Ferry Road for generations. They came asking the Board to stop a project Edds was about to tell them did not exist.

He spoke for ten to fifteen minutes. In the middle of his remarks, with the room watching, he said this:

"I want to be clear about this, so watch my lips. There is no data center deal. We have made no offers on any data centers. No data centers have made any offers to us. We are not speaking to any data centers."

— Gregory C. Edds, Chairman, Rowan County Board of Commissioners Quoted by Janet Briggs, Salisbury Post, March 19, 2026

Five sentences. One denial. Spoken to citizens who came to ask their elected officials to stop a project the Chairman insisted was not happening.

This document is the documentary record against which that denial must be read. It is built entirely from Rowan County's own approved minutes, the County's own published timeline at rowancountync.gov, the Salisbury Post archive, and the County's own press releases. Every claim that follows is sourced to a specific public record citable by anyone with a library card and an afternoon.

The Chairman lied. The record proves he knew he was lying. And the record proves his Board knew it too.

II. THE PREDICATE

By the time Chairman Edds stood up on March 16, 2026, the Rowan County Board of Commissioners had held no fewer than six public hearings on the Long Ferry Road parcel and had voted on at least three formal zoning actions concerning it. The County's own published Long Ferry Development page lists each hearing, each notice, each posted sign, each vote. The page is at rowancountync.gov/2073/Long-Ferry-Development. It is not hidden.

Layer One — June 20, 2022 — Z 04-22

On June 20, 2022, the Board of Commissioners approved Z 04-22. The case rezoned approximately 384 acres along the 1700–2300 block of Long Ferry Road for the developer Red Rock Developments, headquartered in Simpsonville, South Carolina. The action created a Commercial, Business, Industrial Conditional District over six tax parcels. The original conditioned use list, per Assistant Planning Director Shane Stewart's September 29, 2025 staff presentation, included "the manufacturing, transportation, and wholesale trade sectors." Notice was mailed to adjoining property owners on June 8, 2022. Three signs were posted. Notice ran in the Salisbury Post legal section June 9–16, 2022.

Earlier that same year, on May 16, 2022, Chairman Edds had personally pulled an earlier version of the rezoning from the agenda before the public hearing, a procedural decision documented in the Salisbury Post the following day. The Chairman knew this property. He had been managing it through the Board for at least four years before the lie.

Layer Two — August 19, 2024 — Z 09-24

On August 19, 2024, the Board of Commissioners approved Z 09-24. This action amended the conditional district established by Z 04-22 to add "Data Center" as a permitted use on the same Long Ferry Road parcel.

Senior Planner Shane Stewart, who handled the request, made a deliberate procedural choice. He could have processed the addition as a zoning text amendment, which would have required only newspaper notice. Instead, per his statement to the Salisbury Post on June 22, 2024, he chose to process it as a rezoning so that adjoining property owners would receive direct mailed notice. Mailers went out August 7, 2024. Signs were posted June 4, 2024. Notice ran in the Salisbury Post August 8–15, 2024.

The Planning Board held its courtesy hearing on Z 09-24 on June 18, 2024. The Salisbury Post reported the matter on June 22, 2024 under the headline "Planning board recommends change to potential usages in Red Rock development." The article quoted Senior Planner Stewart explaining that the request was being treated as a rezoning specifically because the change was material enough that "nearby community members would be directly notified."

The Board of Commissioners' legislative hearing was held August 19, 2024. The Board approved the amendment. From that date forward, "Data Center" was a permitted use on the Long Ferry Road parcel.

Layer Three — September 29, 2025 — Z 09-25

On September 29, 2025, the Board of Commissioners held a Special Called Meeting at 3:00 p.m. in the J. Newton Cohen, Sr. Room. The meeting had one substantive item on the agenda. That item was Z 09-25.

Z 09-25 was an expansion of the conditional district. It added Tax Parcel 604-061, owned by Jason Murdock at 1985 Long Ferry Road, to the existing CBI-CD district. It revised the site plan. It carried forward the "Data Center" permitted use that Z 09-24 had added.

Chairman Greg Edds was present. Vice-Chairman Jim Greene was present. Commissioner Mike Caskey was present. Commissioner Judy Klusman was present. Commissioner Craig Pierce was absent.

