Earlier this week, I posted about a closed-session agenda item of the Tech Park Board about ‘negotiations’ with Green Energy Holdings concerning a waste digester in the city. Of the scope of those negotiations I had no idea. As readers surely know, I think there are sound objections of municipal finance, community development, economic policy,…
Green Energy Holdings
City, Corporate Welfare, Green Energy Holdings, Waste Digesters
The Tech Park Board and a Waste Digester
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Bad leaders and ideas often go in only one direction: from bad to worse. One sees the truth of that in the agenda for today’s Tech Park Board meeting: 13. ADJOURNMENT to Closed Session, TO RECONVENE APPROXIMATELY 45 MINUTES AFTER ADJOURNMENT TO CLOSED SESSION, per Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1)(e) “Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public…
Green Energy Holdings, Open Government, Waste Digesters, Wisconsin
Waste Digesters and the Ledge Guardians
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Nearly one-hundred fifty miles from Whitewater, in Maribel, Wisconsin and surrounding communities, hundreds of residents are organized and committed against a large, commercial waste digester in their area. They’ve an impressive website on behalf of their dedicated efforts: Ledge Guardians, www.ledgeguardians.com. There are sound arguments against waste digesters, against how they really work, what they bring into a community, what they spew out into a community, against their…
CDA, City, Green Energy Holdings, Waste Digesters
The Whitewater Community Development Authority Meeting for 9.27.12
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority met yesterday afternoon, the agenda including both open and closed session discussions (with a return to open session). The principal topics of the meeting appear below. I’ll address one of particular concern first, and the rest in the order in which they were discussed in public session. The Waste Digester Proposal.…
CDA, City, Development, Green Energy Holdings
A Waste Digester Proposal Summary, June to August
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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.…
City, Green Energy Holdings, Planning
The Misdirected Focus
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Watching Whitewater’s recent Planning Commission, one saw an attention to detail about a factory building’s wall color, general style, and lighting that lasted for 13:28 minutes, from approximately 11:30 to 24:58 during the session. It’s not the particular focus on an applicant’s building, but what it says about ordinary due diligence in reviewing bigger projects,…
City, Green Energy Holdings, Open Government
How to Keep a Public Deal from Common-Sense Evaluation
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
It’s not that hard, really. One just needs a shameless disregard for open government and an equal disregard for diligent environmental and fiscal evaluation. 1. Keep discussion of the deal within a closed session of the Community Development Authority. That would be item 12 from the 6.6.12 CDA meeting. See, at 1:14:56 in the video,…
CDA, City, Green Energy Holdings, Open Government, Press
What Whitewater’s Officials Don’t Know (or Don’t Want You to Know) about that “Green Energy” Deal
by JOHN ADAMS • • 5 Comments
I’m not sure what would be worse – (1) an airy proposal for an energy deal for the City of Whitewater in which city officials don’t even know simple implications of the proposal, or (2) a deal in which city officials actually know how this proposal has been received elsewhere, but don’t want the residents…
City, Green Energy Holdings, Open Government, Press
Part 2: Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This post follows a recent story (from 7.17.12) about a waste digester proposed for Whitewater, Wisconsin (see, Waste-to-energy project coming to Whitewater“). For an earlier post along these lines, see Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings. 1. Does anyone think, as the 7.17.12 story states, that the City of Whitewater…
City, Development, Green Energy Holdings, Local Government, Open Government
An Open Letter to the Interim City Manager on a Proposal between Whitewater and Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good afternoon. Here’s a post to follow previous ones on this website, and a story today in the Janesville Gazette, about a proposal between the City of Whitewater and Green Energy Holdings for a waste digester. The project has been touted as a large one, but large claims for municipal projects require substantial justification. In…
City, Development, Government Spending, Green Energy Holdings, Local Government, Open Government, Press
Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
This week, I’ve posted a series of general questions about a proposed deal with Green Energy Holdings for a waste digester. See, Preliminary & General Questions about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings and Questions for the CDA about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings. (For a comprehensive list of all posts about this proposal,…
CDA, City, Development, Green Energy Holdings, Law, Local Government
Questions for the CDA about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Yesterday, I posted a series of general questions about a proposed deal with Green Energy Holdings for a waste digester. See, Preliminary & General Questions about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings. (For all posts about this deal, I’ve a designated category.) Today, here are questions specific to the Whitewater Community Development Authority’s role in…
Business, CDA, City, Development, Green Energy Holdings
Preliminary & General Questions about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
There’s a development proposal now pending between the City of Whitewater and Green Energy Holdings for a waste digester. The community’s heard only a bit about the proposal, from one newspaper story, and an item in then-city manager Brunner’s Weekly Report (publicized verbatim thereafter). The proposal’s been described in big terms, but there’s been little…
CDA, City, Development, Green Energy Holdings
The CDA Session from 6.27.12
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Part of the Community Development Authority’s discussion for its June 27th meeting included consideration of a proposal for a digester, in a possible agreement with Green Energy Holdings, Inc. I’ve no remarks to make here about that company, or its work elsewhere, but about the conduct of Whitewater’s Community Development Authority there is reason for…