Run Clay's own building-permit formula against the biggest construction project in the town's history, and the number depends entirely on which page of the record you read. Deputy Supervisor Bick told the Town Board on July 7 that Fab 1, the first of Micron's planned chip factories, costs $89 billion, with a resulting permit fee of $69 million. The presentation attached to the same night's minutes on a proposed Community Host Agreement put Fab 1's construction cost at $8.9 billion, with a $62 million fee under the current code — a tenfold gap in the underlying number, and fee estimates that don't move proportionally with it. That inconsistency sits inside the same meeting where the town, working from a fee formula written for room additions, tried to build a price list for the largest private project it has ever seen. The problem started with arithmetic. Town law sets building-permit fees at $100 for a project's first $1,000 of value, plus $7 for every thousand after that. Bick said the code reads that way for ordinary construction, and state law compounds the mismatch: permit fees may only be used to cover the town's actual cost of providing inspection services, nothing more. Under the existing law, the tens of millions in fees a project like Fab 1 would generate could be spent only on inspections. That is the setup the Community Host Agreement was built to solve. Under the current code, the presentation said, Micron would have to pay the full permit fee before construction could begin — and could then go to court to recover it. A judge weighing only the town's actual cost of providing service, the slides said, citing case law, could leave the town with far less than the formula implies. The town would also bear its own legal costs fighting that suit, on top of the friction such a fight would create with Micron and residents alike. Without some negotiated alternative, officials said, no permits would issue unless a developer paid the fee in full — for a company with its own state and federal deadlines to meet to keep its incentives. The number the town started at was much larger than where it ended. Applying the standard fee formula to the roughly $51 billion value of all four fabs Micron has proposed for the site produced a theoretical fee near $273 million, according to the presentation; the town's own opening ask, covering that entire four-fab project over 15 years, was $150 million. What the board actually passed on July 7 — Local Law No. 7, the "Large-Scale Development Permit and Community Host Agreement Authorization Law," adopted 6-0 — covers only Fab 1, and only for three years. The agreement negotiated alongside it totals $30 million: $20 million paid over three annual installments, plus $10 million the state's Green Chips Act requires be spent exclusively in the Town of Clay, according to officials who answered resident Paul Doody's question about the breakdown. Not everyone in the room cited the same figures. Resident Shelly Hotaling told the board Micron had offered $15 million for fees and inspections and $6 million for the town — well short of the $30 million total officials described — and argued the whole arrangement should go to a public referendum. Bick said it would not go to a vote of residents, though public input would remain part of the process. Councilor Russell noted separately that the money involved exceeds the town's entire budget. Bick called the arrangement "a pioneer agreement, nothing like this currently exists," and said the town had done its own diligence "to ensure everyone benefits." Resident Alan Mokay asked whether Micron had proposed the deal; Bick said it was negotiated between the company and the town. Councilor Young said the agreement would let residents weigh in on how the money gets spent, pointing to sewers, roads, parks and splash pads. Resident Aaron Schanbacher suggested low-cost housing, restrooms at the Meltzer Park playground, and sewer extensions for residents who don't have them; Evan Nobis pressed on how the $30 million figure was set, what happens if little is left over, and asked about sound barriers and DEC-related water mitigation; Paul Doody raised the idea of a citizens' advisory board. None of that is committed in what the board passed. Once the town's administrative costs are covered, the presentation said, the rest of the money is spent at the town's discretion. A resident named in the minutes only as Chuck from Fairways raised a narrower, more immediate complaint — construction trucks using Morgan Road, which Bick said they are not supposed to do, adding that a rail spur under construction should eventually ease truck traffic generally. Local Law No. 7 has a clear ending: adopted 6-0, it now defines large-scale development as any project costing $100,000,000 or more and lets the town negotiate agreements like Micron's for future projects on that scale. The Host Agreement itself does not. Bick moved its adoption; Councilor Capria seconded it. The minutes as released move directly from that motion to adjournment, recording a 6-0 vote to end the meeting at 6:17 p.m. — with no vote on the Host Agreement in between. By every account outside the minutes, the board approved it: broadcast outlets reported a 6-0 vote that night, and the town posted the deal on its own website as a windfall for Clay. The one place the vote does not appear is the official record of the meeting where it happened — the minutes as released jump from the motion to adjournment.