Assistant Planning Director Shane Stewart presented the staff report. He confirmed on the public record that "Red Rock Development" and "RRIFI LF Land, LLC" were the same entity — an "a.k.a." that locked the chain of title. He recited the prior history of the parcel. He noted that the August 19, 2024 amendment had added "Data Center" as a permitted use. He reviewed the revised site plan and the Concept Plan.

Todd Ward, Senior Vice President of Planning and Entitlements at Red Rock Developments, addressed the Board from 301 Freemont Drive, Simpsonville, South Carolina. He thanked the Board for "their partnership." He described the history of the request.

Austin Watts, the project's Professional Engineer, addressed how the buildout would vary from the proposed site plan. The buildout, he told the Board, "will depend on who the tenant is."

The Chairman engaged. He asked Mr. Ward about changes to the site plan. He listened. At 3:34 p.m. he opened the public hearing. One citizen spoke — Mike Julian of 135 Whipporwill Lane — to express concern about Condition 2 of the proposed approval, which gave Red Rock the right to make changes without staff oversight. The Chairman directed staff to address Mr. Julian's concerns.

Then Chairman Edds said, in words memorialized in the approved minutes:

"the Board is grateful for this project and it will be very impactful for the county."

— Gregory C. Edds, Chairman, Rowan County Board of Commissioners Approved Minutes, Special Called Meeting, September 29, 2025

He then voted yes.

On motion of Klusman, seconded by Greene, the Board voted 4-0 to approve Z 09-25 with two conditions: a revised noise study to be submitted with the final site plan prior to permitting, and a completed noise study to be submitted within 90 days of building operation.

Edds personally voted to expand the conditional district. Edds personally voted to carry forward the "Data Center" permitted use to a property he had been actively managing for at least four years. Edds personally praised the project from the chair, on the public record, in a meeting his name appears on as Chairman.

That vote occurred 169 days before he stood in front of citizens and said "we are not speaking to any data centers."

Layer Four — October 6, 2025 — Z 09-25 Ratified

On October 6, 2025, the Board of Commissioners formally ratified Z 09-25 as Consent Agenda Item DD. The motion was made by Pierce, seconded by Greene, and the Board voted 4-0. Edds was absent that day. Greene chaired.

The ratification was procedural. The substantive vote had occurred September 29. But the ratification placed Z 09-25 in the County's permanent record as adopted Board policy. It was the final formal step.

161 days later, Edds said, "we are not speaking to any data centers."

III. THE ADMISSION INSIDE THE LIE

The most damning aspect of the March 16, 2026 statement is not that the documentary record contradicts it. The most damning aspect is that the Chairman contradicted himself in the same speech.

Janet Briggs reported in the Salisbury Post on March 19, 2026 that Edds, after the "watch my lips" denial, addressed citizen concerns about water consumption and acknowledged that data center conversations across the country had focused on it. He compared Rowan County's water situation favorably to Phoenix, Arizona. He discussed open-loop versus closed-loop cooling systems. He admitted he did not have the answer on what kind of system would be used "for a hypothetical data center project."

A man who is "not speaking to any data centers" does not need to compare cooling systems.

Then County Manager Aaron Church, standing alongside Edds in the same room at the same meeting, addressed claims of inadequate public notice. According to Briggs's reporting, Church told citizens "there were four public hearings in 2024 about the rezoning and possibility of a 'data center' on this lot."

Four public hearings. In 2024. About adding "data center" as a permitted use. The County Manager said it. Out loud. In the same meeting where the Chairman said the County was not speaking to any data centers.

The approved Rowan County minutes for March 16, 2026 record Edds himself, in his own words, acknowledging that "data centers were added as a permitted use for the site." He stated this fact to the citizens. He stated that the County had proposed but never paid $4.2 million for road improvements tied to a prior development agreement. The Chairman admitted, on the record, that the rezoning had occurred and that public money had been proposed for the project's infrastructure.

Five sentences earlier he had said no offers had been made.

The lie was not careful. The lie was performed in front of citizens with the County Manager standing next to him, and the County Manager admitted the predicate while the Chairman denied the action. They both said opposite things. Citizens heard both.

The Chairman was banking on being believed because he had stepped out from behind the dais for the first time in twelve years. He was banking on the gesture covering for the words.

The gesture did not cover for the words. The words are in the public record now.

