SALT LAKE CITY — The head of Utah's Military Installation Development Authority was grilled by lawmakers on Wednesday about its work on celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary's controversial data center and other projects that have invited scrutiny.
Testifying before the Utah State Legislature's Economic Development & Workforce Services Interim Committee, recently appointed MIDA Executive Director Dan Hemmert insisted the agency is not pressuring local leaders to approve a project.
"I can’t speak to how the county commissioners felt relative to pressure one way or another," he told lawmakers about the Stratos Project. "But I can say this: I’m sure all of you up here have felt pressure to vote a certain way, be it from colleagues, from otherwise. But at the end of the day, you’re all elected leaders, and you have to own that vote. The county commissioners could have voted no, and the project today would not exist."
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MIDA has become a flashpoint of controversy over its role in pushing the data center project, which has sparked a lot of public protests. MIDA was originally created in 2007 in an effort to promote infrastructure projects with a military connection in order to keep Hill Air Force Base from closure. It works on projects with military ties, including the Falcon Hill development in northern Utah.
"If they were closed, it would have devastating effects on the state of Utah," Committee Co-Chair Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, said Wednesday in remarks defending MIDA.
But some, including Governor Spencer Cox, have questioned the "mission creep" of MIDA over the years. MIDA's role in pushing a hotel project in Wasatch County that's now linked to a ski resort and O'Leary's data center proposal has been heavily scrutinized.
"Now, some of the more public and visible projects are around a ski resort, data centers, and the concern is that we’ve moved away from the mission," said Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman.
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The Mayflower project provides hotel rooms to military personnel for recreation purposes and replaced rooms that were removed from Snowbasin ski resort during the 2002 Winter Olympics, Sen. Millner pointed out to her colleagues.
Rep. David Shallenberger, R-Orem, pressed Hemmert about those projects in a line of direct questioning.
"The general public is trying to understand how is there even a tie with the military in those and putting Kevin O'Leary out front as the spokesman maybe isn’t the best image for 'This is a military project,'" he said.
In an interview with FOX 13 News on Wednesday after the legislative hearing, Hemmert insisted the Stratos Project has a military connection.
"There is a military connection with Stratos. Can’t talk about it. Yet," he said. "But hopefully in our December — MIDA’s public December board meeting — I’ll be able to say some stuff."
In the audience for Wednesday's hearing were advocacy groups across the political spectrum. In a strange instance of politics making strange bedfellows on Utah's Capitol Hill, they have all begun targeting MIDA.
"If they’re not going to keep it within its bounds and stick with the military? We should get rid of it," said Gayle Ruzicka, the head of the Utah Eagle Forum. "It’s wrong."
It is highly likely that the Utah State Legislature will seek to rein in MIDA in the 2027 legislative session.
"Rein it in or refocus. That’s probably a nicer way to say it," Hemmert told FOX 13 News. "Regardless, I do anticipate there’s going to be numerous bills."
One lawmaker confirmed to FOX 13 News he has already opened a bill to overhaul MIDA.
"My concerns all stem from how my constituents felt about the rollout of the Box Elder data center," said Rep. Jason Thompson, R-River Heights. "They felt government wasn’t accountable, wasn’t transparent."
Rep. Thompson said his proposed legislation would limit MIDA's mission, but he anticipated numerous bills from his colleagues on the topic.
"I'm proposing that MIDA be used to support our troops, security of our military bases," he said Wednesday. "I think we need to have potentially some exclusionary elements to recreational use. Definitely want to exclude data centers."