It appears the City has found a way to temporarily get out of the solar grant, courtesy of Bloomberg. The following is reported in the August 11, 2019 edition of the Wilco Sun.
By CHARLOTTE KOVALCHUK
"At their last meeting in July, the City Council decided to take a future vote on withdrawing from a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies for a solar power project.
Bloomberg saved them the trouble. It ended its agreement with the city August 2.
“In response to local considerations communicated to us by the City that now is not the proper time to move forward with the project, we are terminating the related grant agreement,” James Anderson said in a letter to City Manager David Morgan. Mr. Anderson is head of government innovation at Bloomberg.
Bloomberg awarded the city the grant in October for a program designed to generate enough energy to supplement power purchased from outside sources by installing solar panels on leased rooftop space on residential and commercial properties.
The cancellation happened after city staff notified Bloomberg that the council would take a withdrawal vote, which would likely pass, Councilman Steve Fought said. Bloomberg expressed understanding of the city’s situation, he added, and offered to withdraw the grant on the condition that Georgetown would return the $100,000 that had already been transferred but not used yet.
Bloomberg left the door open for the city, saying in its letter that it is open to working with Georgetown in the future.
Mr. Fought said Bloomberg indicated it would place the grant on hold in case the city’s situation changes and it would like to reconsider the grant in the future.
“I like that option,” he said. “It doesn’t commit us to the grant, nor does it take the grant off the table for a time when the GUS-Electric financial position is returned to normal.”
Mr. Fought plans to make a motion Tuesday to accept Bloomberg’s offer and to postpone any further consideration of the grant indefinitely.
When the electric utility difficulties are behind the city, a future council can make a decision to take a fresh look at the Bloomberg grant, he added.
Mayor Dale Ross agreed that now may not be the right time for the grant. “The city and Bloomberg agree that the timing might not be right, but it could be right in the future,” he said.
Right now, he added, the city is going through its budget cycle, as well as “focusing on doing everything we can to get the electric fund back to where it needs to be.”
Councilman Kevin Pitts, who has opposed the grant, was happy to hear the news of the grant cancellation.
“I’m glad we’re out of it. I was hopeful that we would get ourselves out of it, but they got us out of it,” he said.
To him, the grant’s timing has been bad considering the city’s problems with its electric contracts.
Now, he said, the council can focus on its electric fund and other core functions.
“Spending time on this grant meant not spending time on other issues in the electric utility,” he said. “We should be building infrastructure, providing parks and public safety and general services, not doing experiments.”
Councilman Mike Triggs agreed that the grant termination was the right thing to do until the city fixes its electric utility.
“[The city] has enough problems without adding more expenses,” he said."
The City Council needs to drive a stake through the heart of this misguided attempt to influence Georgetown's energy policies. Notice in the highlighted area above that this monster can come back when the Council changes to a Democratic majority.
Kill it now!
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