IV. THE AFTERMATH

March 27, 2026 — The County Contradicts Itself in Writing

Eleven days after Edds said "we are not speaking to any data centers," Rowan County issued an official press release on Long Ferry Road development activity. The press release is posted on the County's own Long Ferry Development page as a downloadable PDF.

The press release stated:

"Property on Long Ferry Road has recently been purchased by a developer who is evaluating the site for a potential data center campus. No end user has been identified. Rowan County has not made any offers or paid any incentives to any data center company or developer."

— Rowan County, Press Release dated March 26, 2026

Read that sentence twice. The County, in writing, eleven days after the Chairman's denial, confirmed that the developer is "evaluating the site for a potential data center campus." That is exactly the conversation the Chairman said was not happening. The County's own statement put the lie in writing.

The press release tried to thread the difference between "evaluating the site" and "speaking to a data center company." That distinction does not survive the September 29, 2025 minutes, where the project's engineer told the Board that buildout "will depend on who the tenant is." The County and the developer were both talking about a data center. They were doing it on the public record. The Chairman knew. He said the opposite anyway.

April 20, 2026 — The Moratorium That Wasn't

Thirty-five days after the lie, the Rowan County Board of Commissioners passed a one-year moratorium on data center development.

The moratorium did not apply to Long Ferry Road.

Per WCNC and the Salisbury Post April 21, 2026 reporting, the Board voted 4-0 to adopt the moratorium on future data center projects, but Long Ferry Road was specifically exempted because it had already received zoning approval. Commissioner Craig Pierce abruptly walked out of the meeting during public comment and did not return. Because of his absence, the moratorium will require a second reading before becoming effective.

Edds presented what he called a "community bill of protections" — a list of restrictions he hoped the developer would self-impose. These were not enforceable. They were aspirational. The moratorium was a fence built around a horse that had already left the barn.

In the same meeting, Edds told citizens, per WCNC reporting:

"We still intend to act, we will engage now the current landowner with specific community expectations; will they cooperate? We fully believe they have a strong incentive to cooperate."

Thirty-five days earlier he had said no one was speaking to any data centers. Thirty-five days later he was telling citizens he would "engage now the current landowner" — an active, named entity with which the Chairman now publicly acknowledged the County would be communicating.

May 4, 2026 — The Signature

Forty-nine days after the lie, Chairman Gregory C. Edds signed the Temporary Data Center Moratorium Ordinance.

The ordinance includes seven specifically exempted parcels: 603-112, 603-113, 603-114, 603-116, 603-118, 603-045, and 603-061. These parcels are exempted from the moratorium under the vested-rights doctrine of N.C.G.S. § 160D-107(c) — the statute that protects a project from new regulation when its prior approvals have established a legal right to develop.

The Chairman signed an ordinance that legally acknowledges the project he denied is vested under state law.

A man who is "not speaking to any data centers" does not need to sign an ordinance acknowledging that the data center site is exempt under § 160D-107(c).

V. THE ROSTER

The lie did not occur in a vacuum. The votes that contradict the lie were cast by named, elected officials. Their names belong in the public record alongside the Chairman's. Each of them voted at one or more of the steps that built the project the Chairman denied.

Gregory C. Edds — Chairman

• June 20, 2022 — chaired the meeting that adopted Z 04-22, the underlying CBI-CD framework for the Long Ferry Road parcel.

• September 29, 2025 — voted yes on Z 09-25, the expansion of the conditional district carrying forward "Data Center" as a permitted use. Praised the project from the chair as "very impactful for the county."

• March 16, 2026 — denied the existence of a data center deal. Admitted in the same speech that the rezoning had occurred and that $4.2 million had been proposed for road improvements.

• April 20, 2026 — presented the "community bill of protections" while voting for a moratorium that did not apply to Long Ferry Road.

• May 4, 2026 — signed the Temporary Data Center Moratorium Ordinance with seven exempt parcels acknowledged as vested under § 160D-107(c).

Jim Greene — Vice-Chairman

• June 20, 2022 — voted yes on Z 04-22 framework adoption.

• September 29, 2025 — seconded the motion approving Z 09-25 and voted yes.

• October 6, 2025 — chaired the meeting (Edds absent) that ratified Z 09-25 as Consent Agenda Item DD; voted yes.

• April 20, 2026 — voted yes on the moratorium with the Long Ferry exemption.

