A message posted late Monday night on Jack Leidner’s Facebook page said, “I quit. Stronger message to follow.”
Leidner’s abrupt and startling move at council came after more than two hours of talks in which council and members of the packed audience contributed. Discussion concentrated mostly on a proposal Leidner and some others on council, as well as City Manager Bill Stankiewicz, believe will save the city’s electric service and rescue Hogansville from its long-held bond debt.
Leidner and Mayor Jimmy Jackson, however, repeatedly cut each other off, bickering and challenging each other during the hour-long presentation and later in discussions on other utilities that came up during the meeting.
“I’m extremely upset,” Leidner said after walking out. “Apparently there are two sets of standards here, one for the people who sit in front of the council table and one for those who sit behind it.”
After Leidner gave his initial presentation on the utility plan, Jackson made the unusual move of allowing members of the audience to ask questions. However, he didn’t allow Leidner to answer many of the questions the residents posed. That set the councilman off when he suggested he wouldn’t “let anything go under the table” when referring to the deal.
“That is unconscionable, and I demand an apology,” Leidner said after he walked out.
During comments he made in council chamber, Leidner said he was appalled the mayor would question his integrity and alluded then he may not be able to continue on council if the accusations continue.
“I spent 25 years in the military where integrity means something,” said Leidner, who has been on council since 2001.
Jackson, interviewed in the quietened council room after the meeting adjourned and nearly everyone had left, said he didn’t believe he had anything to apologize for.
“I was talking to Bill about a finance question and he kept butting in,” Jackson said. “Apologize for what?”
Many in the council chamber - in front of and behind the dais - would say the stakes are too high for any more sessions to dissolve into Monday night’s chaos. Hogansville’s water treatment plant already was shut down about two years ago; the city gets its water from LaGrange and Coweta County.
Hogansville is about to enter into a consent order with the state Environmental Protection Division to build a new sewage plant, the consent order means the state is imposing a deadline for the city to get the work done.
One crumbling sewage line on Poplar Street, which everyone agrees needs replacement immediately, is expected to cost $300,000. Hogansville has been borrowing money to fix what’s broken instead of investing in any real infrastructure for years, with the $8 million sewage sprayfield bond debt, incurred in 1993 when current council members were not on the board, at the heart of the decay.
Between beyond-sagging infrastructure and the regular costs of running a city, “we’ve got more debt than we can ever pay,” said Councilman Thomas Pike.
The proposal Monday, overshadowed by the debate, is one that would allow Diverse Power, which provides utilities to much of Troup County, to purchase Hogansville’s electric distribution system. In exchange, Diverse would pay off the 1993 bond debt for the sewage sprayfield, which is costing Hogansville about $600,000 a year. Diverse also would pay about $850,000 in current bond fees, which would give the city some much-needed cash to make other utility repairs.
Hogansville’s current costs with its system - some of which, like preventative maintenance, it isn’t even able to pay - cost $673,000. Diverse Power can run the system for about $650,000 a year, which means another $23,000 the city wouldn’t have to spend. Leidner proposed cutting property taxes by a half mill, socking money away for a new and much-needed sewage plant, as well as other projects.
Hogansville still would set rates for its utility customers, and no employees would lose jobs in the switch, which Leidner cautioned before the night’s later melee was just a proposal. Many of those in council chamber applauded him once the official proposal was laid out.
Questions remain about the details of the plan. At the heart of Jackson and Leidner’s debate is a question of whether Hogansville would be required to hold a voter referendum to decide whether to make the deal with Diverse. Even city attorney Jeff Todd wasn’t sure when asked on the spot whether what Hogansville is proposing would meet the requirements for a vote by residents.
Jackson believes a vote is required in the city charter but Leidner said a change in state law ends the requirement, although “I would welcome a referendum,” he said.
According to Leidner, a vote would cost Hogansville about $20,000 in a regular election cycle and $30,000 if a special election had to be held.
In the meantime, utilities continue to deteriorate.
“If we keep going like this, there won’t be anything left to fix,” Leidner said.
Jackson wants residents to hear “the other side” of the proposal before anyone makes a decision, however, and wants to invite representatives from Diverse Power and Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia to Hogansville to talk about the plan.
MEAG, of which Hogansville is a member city along with LaGrange and Hogansville, isn’t an electricity provider but brokers deals between cities and state utility companies for electricity and other services.
The mayor believes Leidner wants to push the issue through the council with no input from residents.
Leidner denies this.
“My main thing is, I want the people to decide, not the five (council members) sitting up here,” he said.
Jackson also said he may consider new guidelines for council meetings that at least would limit interruptions from the audience. Hogansville has a “three-minute rule” that limits residents’ remarks to three minutes, and residents are supposed to be on the agenda to speak.
Monday night wasn’t the first time that rule has been ignored and that comments were allowed from the floor.
“We need to go back to the three-minute rule,” Jackson said.
Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews. com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.
Post a Comment
