Exec tied to spat over Ind. utility

An executive with the company planning a trash-to-energy power plant in Glendale was previously involved with a utility company in Indiana that was forced to turn its operations over to the city after years of contentious debate.

Mark Branaman is a vice president with Chicago-based Vieste LLC, which has a deal with Glendale to lease city land, build a trash-sorting facility and then a power plant that will turn trash into electricity.

Branaman also was a central character in a years-long dispute in Lawrence, Ind., where in 2001, Mayor Thomas Schneider signed a no-bid deal that gave the city’s water and

sewer utilities to a company where Branaman was a principal, according to an investigative series of stories in the

Six years later, the company had to return the utility to the city.

Branaman said his involvement in the Indiana dispute has no bearing on the Glendale deal.

“My involvement in Lawrence Utilities was prior to involvement with Vieste and has no bearing on my role with Vieste or the project in Glendale,” he said via e-mail. “Throughout the (Indiana) removal dispute, the quality of services provided were never questioned and were, in fact, recognized for awards by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.”

Branaman is the lead on the Glendale project; he made a presentation to the city a year ago and speaks for the project today.

Stuart Kent, Glendale’s public-works director, did not respond directly when asked if anyone in Glendale was aware of the Indiana dispute but said the city was confident in Vieste.

“The city’s agreement is with Vieste Energy as a company, and we are confident they will meet their goals in this first