The CDA Session from 6.27.12

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 concern. The handling of the 6.27.12 session was embarrassingly sub-standard, and reveals confusion about basic principles of the proper exercise of political authority.

GEH seeks to build a digester to convert food waste into methane, to become compressed or liquid natural gas. Although some digesters use animal waste, theirs for Whitewater would use food waste.

That’s not unusual, but the conversation about it, from the members of the CDA board, certainly was. Consider, from my own transcription, at just less than 12 minutes into the session, these comments, from the CDA board chairman, and a CDA member, to the representatives of GEH:

CDA chairman (speaking to CDA member): “Well, they’ve got their eyes on you (CDA member), by the way, being from Chartwells [crosstalk], because one of the things they want to do is take all of your waste…”

CDA member (to whom chairman was speaking): “That’s my question [laughter]. Where do you get all your food waste?”

GEH representative: “Pardon?”

CDA member: “Where do you get all your food waste?”

One cannot say more bluntly that no one on the CDA board – even in jest – should be speaking this way, or asking this sort of question, about a commodity to which he or she is connected. It’s an obvious conflict under any circumstances, and even worse when an applicant’s proposal is under immediate consideration.

One might mitigate a potential conflict by declaring immediately that one sought no economic interest, and would accept none.

Embarrassingly, these questions from the CDA were prefaced with the opposite approach — the CDA chairman’s own assertion of how an applicant’s needs might benefit a CDA member’s economic interests.

About two minutes later, before going into closed session to discuss GEH’s development agreement, this is what the CDA chairman had to say about an assured outcome:

CDA chairman: “….this [development agreement] has already been approved by the city council, but we’re gonna to talk in closed session about some edits and changes that need to be approved as – when – we come out of closed session. Ok? So, we’ll be approving then a preliminary development agreement, that’ll have to go back to the city council for it to be amended. All right?”

Too bad all that certainty-in-advance couldn’t be channeled into something clever, like picking the next 10 World Series winners…

No way to run a railroad, a CDA, or any other responsible organization, anywhere in America.