Clarification, Feb. 5, 2025: An earlier version of this story incompletely described the various motions and action taken on the grant application. After rejecting a substitute motion to apply for the grant, a vote was not taken on a previous motion to table the decision. We strive to report the news accurately and clearly. If you see an error we have made, please email [email protected].
A city council majority blamed poor timing for rejecting an opportunity Tuesday to apply for a $250,000 green energy planning grant that would not have required any matching funds.
Darren Leach, an independent candidate for mayor in this year’s municipal elections, said it was “poor politics.”
The prevailing reason for reticence was the council simply didn’t have enough time to consider it.
Leach stood alongside Susan Wilder, the city’s grant coordinator, at a city council work session Thursday to present the prospect of applying for a Green Capital Municipal Investment Fund Market Building Grant. The fund, part of the American Green Bank Consortium, helps cities develop plans for public-private partnerships that will accelerate projects associated with clean air and water.
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice contacted Leach last week, he said, asking if it could partner with Columbus to help the city land a $250,000 planning grant.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Wilder faced the council alone, running again through the program details. Leach remained in the audience.
“It would develop plans for the city, for example, to maybe initiate solar panels on all community facilities, plans for solar power for low-income and disadvantaged community homes,” she said.
Only two cities per state will receive a planning grant. Those communities would in Phase 2 qualify for a $2 million grant for pre-development – which only 10 cities in the U.S. will receive – for things like working with businesses and creating workforce development plans around clean energy. Phase 3 opens up $50 million winning cities can give in low-interest loans to recruit businesses for clean energy projects.
Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens, who represents Ward 2, said he did not understand some of the language in the grant application terms.
He then asked if City Attorney Jeff Turnage and Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett had closely reviewed the application. They both replied they had only seen a copy at Thursday’s work session.
“If you would allow Ms. Garrett and our attorney to look at this, and they’ll come back and report back to us,” Mickens said, moving to table the item until then.
The application, however, is due today.
“If it has to be submitted tomorrow, why bring it to us the day before it has to be submitted and put us under pressure to have to rush?” asked Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones, also a candidate for mayor.
Wilder again said she only learned of the grant opportunity last week.
Both Mayor Keith Gaskin and Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene reminded the council it had the option to apply for the grant, then decide not to accept the money if approved.
“If we don’t apply, we’re going to miss the deadline,” Gaskin said.
Mickens was unmoved.
“I would appreciate it if the council isn’t put in predicaments like this moving forward,” he said. “I don’t like doing business like that. … We should have had this long before now.”
“Well, we had it Thursday,” Gaskin responded. “And it will have a major impact, especially in areas of our city that are underfunded.”
Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco offered a substitute motion to go ahead and apply for the grant.
At first, her motion drew votes from Greene and Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart, with only Mickens voting against it. Jones and Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard did not vote either way.
Perceived Kerr-McGee tie
That drew Beard into mentioning the Memphistown Community Action Group (CAG), of which Leach is executive director, is listed as a community partner. He then asked if this grant was related to a $20 million Community Change Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, which the city applied for last year at Leach’s urging.
Wilder said the two were “similar” and “complementary.”
The EPA grant would fund, among other things, a 32,000 square-foot recreation center on part of the old Kerr-McGee site on Northside – an EPA Superfund site contaminated by creosote from a now-shuttered crosstie manufacturing plant. The Multi-State Greenfield Trust is overseeing cleanup at the site, a portion of which has been deemed remediated to the point the Trust marketed it for commercial development in 2022.
The CAG has worked and met with the Trust regularly throughout the cleanup process.
Wilder said the city’s application for the $20 million grant was initially rejected, but EPA asked the city to amend and resubmit it. She said the city should know whether it was approved for funding in April or May.
Beard said there was false information in that application and believes that same information could be repeated on the Green Capital grant application.
“Until people are able to know what’s going on in (the Kerr-McGee) area, then I don’t care if it’s $1 trillion,” Beard said. “If that dirt’s not going to be clean over there, then I’m not going to be responsible for putting anything on contaminated land.”
Back to voting
When Gaskin called for a revote on DiCicco’s substitute motion, Beard and Stewart voted along with Mickens against applying. Jones still kept his hand down.
On the third vote, Jones voted not to apply, killing the application by a 4-2 margin.
Mickens’ original motion to table the application was not acted on.
Jones told The Dispatch after the meeting that he hesitated to vote because he did not want it to appear like a political dig at one of his opponents in the mayor’s race.
“I hate to be put in a position that we have to vote on something one day before it’s due,” he said, adding he wished Turnage had time to review it. “Politics has nothing to do with it for me. I can work with Darren. I can work with anybody if it’s good for the community.”
Leach told The Dispatch after the meeting “of course” he believes the vote was because of his involvement. Still, he doesn’t regret presenting it alongside Wilder at the work session.
“If I had it to do again I would have co-presented with her tonight,” Leach said. “She asked me to come up. I didn’t want to come up because I thought it might get politicized … If you can read, it’s a $250,000 no-match planning grant. That means you get to have as much input as you want in the planning phase.
“If we had really good politicians in place, this would have been a no-brainer,” he added.
Stewart told The Dispatch she changed her vote due to the CAG’s involvement and her mistrust of “any system” that proposes building on contaminated land.
“First, I’d plant a tree there, and see if it survives,” she said of the Kerr-McGee property.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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