克里斯蒂安·马德/《潮流》 三名弗米利恩教区居民和一个新成立的非营利组织起诉了教区官员，指控其在与SpaceX达成的里程碑式协议中存在违反公开会议法的行为。
CHRISTIAAN MADER/The Current Three Vermilion Parish residents and a new nonprofit have sued parish officials for alleged open meetings violations related to the landmark SpaceX deal.
这起于周一提起的公开会议诉讼利害关系重大。如果法院批准原告所寻求的救济，可能会使为促成这项1000亿美元投资而达成的税收激励协议归于无效。
The stakes of the open meetings suit, filed Monday, are high. It could void the tax incentive agreement reached to land the $100 billion bill, if the court grants the relief sought.
原告列举了八项涉嫌违规行为，发生在7月和8月的四次会议上，称这是一次协同行动，旨在向公众隐瞒该项目的关键决策。
The plaintiffs outline eight alleged violations, unfolding in four meetings in July and August, described as a concerted attempt to conceal key decisions on the project from public view.
其中五项违规指控针对弗米利恩教区警察陪审团，三项针对弗米利恩教区工业发展委员会——该机构是为促成税收协议而设立的。该税收协议被称为PILOT协议，即“代替税收付款”协议。
Five violations are alleged against the Vermilion Parish Police Jury and three against the Vermilion Parish Industrial Development Board, a body created to facilitate the tax agreement. The tax agreement is called a PILOT, for “payment in lieu of taxes,” agreement.
该协议免除Starbase Louisiana的地方财产税，但要求该公司每年向当地税务机关支付2500万美元。
The deal exempts Starbase Louisiana from local property taxes but requires the company to pay $25 million a year to the local taxing authorities.
诉讼中列出的决策序列涵盖三项关键行动：批准埃克森美孚和解协议，从而为该项目的沿海土地扫清障碍；恢复工业委员会；以及批准PILOT协议。
The sequence of decisions outlined in the lawsuit covers three crucial actions: approving the ExxonMobil settlement that unlocked the coastal land for the project, resurrecting the industrial board andg off on the PILOT agreement.
提起诉讼的是皮坎岛居民谢丽尔·乔特、阿布维尔居民罗伯特·扬和丽贝卡·扬，以及弗米利恩公民联盟公司——罗伯特·扬于10月21日注册成立的非营利组织。原告群体由新奥尔良律师威廉·莫斯特代理。
The suit was filed by Pecan Island resident Cheryl Choate, Abbeville residents Robert Young and Rebecca Young, and the Vermilion Citizens Coalition, Inc., a nonprofit Robert Young incorporated Oct. 21. The group of plaintiffs is represented by New Orleans attorney William Most.
弗米利恩教区警察陪审团主席查德·瓦洛将置评请求转给了警察陪审团的律师，后者未能在发稿前及时回应。
Vermilion Parish Policy Jury President Chad Vallo referred comments to the police jury’s attorney who did not respond in time for publication.
Starbase Louisiana正在一片12.5万英亩的沼泽地上建设，该土地曾属于埃克森美孚。弗米利恩教区是就20世纪钻探活动造成的沿海损害起诉石油和天然气公司的多个教区之一。
Starbase Louisiana is going up on 125,000 acres of marshland once owned by ExxonMobil. Vermilion Parish is among several parishes to sue oil and gas companies for coastal damage related to drilling activities in the 20th Century.
根据会议记录，警察陪审团于7月15日批准了佛米利恩堂区案件的和解协议。但这起公开会议诉讼指称，该事项并未列入会议议程，会议期间也没有通过动议将其增补，这意味着公众在当天警察陪审员做出决定前，根本没有任何事先通知。
The police jury approved a settlement in the Vermilion Parish case on July 15, according to meeting minutes. But the open meetings suit alleges the matter was not on the meeting’s agenda, nor was a motion carried during the proceedings to add it, meaning the public would have had no prior notice of the decision before police jurors that day.
诉讼指称：“议程上没有任何一项表明佛米利恩堂区警察陪审团将考虑与埃克森美孚公司达成和解。”
“No item on the agenda gave any indication that the VPPJ would be considering a settlement with the ExxonMobil company,” the suit alleges.
