As with so many other recent proposals, the proposal for a large waste digester in Whitewater was announced quickly, without public input, and trumpeted unthinkingly. In this way, the scheme was the quintessential proposal of the outgoing Brunner administration.
There’s much more ahead about all this, but before that, a summary of where we are. I’ve also a category dedicated to the proposal.
1. Council approved a preliminary agreement with Green Energy Holdings in June.
This supposedly ‘monumental’ deal received no public consideration. See, The CDA and GEH.
2. Shortly thereafter, Whitewater’s Community Development Authority reviewed and made changes to the proposal.
That meeting was held on 6.27.12, and was a near-parody of how to review a proposal (with questions begging conflicts of interest). See, The CDA Session from 6.27.12 and Questions for the CDA about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings (with eleven questions for the CDA).
There’s been no subsequent, public Council session about the proposal following those proposed changes.
3. On cue, the local press touted the preliminary deal as an accomplished fact, considering nothing, but unthinkingly accepting everything.
See, in response, my posts Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings (with another eleven questions) and Part 2: Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings (with another nine questions).
One of these stories didn’t even identify Green Energy Holdings correctly, oddly and falsely contending it was a Florida coal company.
4. Whitewater’s municipal administration has had ample time to show former city manager Brunner’s work – whatever it might have been – as analysis of and justification for the project.
After all, claims of the monumental should, reasonably, be founded on diligent (dare one say monumental?) preparation.
So, I thought I’d ask. See, An Open Letter to the Interim City Manager on a Proposal between Whitewater and Green Energy Holdings.
Of analyses and justifications for the GEH proposal? One still finds nothing.
That, however, is yet an answer – a telling one – all its own.
5. I showed how this deal was kept from public view.
See, How to Keep a Public Deal from Common-Sense Evaluation.
6. I showed Whitewater what officials and the local press won’t about the public reaction near Maribel to a proposal like this – from the same parent company involved in the Whitewater deal.
See, What Whitewater’s Officials Don’t Know (or Don’t Want You to Know) about that “Green Energy” Deal.
There’s much yet ahead to consider (including the vast contradictions between this proposal and prior municipal plans), but this is a summary of where the summer has left us.