Campbell County Commission chairman alleges colleagues are engaged in 'secret meetings' about nuclear energy
GILLETTE — Nuclear energy has been the topic of vigorous discussion in Gillette, with some dialogue but few hard facts provided over the past two months.
Elected officials have questioned the transparency of other elected officials as the issue remains as hot as ever despite little evidence brought forth to provide fuel for the fire.
Two commissioners and a state senator took the opportunity at the public comment period of the Gillette City Council meeting to air out some concerns and make some bombshell accusations.
Commission Chair Kelley McCreery claimed that two of his fellow commissioners, Jim Ford and Scott Clem, have been participating in “secret meetings” with members of the city government and administration and have provided little information to the rest of the commission as to what was discussed in those meetings.
McCreery, Commissioner Bob Jordan, and Sen. Troy McKeown, R-Gillette, all spoke on what they believed was a lack of transparency, and McCreery went as far as to accuse Ford and Clem of not being forthcoming at all. Clem later said he didn’t know McCreery felt this way.
McCreery claimed this behavior has damaged the relationship between the county and the city.
“I thought at that time that the city and the county were getting along better than they ever had ever since I’ve been a commissioner, and now I have changed my mind with the things going on,” McCreery said. “I think they’ve eroded trust and integrity to the point to where now I’m angry enough to come here to your meeting and tell you what I think.”
Neither Ford nor Clem attended Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Ford declined to speak to the Gillette News Record on the record, saying that he preferred to work out the issue with the board members directly.
Clem expressed some puzzlement over the allegations.
“Kelley has not talked to me; he had not let me know there was a problem,” he said.
Asked about his participation in meetings involving nuclear energy over the past few months, Clem said he had attended a single meeting in August about efforts to bring in experts for a public forum to address questions and concerns from the community. Clem also said he and Ford had informed the other commissioners of the meeting.
At the city council meeting, McCreery said that over the past few months, Ford and Clem, as well as Gillette Mayor Shay Lundvall — who was absent from Tuesday’s meeting due to attending a meeting of the Wyoming Workforce Development Commission in Jackson — and City Administrator Mike Cole had met with representatives of the nuclear company BWXT, the U.S. Department of Energy and possibly representatives of the governor’s office.
McCreery said that neither he nor the Commission’s Executive Director, Sandra Beeman, were invited to these meetings, and little to no information was provided to him concerning their content.
“We’re never told what goes on in these meetings; when they do tell us, it’s very little, and half the time they say, ‘Oh, but this is confidential, you can’t tell anybody,’” McCreery said. “These things have been going on to the point where now I refuse to be quiet.”
Asked for comment, Cole clarified that the city has had meetings with a few different groups, such as the Nuclear Energy Institute, to help set up the public information meetings and referenced by Lundvall in his public statement following the last city council meeting, as well as smaller-scale informational meetings concerning the ins and outs of the nuclear industry, including an August meeting concerning nuclear waste attended by both Ford and fellow Commissioner Jerry Means.
Cole said there had also been some meetings with BWXT which focused on the company providing information to those in attendance regarding grant funding it was currently pursuing.
He could not recall any meetings over that time with the Department of Energy.
“We’re meeting with various industry groups, trying to possibly arrange some public education seminars over the next few weeks, a few months,” Cole said. “Those are initial conversations to work through details that, from a staff standpoint, is what we do as part of our job. From an action standpoint, there’s nothing pending or foreseeable on the council agenda.”
McCreery’s comments at the city council meeting did not come up at the commission meeting the following day, save for a reference by resident Pat Collins, who thanked him for “standing up for us, letting us all know what is going on.”
“You are transparent and you are true men of integrity,” Collins said, specifically pointing out McCreery, Jordan and Means, along with Sen. Troy McKeown, R-Gillette.
At the commission meeting, Clem said that although he has heard these accusations against him, “no one has come to me.” He gave out his cellphone number and encouraged people to “come and talk to me. Ask all the questions you want,” he said. “I will be forward and candid with you.”
Jordan, McKeown express concerns over transparency
McCreery’s comments on Tuesday were followed by statements from Jordan, who spoke on his own experiences in gathering information and participating in meetings, such as the visit to the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in July.
Jordan expressed his dissatisfaction with the amount of information that has been presented thus far, saying there have been efforts to push a pro-nuclear message that is light on the details.
“We did our research, did our background — not just on this, but the Department of Energy’s policies going back that far — and we have a clear understanding exactly what’s going on, how it’s going on, how our state’s been involved, how it’s been pushed forward this agenda, without the communication coming directly to our county commissioners,” Jordan said.
McKeown also spoke on the issue.
Returning to the podium two weeks after his accusations of non-transparency and claims that the city council had violated the Wyoming Public Records Act during the previous city council meeting, McKeown reiterated many of his concerns without the direct accusation, but stating he was less interested in the legality of the NDA than the motives behind it.
“Why was the NDA entered into?” he asked. “Why? There’s got to be a reason, and I really wanted to hear what that reason was, other than being transparent as an opaque garage and working out deals.”
Speaking on the issue in the days following the meeting, City Attorney Sean Brown said that the NDA, as well as the cooperation agreement signed in February 2024, both make clear that they apply only in the limits allowed by the Wyoming Public Records Act, but that the concern for the potential for abuse of these exemptions is always a concern and should be discussed.
With this in mind, Brown pointed to a number of public records requests the city has worked to fulfill.
“Back in July, we had a pretty substantial public records request for nuclear related things, particularly the email communications involving the mayor and Administrator Cole,” said Brown. “In mid-August, we produced well over 1,000 PDF pages in response to that request. A lot of documents that folks seem to be concerned about — communications, emails and who we are dealing with — were disclosed and capable of being disclosed pursuant to a request.”
Asked for any further comments on the public’s concern, Brown said that much of the issue can be solved through a constructive dialogue, asking those with concerns to get in touch with the city government and administration to have their questions answered.
“This is an issue that a lot of people are concerned about,” he said. “A lot of this is information that can be learned just through opening up a genuine line of discussion. I know we are available. If members of the public have concerns like this, feel free to reach out. Give me a call. Give Mike a call. I’ll be happy to discuss the matter with them. Talk with your council members, or reach out to your individual council members. Their contact information is online.”
This story was published on Sept. 5, 2025.