州长杰夫·兰德利一直是这些诉讼的直言批评者。他在7月15日表决后，在社交媒体平台X上发帖吹嘘这项埃克森协议。X由SpaceX首席执行官埃隆·马斯克拥有。埃克森协议的条款尚未披露。
Gov. Jeff Landry has been a vocal critic of the suits. He boasted about the Exxon agreement after the July 15 vote in a post on X, the social media platform owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The terms of the Exxon deal have not been disclosed.
诉讼指称，和解文件被州长办公室的一名工作人员从佛米利恩堂区带走，同样是为了不让公众知情。在拒绝《The Current》于10月16日提交的公共记录请求时，警察陪审团的一名律师声称，该机构没有数字副本，且州长办公室目前持有原始文件进行“处理”。诉讼指称：“为让公众蒙在鼓里的手段极端到这种地步：佛米利恩堂区警察陪审团与埃克森美孚签署和解协议后，州长办公室派遣一名工作人员带走每一份协议副本——致使佛米利恩公民甚至无法审阅其民选官员同意了什么。”
The settlement documents were whisked out of Vermilion Parish by a staffer of the governor’s office, the suit alleges, again to keep them out of public view. Denying an Oct. 16 public records request filed by The Current, an attorney for the police jury claimed the body had no digital copies and that the governor’s office currently held the original documents for “processing.”“The efforts to keep the public in the dark are so extreme that after the Vermilion Parish Police Jury signed a settlement agreement with ExxonMobil, the Governor’s office sent a staff member to take away every single copy of the agreement – so that Vermilion citizens cannot even review what their elected officials agreed to,” the suit alleges.
在一致表决通过和解后不久，警察陪审团又提议任命七人进入佛米利恩堂区工业发展委员会，该机构已停摆近30年。
Shortly after approving the settlement in a unanimous vote, the police jury took up a motion to appoint seven people to the Vermilion Parish Industrial Development Board, a body that had been defunct for nearly 30 years.
诉讼指称，在这种情况下，警察陪审团非法在会议中途修改议程，以逃避向公众通报该行动。原告称，在紧急情况下可在会议中途增补议程，但不得将其作为规避公众知情权要求的手段。
In this case, the suit alleges, the police jury illegally amended the agenda mid-meeting to avoid notifying the public of the action. Adding items mid-meeting is permissible in emergencies, plaintiffs say, but not as means to evade public notice requirements.
诉状称，一个月后，陪审团投票更换了工业董事会的一名成员，同样没有将该事项列入议程，也没有在会议期间追加。
A month later, the jury voted to swap out one member of the industrial board, again without including the item on the agenda or adding it during the meeting, the suit alleges.
诉状称，警察陪审团对这两次会议都没有进行网络直播，这构成另外两项涉嫌违反州公开会议法的行为。州法律规定，服务人口达到或超过2.5万人的治理机构必须对其会议进行“现场直播”。
The police jury did not livestream either meeting, the suit claims, amounting to two further alleged violations of state open meetings law. State law requires governing authorities serving communities of 25,000 people or more to “broadcast live” their proceedings.
据《阿布维尔信使报》报道，自路易斯安那州2024年修订公开会议法纳入该要求以来，弗米利恩教区警察陪审团从未对任何会议进行过网络直播。
No Vermilion Parish Police Jury meeting has been livestreamed since Louisiana’s open meetings law was revised to include that requirement in 2024, according to the Abbeville Meridional.
7月23日，工业发展董事会几十年来首次召开会议。8月25日，该董事会批准了PILOT协议，其中包括与SpaceX达成的回租安排，涉及使用从埃克森公司获得的这片土地。
On July 23, the industrial development board met for the first time in decades. On Aug. 25, the board approved the PILOT agreement, which includes a lease-back arrangement with SpaceX for use of the acreage obtained from Exxon.
诉状称，这两次会议均未按规定发出通知。所张贴的通知——一张贴在阿布维尔法院的纸——仅以SpaceX项目的州代号“鱼鹰项目”提及该事项。诉状将该董事会本身描述为一个谜团。
Neither meeting was properly noticed, the suit alleges. What notice was posted — a sheet of paper stuck to an Abbeville courthouse — referenced the matter only by the SpaceX project’s state code name, Project Osprey. The board itself is characterized as a mystery in the suit.
