Rock Springs Councilman Cries Foul Over Contract For Wife Of Another Councilman

The nuclear industry expansion debate has reached the city of Rock Springs — which just hired a communications contractor to educate the public about it, and about other hot-button issues.

Rock Springs Mayor Max Mickelson supports bringing nuclear-based business to the city, and last week backed the now-finalized hiring of a communications contractor whom he said will inform, but not persuade, the public about industry particulars.

One city councilman, Rick Milonas, voted nay, then took to social media Saturday to dispute the contractor’s hiring.

Milonas denounced the hiring as expensive, as a “propaganda” project, and as questionable since the temporary public-relations worker is the wife of a city council member.

The Rock Springs City Council on Aug. 5 passed a memorandum of understanding between the city and Clear Eyes Strategies LLC, a new company registered with the state July 14 under the name of Elizabeth “Liz” Bingham, wife of City Councilman Eric Bingham.

The public relations firm is slated to receive $3,000 per month for up to 30 hours of service, plus compensation for up to 10 hours of overtime per month at an overtime rate of $125 per hour, the MOU says.

That makes the maximum monthly rate under the agreement $4,250. It expires after six months.

An ‘Overlap’

Mickelson asked Councilman Eric Bingham to leave the room during the Aug. 5 meeting portion surrounding the vote on Liz Bingham’s MOU.

“I asked councilor Bingham to step out because this company is owned by his wife. He was going to abstain anyway, but I think it’s better to have him out of the room for this discussion,” said Mickelson during the meeting.

He also emphasized that Liz Bingham would answer to the mayor and not the full council, to avoid any implication of conflict of interest.

“One of the unfortunate realities of living in Wyoming is we (have) very small communities — and there will be times when there’s overlap,” said the mayor.

Elizabeth Bingham had an older consulting company, Big Picture Enterprises, which filed its articles of organization with the Wyoming Secretary of State on Dec. 22, 2018. But her husband was listed as co-organizer on that business.

The mayor referenced the prior company during the meeting, and Bingham’s formation of the newer one under her name alone.

Mickelson said that his part-time assistant, Mary Seals, has been doing “an amazing job with social media and posting information,” but there’s more appetite in the city for information on “fairly complex topics,” including whether Rock Springs is going to get involved with nuclear energy.

The Wyoming Legislature is considering expanding nuclear waste storage opportunities so small nuclear reactors could both generate power and store waste in the state.

A legislative committee tabled that bill July 30. The state lawmaking session opens Feb. 9.

The Natrona County Commission in June voted to support a $25 million grant for nuclear reactor company Radiant, despite blistering dissent from residents of Bar Nunn, where the waste facility would sit.

‘Fat, No-Bid’

For Milonas, the issue isn’t nuclear, which he said he supports generally, but what he cast as a waste of money for a “propaganda machine.”

He called the MOU a “fat, no-bid contract that was just handed to the councilman’s wife for something we don’t need or ever have had — that is, a propaganda specialist.”

The move followed a conference at the Idaho National Laboratory, a federal entity which advances and develops nuclear projects.

Mickelson and Eric Bingham both attended, as did multiple other local officials, according to the mayor, who said he and the councilman did not travel there together. He said he and Eric Bingham are professional acquaintances but not close, family-dinner friends.

Milonas called the trip a “dog-and-pony show put on by proponents of nuclear energy,” and claimed Mickelson and Eric Bingham “got so excited they hatched this plan to make Eric’s wife Elizabeth Bingham the head of the propaganda program, to promote spent fuel storage — spent nuclear fuel storage — in Wyoming.”

Milonas questioned whether people want $4,250 per month in tax money going toward this service, and questioned whether it’s nepotism or a conflict of interest.

Under Wyoming law, a public official commits nepotism when he advocates or causes the employment, appointment, transfer or advancement of a family member to certain public positions.

‘Disheartened’

Mickelson in a Monday phone interview said he was “disappointed and disheartened” that Milonas and others, in his view, “believe Liz Bingham’s only qualification is that her husband is on the council.”

He said he’s seen her educate diverse groups and navigate difficult topics, and she’s an experienced, capable and local communications contractor.

The implication that her husband got her the job “is obscenely untrue,” added Mickelson.

“You know Wyoming is a small state and, as I said in the council meeting, we are all interconnected here,” he said.

“I don’t need a marketer,” Mickelson continued. “I certainly don’t need a propaganda person. I need a communications person who can take incredibly complex ideas and present them to the public in an understandable way … because we have big issues that are going to come before our community.”

Nuclear is among those.

So too is a potential $2 million budgeting increase for ambulance stemming from a proposed change in the Sweetwater County Commission’s approach to the service; and issues surrounding the Parks and Recreation Department, he said.

Bingham’s hiring isn’t a first, Mickelson said: the city paid communications contractor Jessica Evans $86,000 over a span of seven years and $20,000 in the most recent fiscal year, he said.

“So if the consequences of serving our community is, everyone assumes your wife is just being handed money, that’s deeply disappointing,” the mayor added.

The $4,250 per-month agreement falls below the threshold where the city is usually required to seek bids, he said, but he noted that he would seek bids on communications contracts in the future because of the controversy that has followed this agreement.

Elizabeth Bingham said she was unable to comment due to an intervening incident Monday.

The Underlying Debate

The nuclear debate is fierce this summer in Wyoming, with proponents of expanding nuclear waste storage opportunities saying it will diversify and drive the state’s economy; and opponents saying the technology is not proven enough to protect groundwater and other state treasures.

Milonas said in a Monday interview that he supports nuclear industry generally, but opposes the concept of giving nuclear businesses subsidies. 

Mickelson countered, saying the town doesn’t have enough money to give nuclear companies subsidies anyway.  

Milonas continued in his interview:

“(Waste storage) is probably safe, probably a good thing — but I like Wyoming because there’s no people. Because of the skyline. Because of the (low) taxes.”

Wyoming is already vending energy to out-of-state players, and has been planting solar and wind projects in addition to traditional energy.

“How much do we gotta give this world?” asked Milonas. “Now we gotta bring in nuclear waste and store it here? There’s a reason nobody wants it.”

The nation has sought for years to designate a permanent nuclear waste storage site, but the project has stalled amid persistent controversy.

Controversy also throngs localized small-storage installments.

Desperately In Need

In the meeting, Mickelson noted that the industry pays its workers well, “and I don’t think that’s something we can just brush off.”

Mickelson said Monday that some local, large industries are “desperately in need of power,” and small nuclear reactors would resolve those concerns.

“So, we’re losing incredibly good jobs because we can’t solve the energy issue,” he said. “Finding the way of solving that energy issue is absolutely my duty. But if the community does not support it, then it’s back to the drawing board.”

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.