Thursday brought some testy and lengthy exchanges among city commissioners over the biomass contract and a dispute over a roughly six-year old Commission meeting.
It began when Commissioner Yvonne Hinson-Rawls said she was frustrated that members of the public continually criticize her and other commissioners not in office when the biomass contract was approved over the terms and rate impact of the contract. Hinson-Rawls said it was Mayor Ed Braddy, a critic of the contract, who was in office at the time and he does not receive that criticism.
At Hinson-Rawls’ request, staff then showed a video of a May 2008 video when Braddy made a motion to enter negotiations with Nacogdoches Power, a precursor of the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center with the same original partners, on a 20-year contract. The motion that passed also included a friendly amendment from then Commissioner Jack Donovan to include a back out clause.
That May 2008 meeting was Braddy’s last before he hit term limits.
The contract was approved in May 2009. The contract was for 30 years, did not include the back out clause, had higher costs to purchase power than the 2008 proposal and was with GREC, not Nacogdoches.
An hour of heated dispute followed after Hinson-Rawls raised the issue. Braddy accused Hinson-Rawls of “gotcha” politics. Commissioner Todd Chase accused Hinson-Rawls of a “blatant attack” on Braddy.
Commissioner Thomas Hawkins then asked Braddy and Chase to “practice what they preach.” He said Braddy played a video that he felt took comments he made to the Plan board about Butler Plaza out of context. He also noted that some commissioners made “gleeful” comments about him hitting term limits.
Hinson-Rawls, meanwhile, said she was seeking to end the public comment criticizing some commissioners over the biomass contract at each meeting.
“We are being barraged meeting after meeting since I’ve been on this Commission about biomass,” she said.
Hinson-Rawls said “they come every meeting talking about the same thing” and it was taking away from real problems.
Commissioner Lauren Poe interjected that there was no one at the dais without “sin” and they needed to move forward working together in a professional manner.
Eventually, Hinson-Rawls apologized to Braddy for saying he was in office and voted to approve the biomass contract. He had previously said he expected an apology when Hinson-Rawls was shown to be wrong.