An ongoing discussion about a study to decommission the coal-fired power plant downtown reverted Wednesday to a controversial Utilities Board decision to spend millions of dollars on sulphur dioxide scrubbers at the aging facility.

“I’m going to keep talking and talking and talking and talking until we can actually get to the right place,” City Councilwoman Angela Dougan told her colleagues.

“To move forward and do something just because a decision has been made three months ago, that decision can be changed, especially when we’re talking about ratepayer dollars,” she said. “I understand you don’t want to talk about it anymore, but I don’t think it’s going to go away.”

Indeed, the decision to install what naysayers call “experimental” emissions control technology at the Martin Drake Power Plant continues to be a source of contention.

During Wednesday’s Utilities Board meeting, the debate picked up steam when City Councilman Tim Leigh suggested pulling the plug on funding the technology in 2013. The board is comprised of the City Council and oversees the $1 billion, four-service public utility.

Colorado Springs Utilities, which is financing the project and formally presented its 2013 spending plan Wednesday, included $38.8 million in funding for the scrubber technology. The utility has already spent tens of millions of dollars on the technology, which was invented by Springs-based Neumann Systems Group. Utilities says the technology “represents the possibility of a global game changer” at coal-fired power plants.

“I still think we ought to stop the spend on Neumann right away if we’re going to go through this study because, at some point, it’s not going to make any sense if we continue to spend on that project if we drastically change the outcome,” Leigh said.

But council President Scott Hente and President Pro Tem Jan Martin reminded Leigh and Dougan that the decision to move ahead with the Neumann scrubbers was a done deal.

“We made the decision a couple of months ago on Neumann, and I think it’s time to move beyond that issue,” Hente said.

Dougan said she wanted to do the study but that the outcome was “predetermined” unless the board took a timeout on installing the Neumann scrubbers at Drake.

“To continue to spend money on something that may not work is absolutely asinine,” she said.

Martin said she didn’t want to “keep rehashing the same conversations.”

“I was hoping not to have to go through this again today,” Martin said. “We’ve had this same conversation, this is our third month, and I just believe it’s time to move forward for the community’s sake, for everybody’s sake,” she said.

In the end, the board agreed to hire a consultant to help guide the process of forming a task force similar to the Memorial Health System task force. That consultant will work with the task force on issuing a request for proposals for another consultant that will lead the decommissioning study.

The make-up of the task force was also a source of debate Wednesday.

The Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance, the local chamber of commerce, recommended a task force of 11 that would include two business leaders selected by the alliance and the Regional Leadership Forum and one person selected by Mayor Steve Bach.

Activist Kanda Calef encouraged the board to include ratepayers.

“I’m very concerned. When I look at the members that they’re suggesting, I just see predestined outcome. There’s not one average ratepayer up there,” she said. “That’s really disturbing when I would guess at least 80 percent of the ratepayers are just average people like myself, and we’re having people that are selected by the insiders.”

Other highlights of the meeting:

• Utilities CEO Jerry Forte said he met with Mayor Steve Bach and members of his executive team Tuesday and that the meeting was productive. Forte’s previous requests to meet with the mayor had gone unanswered.

Forte said they discussed “several items of mutual interest,” including watering for parks, stormwater infrastructure and fleet operations.

“One of the things we’ve committed to do with the municipal government as early as next week, we’re going to meet, roll up sleeves and resolve some of these issues,” he said.

“We’re really excited about the partnership that we have with the municipal government and being able to get to a place where we create what I call a win-win for both organizations,” he said.

Hente earlier this week cited a communication gap between the mayor and Utilities after Bach sent letters recommending that the Utilities Board follow the same budget process as the city and after an idea for the city and Utilities to work together to save money on fleet operations fell apart.

•  Dougan scolded Hente for sending a letter to Bach in which Hente wrote that he and his colleagues appreciated the mayor’s input on Utilities’ budget process.

“I appreciate that when letters go out, I at least get the decency to look at them and say whether I agree or disagree,” Dougan said. “Writing letters I have not even seen and making it appear that I’ve been included on it, I just absolutely have to make a public statement: cease and desist.”

Hente kept calm but responded with a jab.

“If you’re upset by the fact that I said you appreciate his input, I’ll be happy to pass along to the mayor that you don’t,” he said.

• The mayor did not attend Wednesday’s Utilities Board meeting despite an invitation from Hente earlier this week. Bach is an ex-officio, non-voting member of the board but has never attended a meeting.

A spokeswoman for the mayor did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The Martin Drake power plant. (Gazette file) Photo by