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, the brief and mere mention of a proposal with Green Energy Holdings before a closed session:
Community Development Authority 06/06/2012 from Whitewater Community TV on Vimeo.
2. Keep Common Council’s discussion of the deal in closed session, and return to open session only to approve a preliminary agreement.
That would be the 6.19.12 council session, where Whitewater’s Common Council went into closed session to debate a supposedly ‘monumental’ deal, to return to open session merely to vote on the proposal.
The amount of out-of-the public-eye consideration of this proposal — and two other proposals at the same time! — was under forty-five minutes (8:01 PM to 8:45 PM). See, at 59:52 in the video, the brief and mere mention of a proposal with Green Energy Holdings before a closed session:
Common Council Meeting 06/19/2012 from Whitewater Community TV on Vimeo.
Less time went into council’s consideration of this deal than it takes to watch a single episode of an ordinary television show.
The return to open session was as brief as possible, merely to vote on the deal: no proper public hearing, community input, or public presentation (8:45 PM to 8:55 PM). That’s how to make sure secretive, ill-considered projects have the best chance of being adopted.
3. Make sure sycophantic reporters push the deal uncritically, as quickly as possible.
One readily finds examples of that reflexive approach in this case. See, Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings and Part 2: Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings.
I’ve a question for today:
Why is it that when a deal of this kind (from the same parent and sister companies as this deal) is subject to public scrutiny, hundreds of homeowners, residents, conservationists, environmentalists, academics, and attorneys present detailed, comprehensive, environmental and fiscal concerns about the proposal?