Great Lakes Neighbors United turned up the heat on City Hall this week, filing a verified complaint on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, that asks the Ozaukee County district attorney to investigate whether Port Washington officials hashed out key terms of the Vantage Data Centers developer's agreement out of public view. The filing alleges a series of council sessions last summer pushed substantive bargaining behind closed doors and urges a court to review — and potentially toss — the agreement. It is the latest front in the escalating legal and political fight over the Lighthouse data center campus.
What the neighbors say happened
According to the verified complaint posted to Scribd by TMJ4, the Common Council met in closed session on July 1 and Aug. 6, 2025, before executing and approving the developer's agreement on Aug. 19, 2025. The group alleges those closed-door meetings went well beyond brief strategy talks and instead involved extended deliberation and negotiation over key terms, including a provision that would require the city to alert Vantage before releasing certain information. The complaint asks a court to review the process and consider invalidating the agreement.
City pushes back, DA brings in sheriff
The City of Port Washington is not taking the accusation quietly. In a statement to TMJ4 News, officials called the complaint "blatantly inaccurate" and maintained they followed open-meeting rules throughout the data center approval process.
Ozaukee County District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay confirmed he has the complaint in hand and told WISN 12 News he has referred the matter to the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Office for investigation. He said he will decide whether to pursue enforcement after that review wraps up. For now, city leaders insist their actions stayed within the bounds of the law.
The massive data center deal behind the fight
The open-meetings clash is layered on top of a much bigger battle over Vantage's planned "Lighthouse" campus, a project covering roughly 1,900 acres west of I-43, with an initial development footprint of about 672 acres and hundreds of millions of dollars in proposed infrastructure reimbursement through a tax-incremental financing district, according to the Ozaukee Press. Great Lakes Neighbors and other critics have already gone after the city's creation of that TIF district and the scale of public subsidies tied to the site.
Opponents argue the pace and relative secrecy of approvals left residents with little real opportunity to weigh in on long-term impacts, from costs to the city to how the landscape around the project will change. Supporters, for their part, have framed the campus as a generational investment in local infrastructure.
What a judge could do
Open-meetings law has real teeth, at least on paper. Courts have the power to void actions taken in illegal closed sessions, although judges do not always go that far. "The judge can void what occurred at the illegal meeting," Christa Westerberg, a partner at Pines Bach LLP, told TMJ4.
Procedurally, the group's complaint first had to be submitted to the district attorney. Under state law, plaintiffs now face a 20-day waiting period before they can file a related lawsuit, giving prosecutors time to decide whether enforcement is warranted, a step local reporters say officials laid out for residents.
How the community is reacting
The filing comes after months of town halls, protests and an unsuccessful recall effort aimed at Mayor Ted Neitzke. Organizers say they are still zeroed in on transparency as construction moves forward near Highland Drive.
City leaders counter that the Lighthouse campus will deliver jobs and major infrastructure upgrades, while opponents argue those promised benefits do not outweigh public costs and the loss of meaningful local input. For now, all eyes are on the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Office review, which could set the stage for whether this fight shifts from the political arena into a full-blown court battle.