Mike Caskey — Commissioner

• Sworn in September 2, 2025 by Senator Carl Ford after returning from overseas military deployment.

• September 29, 2025 — voted yes on Z 09-25 approval.

• October 6, 2025 — voted yes on Z 09-25 ratification.

• April 20, 2026 — voted yes on the moratorium with the Long Ferry exemption.

Judy Klusman — Commissioner

• September 29, 2025 — moved the motion to approve Z 09-25; voted yes.

• October 6, 2025 — voted yes on Z 09-25 ratification.

• April 20, 2026 — voted yes on the moratorium with the Long Ferry exemption.

Craig Pierce — Commissioner

• June 20, 2022 — voted yes on Z 04-22 framework adoption.

• September 29, 2025 — absent from the Z 09-25 hearing.

• October 6, 2025 — moved the motion to ratify Z 09-25.

• April 20, 2026 — walked out of the moratorium meeting before the final vote, requiring a second reading.

County Officials Present at Each Step

• Aaron Church, County Manager — present at every meeting referenced. On March 16, 2026, in the same meeting where the Chairman denied the data center conversation, Church told citizens there had been "four public hearings in 2024 about the rezoning and possibility of a 'data center' on this lot."

• John W. "Jay" Dees, II, County Attorney — present at every meeting referenced. On September 2, 2025 — twenty-seven days before he advised the Board through the Z 09-25 hearing — Dees signed an Employment Agreement memorializing his County Attorney role at $195,000 per year, with retention bonuses scaling from $9,000 in 2026 to $13,000 in 2030, and separation pay protection of up to 360 days if terminated within six months of new commissioners being seated. The agreement was signed by Chairman Edds.

• Sarah Pack, Clerk to the Board — recorded every meeting. The minutes are her work product. They are official.

• Shane Stewart, Assistant Planning and Development Director — designed the procedural choice in 2024 to process the data center addition as a rezoning rather than a text amendment, specifically so neighbors would receive direct mailed notice. In 2025, presented the Z 09-25 staff report establishing on the record that Red Rock Development and RRIFI LF Land, LLC are the same entity.

VI. THE STANDARD

A public official who lies to citizens about an action his Board has taken — an action documented in the Board's own approved minutes, posted on the County's own website, signed by his own hand within fifty days — has not made a mistake. He has made a choice.

The choice was to look at citizens whose families have lived along Long Ferry Road for generations and tell them that the project they had read about in the Salisbury Post, that they had received mailed notice about, that had been the subject of four public hearings in 2024 alone, did not exist.

The choice was to gesture at his own lips while saying it.

The choice was to do this with the County Manager standing next to him admitting the rezoning had occurred while the Chairman denied that any data center conversation was happening.

There is a phrase in older legal usage for what Chairman Edds did on March 16, 2026. It is suppressio veri, suggestio falsi — the suppression of truth, the suggestion of falsehood. It is the deliberate use of language that is technically defensible only because each of its sentences can be parsed in isolation. "We are not speaking to any data centers" can be defended in a deposition by a clever lawyer if the Chairman can claim that on that specific Monday morning he had not personally placed a phone call to a named data center company. The defense survives in a deposition. It does not survive in front of the citizens of Rowan County.

The citizens were not asking whether Edds had personally dialed a data center that morning. They were asking whether the project they were watching break ground on Long Ferry Road existed. The Chairman knew what they were asking. He answered the question they were asking. His answer was a lie.

VII. THE QUESTION FOR THE ROSTER

Every named commissioner above has options.

Greene, Caskey, Klusman, Pierce — your votes are on the record. Your names are above. Each of you can issue a public statement clarifying your understanding of the September 29, 2025 vote and what you believed you were approving. Each of you can confirm whether you understood, at the time of your vote, that the project being expanded was a data center under the "Data Center" permitted use that had been added by Z 09-24 thirteen months earlier. Each of you can speak to whether the Chairman's March 16, 2026 statement reflected your understanding of the Board's actions. Each of you can speak to whether the Chairman's signature on the May 4, 2026 ordinance — acknowledging the seven exempt parcels as vested under § 160D-107(c) — was consistent with the denial he had issued forty-nine days earlier.

You do not need to attack the Chairman. You need only to clarify, on the public record, what you understood your votes to mean and what you understood the Chairman's words to mean.

