On Monday, a hearing to Dismiss the Lawsuit filed against Gotion and the Village of Manteno took place. I attended the hearing along with 25 members of the Concerned Citizens of Manteno (CCM) group.
The hearing lasted for over an hour, with Gotion and Manteno arguing for the dismissal of all six counts. Many of the arguments were more technical in nature, citing other cases and arguing over the meaning of specific words and phrases in written statutes, but you didn’t have to be a lawyer to understand that Gotion was both hypocritical and nonsensical in its arguments. The lawyer for the citizens, Robby Dube, was very good at pointing out in plain language Gotion’s bipolar arguments. Below is my layman’s interpretation of a couple of the arguments made.
The Nuisance Argument: CCM is making a nuisance argument that the Lithium Battery Plant:
- Creates a nuisance to nearby neighbors and a preschool due to the nature of the facility – a chemical plant that will use toxic chemicals not even allowed in the rezoned area of I2.
- It is located next to a quarry where blasting has previously caused chunks of debris to fall on the rooftop of the current Gotion building.
- Also noted was that the chemicals could leak into the water system,
- Fumes from the plant could drift into the neighborhoods,
- Any truck carrying hazardous materials could create serious environmental and human safety issues.
- The Village of Manteno does not have the capability to fight a lithium battery fire.
All these issues obviously pose substantial potential harm and a nuisance to nearby residents.
To what degree the Gotion plant represents a hazard is debatable and discovery would allow many more facts to come out on that topic. For example, Gotion will not even give residents a full list of the chemicals it will use in its EV battery plant. In asking for dismissal of the nuisance charge, Gotion’s argument was purely that the harm was speculative in nature. Here’s the rub – in the same hearing, Gotion argued that the economic development that would be derived from the plant was not speculative. That makes no sense – especially because the plant would not even be located in Manteno but for the massive tax subsidies and the EV market is faltering. These batteries are headed to Rivian, which lost over $38,000 on every vehicle sold in the first quarter of this year.
This is a speculative market. And even more so if Trump wins in November, as his campaign has already noted an aversion to the green energy scam and will likely pullback on federal subsidies. Other articles have noted that Gotion is likely to receive billions more in federal subsidies if they operate as planned.
A second count dealt with the actual rezoning of the property. Previous case law gives communities broad leeway to rezone if they can show any economic benefit will be gained by the rezoning as long as the rezoning process is followed. First, as noted above, the most speculative part of this deal is whether or not the Gotion plant could operate profitably without federal and state subsidies. Second, Gotion argued that the rezoning was done in the light of the day. And third Gotion argued that the rezoning was not done based on a contract.
Now, all of these points are very nuanced—they will be argued in every which way based on case law, process, legal terms, and other “lawyerly” stuff.
This is the type of stuff that makes NO SENSE to anyone but a lawyer.
First, the preliminary deal to attract Gotion was planned and executed by the Economic Alliance of Kankakee – a public/private entity that is not subject to FOIA or OMA laws and whose board includes the Mayor of Kankakee. They planned the Gotion deal with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development, which also works behind closed doors on these deals. No citizen would have had any ability to argue against the rezoning by the time the zoning decision was made.
Second, the rezoning from I1 to I2 only happened to accommodate Gotion. And if you think otherwise you are not being honest. The property sat vacant for years until Pritzker got his $400 million closing fund to give away to EV manufacturers, and Gotion came forward to get the free money. Gotion and the city lawyers are quibbling. One of the lawyers stated that for an improper contract rezoning, the contract had to be with the zoning board. For us laymen – what’s the difference, and is that true?
One final note: On the nuisance count, the Gotion lawyer said that only 200 trucks a day would be going in and out of the facility and that when the Kmart Distribution Center operated there, the truck count was 600 a day. Residents dispute that the Kmart number was that high. And Judge Lindsey Parkhurst noted that the Kmart trucks weren’t carrying potentially hazardous materials. Judge Parkhurst was paying attention to the details. But this case will likely fall or continue based on the case law surrounding zoning.
We need to defeat Gotion in the court of public opinion. Please share our media on this topic. This is the most offensive tax giveaway I have ever seen.