Urban Jacksonville

BidTheLandfill.org. Read more about this issue at Something Stinks with the Mayors Waste Management Deal with even more articles below:

Other Companies Say They Want to Bid Too
So This is How the City Work — Mayor’s Lobbying Team on the Waste Management Contract
Mayor Challenged on No-Bid Contract
CBS 47 Investigation Info Mayor’s No-Bid Contract Proposal
Mayor Pushes Lucrative No-Bid Contract for Landfill Operations
Company Says it Can Save City Millions on Landfill Contract

I’ve also created a quick copy and paste ready, comma delimited list of all the city council members. You can easily copy and paste these into the To: field of your email and send a message to all council members at once. I just did.

JPeyton@coj.net, RonnieF@coj.net, JRC@coj.net, Joost@coj.net, KHyde@coj.net, GloriousJ@coj.net, Clay@coj.net, WBishop@coj.net, RClark@coj.net, Redman@coj.net, AShad@coj.net, Webb@coj.net, Gaffney@coj.net, EDLee@coj.net, WAJones@coj.net, RBrown@coj.net, Holt@coj.net, DDavis@coj.net, ArtG@coj.net, Corrigan@coj.net

Tags: city council, mayor peyton, no contract bid, waste management

4 Comments »

photo credit: alex_lee2001

Updated: 12:39

It appears there is no bigger issue in the city at this moment than the Mayor’s proposal to grant Waste Management a 35-year $750,000,000 (yes that’s million!) contract without an open bidding process, despite City Council rules against no bid contracts. Even more, there’s an expressed interest from other groups who could take over the landfill in question for significantly less money.

Ron Littlepage rips into the Mayor’s proposal with a list of simple facts in his article City Council won’t be steamrolled on landfill, including these gems:

There are valid reasons the state and the city have rules about bidding contracts. One is that the bid process, while not perfect, helps ensure that taxpayers get the best deal possible. Another reason is the bid process provides transparency, helping to eliminate the suspicion that back room deals are being made with favored friends and political supporters.
Peyton says the deal his team negotiated with Waste Management behind closed doors will save taxpayers $200 million over the 35-year life of the contract. The fact is others with expertise in the landfill business say that number is inflated. They also say that opening the contract to other bidders could save taxpayers millions of dollars.

What Can You Do?

E-mail cityc@coj.net. Let them know, briefly, that you’d like the Trail Ridge bid to be open, competitive, transparent, and fair. Ask them to vote “no” on the mayor’s contract proposal. The e-mail can be as short as a couple of sentences.

You can also sign this petition ignore the part about donating.

My friend Max alerted me to this issue and we discussed it a little last night on Urban Jacksonville Weekly. Max is trying to generate a flood of emails to the City Council with commentary the tax payers (You). Max feels that bringing this contract down would establish a mighty precedent: Jacksonville residents will not tolerate any more no-bid contracts.

So please just shoot a quick e-mail to cityc@coj.net, addressed to the City Council, and leave a comment on this post when you’ve done that. As Max says: The more people interacting with democracy, the better it is for all of us.