Calvert Commissioner Buddy Hance Admits Mistake After Denying He Attended Data Center Summit

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. — Calvert County Commissioner Earl “Buddy” Hance said he’s “only human” when responding to comments he made at the July 7 Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting.

What began as a critique on social media usage and behavior during meetings devolved into an argument with fellow commissioners Mike Hart and Catherine Grasso over Hance’s presence on a panel at the Maryland Tech Council’s 2025 Data Center Summit.

Hance was critical of social media posts he called “disgusting and disrespectful” that were posted by people who “won’t even use their real names.” He says that people have launched personal attacks at the commissioners’ family members.

“It’s just been a scar on Calvert County, in my opinion,” Hance said, while being heckled by the crowd during the commissioner comments portion of the meeting.

Hance has been accused by members of the public over the last year of being involved in data center deals behind the scenes, rhetoric he believes has harmed public trust in the county government. He maintains that he doesn’t know more than other commissioners and was not involved in the process with either Natelli Holdings or AWS. Commissioner Grasso brought up the Summit at the July 7 meeting as an example of Hance knowing more about data centers than other Commissioners.

During the BOCC meeting, Hance denied being on the panel or at the summit. Later, he posted on Facebook that he was frazzled and misspoke during the meeting as he was trying to defend county staff. He confirmed through an interview with The BayNet that he was a speaker at the summit and simply forgot about the event during the BOCC discussion when his attendance was called out.

He also confirmed with The BayNet that he attended the 2025 summit to talk about the potential tax revenue and job benefits of data centers for local communities — and acknowledged that they have pros and cons.

“I just talked about what I knew at the time,” he said. “That they have the ability to bring jobs and revenue.”

Now, he says he plans to apologize at the next BOCC meeting for accusing fellow commissioners and the public of lying about his presence at the 2025 summit.

“If you watch on Facebook and believe everything on Facebook, this is what happens,” Hance said during the July 7 meeting, denying that he spoke at “any summit” and that he was not present at the event. “It’s fake AI I guess.”

Hance told The BayNet that he’s already apologized to commissioners Catherine Grasso and Mike Hart in person.

And though he believes he made a mistake, he’s less confident about the board’s ability to repair public trust before he leaves office in January. When asked about transparency around the data center projects, Hance admitted that he believed the companies involved would have handled outreach better, but the government was fulfilling its role and following the processes.

“We were following the process. If people feel disrespected, they’re justified in feeling that if they believe it.” The voters have spoken, and we’re going to continue to run the government like normal,” Hance said. “People have already come to their conclusions with this board.”

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