Silence is also a position. Silence will be read as consent to the Chairman's account. Silence will leave each of your names linked, in the public record, to the contradiction this document has established. The contradiction will not improve with age.

The citizens who came to the March 16, 2026 meeting are still your constituents. The citizens of Long Ferry Road whose families have lived there for generations did not move. The Salisbury Post archive will be searchable in 2027, in 2030, in 2040. So will Rowan County's own minutes. So will the County's Long Ferry Development page.

You have time. Not much.

VIII. CITATIONS

Primary Sources — Rowan County Approved Minutes

• June 20, 2022 Regular Meeting Minutes — Z 04-22 approval. Available via rowancountync.gov agendas archive.

• June 22, 2024 Salisbury Post — "Planning board recommends change to potential usages in Red Rock development." salisburypost.com/2024/06/22/planning-board-recommends-change-to-potential-usages-in-red-rock-development/

• August 19, 2024 Regular Meeting Minutes — Z 09-24 approval. Available via Rowan County CivicClerk portal.

• September 29, 2025 Special Called Meeting Minutes — Z 09-25 approval (4-0 with Edds, Greene, Caskey, Klusman; Pierce absent).

• October 6, 2025 Regular Meeting Minutes — Z 09-25 ratification, Consent Agenda Item DD (4-0 with Greene, Caskey, Pierce, Klusman; Edds absent).

• March 16, 2026 Regular Meeting Minutes — Edds' verbatim statements, including admission that "data centers were added as a permitted use for the site" and that the County had proposed but never paid $4.2 million for road improvements.

Primary Sources — Rowan County Published Records

• Long Ferry Development page — rowancountync.gov/2073/Long-Ferry-Development. The County's own published timeline, with links to all notice signs, mailed notices, Salisbury Post legal notices, and Board agendas and minutes for Z 04-22, Z 09-24, and Z 09-25.

• Rowan County Press Release dated March 26, 2026 — "Property on Long Ferry Road has recently been purchased by a developer who is evaluating the site for a potential data center campus." Available as PDF on the Long Ferry Development page.

• Temporary Data Center Moratorium Ordinance, signed by Chairman Edds May 4, 2026, with seven exempt parcels (603-112, 603-113, 603-114, 603-116, 603-118, 603-045, 603-061) acknowledged as vested under N.C.G.S. § 160D-107(c).

Secondary Sources — News Reporting

• Janet Briggs, Salisbury Post, March 19, 2026 — "Rowan County Chair Edds engages with citizens against data center project." salisburypost.com/2026/03/19/rowan-county-chair-edds-engages-with-citizens-against-data-center-project/

• Salisbury Post, March 17, 2026 — "Online petition draws ire over Long Ferry Road industrial site." salisburypost.com/2026/03/17/online-petition-draws-ire-over-long-ferry-road-industrial-site/

• Salisbury Post, March 27, 2026 — "No further approval required: Rowan County releases statement on Long Ferry Road development." salisburypost.com/2026/03/27/no-further-approval-required-rowan-county-releases-statement-on-long-ferry-road-development/

• Salisbury Post, April 21, 2026 — "RoCo passes data center moratorium, over 100 residents express data center opposition." salisburypost.com/2026/04/21/roco-passes-data-center-moratorium-over-100-residents-express-data-center-opposition/

• Salisbury Post, May 17, 2022 — "Commissioners approve rezoning for mini-storage facility, reschedule rezoning for industrial park."

• WCNC, April 2026 — "Data center debate in Rowan County hits a boiling point." wcnc.com

• WSOC TV / Yahoo News, April 2026 — "Neighbors protest a potential data center development in Rowan County."

Statutory References

• N.C.G.S. § 143-318.10(e) — public meeting minutes.

• N.C.G.S. § 143-318.11(a)(5)(i) — closed session for real property negotiation.

• N.C.G.S. § 160D-107(c) — vested rights for development approvals.

Rowan County's Chairman lied to citizens of his county on March 16, 2026.

The record proves the lie.

The record was always there. It is now compiled.

Compiled and published by R. Bryant Starnes, Outlaw Livin' LLC. The Outlaw Armory exists to apply forensic discipline to questions of institutional accountability. Every claim above is sourced. Every citation is verifiable. Corrections, clarifications, and counter-documentation are welcome and will be evaluated against the same standard. Above reproach is the baseline. The document swings, not the man.

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