MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – The ongoing dispute between the city of Green Bay and the Oneida Seven Generations Corporation will be brought to the Wisconsin Supreme Court Thursday.
In 2011, the Green Bay city council approved a waste-to-energy plant project. However, city leaders changed their minds in the fall of 2012 after public opposition grew.
The OSGC, an arm of the Oneida Tribe, sued the city for pulling the conditional use permit. City officials argue that officials with Seven Generations misrepresented what was included in the plans and won a lower court battle.
The Court of Appeals then ruled for the tribe, saying Green Bay’s city council caved to growing public opposition to the project, when it shouldn’t have. In the ruling, the court said the city did not give enough evidence to stop the plan.
City officials appealed, and the Supreme Court will hear the case Thursday afternoon.
The summary of the case released by the court described the issue:
“The city argues that Supreme Court review is needed because rather than remanding the matter back to the city to give it a chance to more explicitly articulate its rationale for the revocation decision, the Court of Appeals proceeded to review the evidence in the record and make its own determination as to whether Seven Generations made any misrepresentations. The city argues the Court of Appeals’ handling of this case is contrary to prior decisions saying that when a decision-maker has not properly explained its decision, remand is the appropriate remedy.
Seven Generations says the unpublished Court of Appeals’ decision rests on the well established legal principle that a municipality may not act arbitrarily or without substantial evidence.”
(Additional reporting from FOX 11).
