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Home > Blogs > Hamilton News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > April > 10
Thursday, April 10, 2008
The Mohawk spat part II
I spent a large part of the afternoon getting audio from Wednesday’s city council meeting. Well, actually, getting the file was the easy part, but getting it from the disc the city gave me to the Web was actually quite cumbersome. There is a roughly 18-minute audio file now available of Mohawk Chief Operating Officer Kevin Richard chastising city council Wednesday.
Access the file here.
I warn you that it is not perfect. The city’s recording program saves files in 5-minute segments, a few spots were lost in the process, but the bulk of his comments are present. To help navigate the long file, here are some areas of potential interest:
3:30 Richard said city’s sources are not supported.
7:00 Richard accuses city of wasteful spending
9:00 Mayor Don Ryan responds
11:00 Richard and Councilman Ed Shelton discuss what kind of jobs Hamilton wants
15:30 Richard expresses concern about other rising utility costs
Additionally, here is the city’s explanation of the riders which caused the electric increase in the first place:
Richard challenged these explanations in his address to council.
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The Mohawk spat
“It was a tough meeting last night,” Mayor Don Ryan admitted this morning, April 10.
Wednesday night, city council received an earful from a heated Kevin Richard, the Chief Operating Officer for Mohawk Fine Paper. Richard spent about 20 minutes ripping council for the electric rate hike that took effect at the beginning of March. He questioned the city’s math and said its sources for the hike were “not supported or documented.”
Ryan said Thursday morning that he calmed Richard down following City Council’s meeting and Deputy City Manager Charles Young was meeting with him again this morning. Ryan said Richard had legitimate concerns and the city would work to address them. Mohawk is the city’s largest electric customer and employs about 180 people.
“It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds over the next couple weeks,” Ryan said.
Ryan said that Hamilton is still the lowest cost provider of energy in the region and Mohawk understands that. However, he said the company just wanted to make sure rate hike was justified and the onus was on the city to convince the company.
“We have to now prove that the increases that our consultants have given us is for the right reasons,” Ryan said.
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