Trash is not transparent and neither are some commissions.
Just a few months ago, Palm Beach County awarded trash contracts to four companies. Two of them were Republic Services of Florida and Southern Waste Systems that will have the southern and western portions of the county, with Southern Waste Systems also handling the Glades communities.
Today, Republic Services agreed to pay $111,811 to PB County's Solid Waste Authority to settle a dispute on dealings perceived as shady for improper trucking of trash in Broward County. Republic also agreed to stop delivering trash to facilities not owned by the Authority. This was all to beat the Authority out of $42 a ton for dumping fees. Read more.
Republic is a large national corporation and Southern Waste Systems is privately owned and local. In 2011, Southern Waste Systems was awarded a contract for Broward's trash business through a sub-contract deal with Republic. "We are really excited about the partnership on this contract with Republic Services and to have city staff and commission support on the collaboration," said Charles Gusmano, President and CEO of SWS and Sun Recycling.
In spite of pulling a fast one in the past on the Solid Waste Authority, Palm Beach County commissioners still awarded them a contract in February.
And, in spite of Sun Recycling dumping all sorts of questionable debris on our landfill, (They were supposed to remove it and our landfill was to be in the same condition in which they originally received it.), this entire matter of the landfill has been swept under the rug. The Lake Worth Commission was all set to award them another contract for roll-off services on March 19. After the roll-off contract was removed from the Consent Agenda because of some public out-cry as well as the commission's desire to end all meetings early (can you imagine the time that would have been wasted for public speaking and everyone in the Osborne community showing up to voice their horror?), we have not heard a word about this new contract.
Is this just another example of the lack of transparency in Lake Worth--the mindset that the public has no need to know? As public meetings are getting shorter and shorter, we have to wonder what is going on out of the Sunshine. The mayor and vice mayor were both absent from what has been described as the shortest meeting in history and opine that they missed a meeting allowing them to go home early.
1 comment:
Trash is not transparent and neither are some commissions.
And some Commissioners are just trash.
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