After a 4-to-3 vote, the Colonie Town Board passed a resolution that would allow an energy systems company to convert methane gas produced at the landfill into energy credits that can be sold, generating revenue for the town.
All board members agreed that what the resolution promoted would be beneficial for the town, but it was passed after some expressing concern with the way the resolution was introduced to the board on Thursday, April 2.
The decision lets the town enter into a new contract with Innovative Energy Systems, a company that collects the energy credits from the methane gas that is produced at the town’s landfill and later sell them. Previously, that work had been done by the town.
According to Director of Town Operations Peter Gannon, the company has informed the town that with the landfill’s current system, the revenue stream of the energy credits is only at 75 percent of its capacity.
They can bring it up to 98 percent, thereby generating more revenue, he said.
In terms of money, Gannon said, the new system could generate between $200,000 and $300,000 more per year.
Before voting on the issue, Republican Councilman Brian Hogan asked the board and Supervisor Paula Mahan to table the resolution so that Director of the Town Landfill Joe Stockbridge could have a chance to thoroughly look through the contract.
While Jack Spath, a lawyer in the town attorney’s office, told the Town Board that he had met with Stockbridge that week, Stockbridge told The Spotlight he was not able to review the contract before it was passed.
`The copy of the contract that was supplied to me, I haven’t gone through it yet,` he said.
According to Hogan, the contract that the town will now enter into with Innovative Energy Systems was presented to members of the Town Board the same day as the meeting. While Hogan said this often has been the case under the Mahan’s administration, this was not the way business was conducted under past supervisors.
`All I can go on is what we’ve done previously,` Hogan said, explaining that, in the past, the Town Board was able to review `pretty much every contract` before it came to a vote.
According to Mahan, town government would not be able to operate smoothly, with objectives being completed in a timely manner, if every contract needed the approval of the Town Board.
`To run a government efficiently, you could never be able to [review] every contact,` Mahan said. `That’s why you have a legal department.`
Democratic Councilman Robert Becker also had reservations about approving the contract before having a good look at it.
`You wouldn’t sign a contract without reading it,` he said.
Mahan said that the town’s legal department had looked over the contract to make sure everything made sense and was in the best interest of the town.
`We’re not going to put anything into place that our legal department doesn’t agree with,` she said.
Mahan also emphasized that every day the resolution is not passed and the contract not activated, the town is losing more money that it could have earned.
The other reason Hogan said he was concerned about the contract was that one town employee working at the landfill would now be under the supervision of IES instead of Stockbridge. Although Hogan said he was concerned about this element of the contract, he said he is confident that the town attorney will work out those details.
Hogan said that overall, he is confident that the resolution does provide a situation that is in the best interest of taxpayers of the town.
`I’m not sure anybody’s against the proposal,` he said. `It’s just that we’d like the head of the landfill to see these terms.`
Town Attorney Michael Magguilli promised board members that any questions or concerns they have with the contract would be addressed by him.
`If you have any concerns, I’m not going to ignore them,` he said.
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