NORTHAMPTON — Attempts by the city to withdraw and borrow the money needed for several major green energy projects for school buildings will have to wait at least more few more days.
A planned vote on three financial orders, totaling $11.5 million, was derailed during Thursday’s City Council, with Ward 3 City Councilor Quavery Rothenberg raising charter objections to force a postponement of discussion and voting, much to the consternation of other council members.
The three projects aim to reduce the carbon emissions of the city’s school district, in keeping with the city’s goals to achieve carbon neutrality for all city operations by 2030. The projects include installing a geothermal heating system at Northampton High School, a rooftop solar array on top of Ryan Road Elementary School and a solar-generating parking lot canopy for Jackson Street Elementary School.
To pay for the projects, the city would have to appropriate around $2.5 million from its Climate Stabilization Fund, as well as borrow $9 million for the funding of the Northampton geothermal project. For the Jackson Street solar canopy, the city would enter into a into a 25-year purchase agreement with the company Solect Energy Development.
The orders for the projects also state that the new energy systems would help reduce heating and maintenance costs and would be eligible for federal tax credits and the state’s Mass Save rebates, with such savings used to pay back the loans taken for geothermal.
But at Thursday’s meeting, Rothenberg’s charter objections brought any discussion and vote on the matter to a sudden halt. According to the council rules, the first time a vote is made on an adoption of a measure, a single member can raise a charter objection that postpones that vote until the council’s next meeting, whether regular or special. The charter objection rule had previously been a seldom-used option, but has been frequently invoked by Rothenberg during her term on the council.
Rothenberg, who lost her seat in November’s municipal election and will be replaced by Laurie Loisel on the council next month, told the council she evoked the objection over a concern over a perceived lack of transparency on the city’s plans regarding a potential consolidation of the district’s elementary schools.
“I cannot, in good conscience, approve these things where there is, not even so little transparency, the opposite of transparency, around whether you’re still planning school consolidations,” Rothenberg said. “You won’t even let me ask a question about school consolidation.”
Although the idea of consolidating the school district’s four elementary schools remains a murmured topic in the city, no official plans of any potential merging of schools has been put forward either by the mayor, the School Committee or the City Council. During a candidate forum held at NHS in September, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra stated that studies had shown the cost of savings from a potential closure of Bridge Street would not be significant enough to warrant its closure.
But Rothenberg questioned on Thursday whether the costs associated with the green energy projects could lead to even more future spending in the event of a consolidation.
“One of these loans could be going towards a future school. Things get reprogrammed all the time,” Rothenberg said. “This is a carrot on a stick for a larger project that will cost us quite a lot of money.”
Rothenberg’s use of the charter objections, as well as instances of her interrupting other councilors during discussion, were criticized by other council members.
“I think this is very unfair here,” said Ward 6 councilor Marianne LaBarge, who like Rothenberg will be departing from the council at the end of the year. “I don’t like the way that this is handled at all.”
Council President Alex Jarrett, also departing at the end of this year, said he was “very disappointed” by the use of charter objection.
“I have a lot of questions, and appreciate the transparency that comes from getting those questions answered,” Jarrett said. When Rothenberg interrupted to say he could put the answers in a newsletter to constituents, Jarrett said she was out of order, adding “if you [Rothenberg] continue to repeat and interrupt, I’m going to ask you to not speak until you raise your hand.”
The projects had previously been unanimously recommended by the School Committee, but some committee members, speaking on their own behalf, appeared during the council’s public comments section to express concern about the city’s spending priorities when it came to the schools.
Anat Weisenfreund, the Ward 2 School Committee member, asked the council for a delay on the vote and to reconsider them only in the context of next year’s fiscal budget.
“Please remember that voters have told us that we should prioritize essential services. Please act accordingly and do not approve the extraordinary monetary requests in front of you tonight,” Weisenfreund said. “Work to use our wealth as a city to ensure the well-being of our children, families, and staff.”
Ward 4 School Committee member Mike Stein also spoke against the proposed spending on the projects, questioning whether city was prioritizing sustainable energy projects over other services.
“In so many areas of the city budget and planning, we see net-zero goals driving the discussion at the expense of nearly any other goal, value, or service,” Stein said. “We need to begin having broader conversations about how to best use our resources.”
A special city council meeting, to be held remotely on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 3 p.m., will be when councilors will be able to vote on the financial orders once again.
For unrelated financial orders in first reading on Thursday’s agenda, the other council members voted to suspend the rules and then postpone the vote until their next regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 18, preventing the use of charter objections when they are put to a vote.