诉状称：“它没有网站。它没有公开列出的电子邮件地址。弗米利恩教区法令汇编中没有提及它。州法律中也没有提及它。它的起源同样笼罩在神秘之中。弗米利恩教区工业发展董事会成立于1972年，随后于1997年停止运作。”
“It has no website. It has no publicly listed email address. It is not referenced in the Vermilion Parish code of ordinances. It is not referenced in state law. And its origin is also shrouded in mystery. The VPIDB was created in 1972, and then went inactive in 1997,” according to the petition.
但它在被描述为该州历史上最大的经济发展协议中扮演着关键角色。
But it plays a critical role in what’s been described as the biggest economic development deal in state history.
根据合同，工业发展董事会拥有“路易斯安那星舰基地”所在地块，但SpaceX有权收回该土地。PILOT协议规定了SpaceX以何种方式代替纳税，并概述了达到若干就业基准的时间表，以及其他条款。PILOT协议已被公开披露。
By contract, the industrial development board owns the land set for Starbase Louisiana, but SpaceX has the right to recover it. The PILOT agreement spells out what SpaceX pays in place of taxes and outlines a schedule for reaching several jobs benchmarks, among other terms. The PILOT agreement has been publicly disclosed.
原告坚称，他们并非试图颠覆路易斯安那星舰基地本身。相反，他们将自己的诉讼描述为一份呼吁良好治理与透明度的请愿书。
The plaintiffs insist they are not attempting to upend Starbase Louisiana itself. Instead, they cast their suit as a petition for good government and transparency.
兰德里及其经济发展团队的领导层在SpaceX和位于里奇兰堂区的Meta Hyperion数据中心等重大交易中，广泛使用了保密协议。
Landry and his economic development leadership have made widespread use of non-disclosure agreements connected to big-ticket deals like SpaceX and the Meta Hyperion Data Center in Richland Parish.
这位州长为这种速度与保密做法进行了辩护，称没有保密就无法达成这些交易。
The governor has defended the speed and secrecy, arguing that the deals couldn’t happen without it.
“你觉得我会想让得克萨斯州抢我的风头吗？你觉得我会想让其他州知道我们正在做什么吗？说实话，在我成为州长之前，路易斯安那州一直就是这样的遭遇，”兰德里在SpaceX发布会后的记者非正式采访中对记者说。
“You think I want Texas to steal my thunder, you think I want other states to know what we’re working on? Quite frankly, that’s what has continued to happen to Louisiana before I became governor,” Landry told reporters in a press gaggle after the SpaceX announcement.
批评者则认为，这种保密做法反而压制了公众对具有变革性项目的意见。佩坎岛居民抱怨说，在SpaceX交易宣布之前，他们一直被蒙在鼓里，并认为对于一项很可能给这个沿海小社区带来翻天覆地变化的决定，他们理应拥有一定的发言权。
Critics say the secrecy has instead suppressed public input on transformative projects. Pecan Island residents have complained they were in the dark in the run-up to the SpaceX deal’s announcement, arguing that they ought to have some say in a decision that is likely to change everything for the small coastal community.
在9月与佩坎岛居民的一次会议上，SpaceX官员无法排除发射次数会阻断居民回家和前往狩猎营地的通道。该公司希望有朝一日每天发射30枚火箭，以推进其星链卫星网络建设并将数据中心送入轨道。
At a meeting with Pecan Island residents in September, SpaceX officials could not rule out that the number of launches would block access to homes and hunting camps. The company hopes to one day fire 30 rockets each day as it works to build out its Starlink satellite network and put data centers into orbit.
弗米利恩堂区官员基本上对该交易表示欢迎，并对有关保密的担忧不以为意。
Vermilion Parish officials have largely celebrated the deal and brushed aside concerns about secrecy.
“公众确实发挥了作用，”弗米利恩堂区区长查德·瓦洛在8月SpaceX发布会次日对《时代花絮报》说。“他们昨天才知道这件事。”
“The public did have a role,” Vermilion Parish President Chad Vallo told the Times-Picayune the day after the SpaceX announcement in August . “They found out about it yesterday.”