Votes Bought & Sold, and other City Hall Shenanigans - Trail Ridge, Part 3

Here is the final installment in the ethics disaster (or, as we in Jacksonville like to call it, "politics as usual") that has grown out of the Trail Ridge Landfill issue.

In the first installment, I told you a bit about the history of the Trail Ridge Landfill, the contract beteween the City of Jacksonville and Waste Management, and how Republic Services has tried to bid for the contract to manage an expanded Trail Ridge.

In the second episode, we talked about the long, ugly fight between Waste Management and Republic Services (and their hired army of lobbyists, power brokers, insiders, and PR people) over whether or not the City of Jacksonville should put the operation of Trail Ridge out to bid. Waste Management, you may remember, believes their contract from 1991 gives them the right to continue to operate the landfill. Republic (and just about everyone else) believes otherwise. Waste Management threatened the City with a major lawsuit if they did not renew the contract; Mayor Peyton came up with a plan to prevent the lawsuit by giving in to WM's demands; Republic launched a PR blitz to convince everyone that putting the landfill contract out to public bid was the best solution; and Councilmember Jack Webb became the most vocal proponent of the public bid.

Now, here's where it gets really nasty. Council VP Jack Webb spoke loudly and often against Mayor Peyton's plan and extolled the virtues of a public bid process, which clearly was to the benefit of Republic Services. That would have been fine, because a bid process in all likelihood would be the best for the City, too. But what Jack Webb never told anyone was that he was trying to get Republic Services as a client for his law firm. In April of 2009, when the City Council voted down the Mayor's plan to give in to WM, Jack Webb claims he was no longer trying to get Republic's business. Of course, it was a complete surprise to EVERYONE when, after months of pro-bid campaigning, Webb's firm is suddenly rewarded with business from Republic.

What makes this so problematic was that Webb had been appointed as chair of a committee that would administer the landfill bid process. At the same time that Webb was working for Republic as an attorney, he was also going to sit on the City Council committee that would ultimately decide on the winner of a bid - a bid that Republic was going to compete for. And neither he, nor Republic, told anyone about their cozy business relationship. No one told the City Council, no one told the press, no one told anyone. In fact, the only reason anyone found out about it was because journalists at the Florida Times-Union found documentation that showed that Webb was working a case for Republic in a local court.

Yes, you read that right: Webb courted Republic as a potential client. Then he spent months shilling for them, pushing for a competitive bid process that Republic would benefit from. Shortly after the vote, Republic hired Webb and his law firm to represent them. If that's not a clear case of public influence & a vote bought and paid for, what is?

And then came the aftermath. Webb (only after being publicly lambasted) agreed to step down from the committee and (after being publicly called out for bad behavior in the Times-Union) decided to stop working for Republic. Republic laughed into their sleeves, because no one thinks they did anything wrong.

So, where does this leave us, the taxpayers?

Well, Webb has been "invited" to maybe come by and chat with the utterly toothless Ethics Commission who'll probably tell him to stop being so blatant and showing such poor common sense, allowing himself to get caught. That's right - invited. The Ethics Commission can't even launch an investigation of their own volition, so Webb probably gets off scott-free.

Republic Services laughs all the way to the bank. They got what they needed - a "competitive" bid process. Competitive, my foot. Who's really going to compete with them? Waste Management? Please! After the threats and the lawsuit, as if WM's bid will be taken seriously. And there aren't any other players around that are big enough to handle the job. Nope, Republic's pretty much got this one in the bag. And what a bag it is...After all, this contract is estimated to be worth $750 million over 30 years. And what did this cost them? How much did they pay Jack Webb for his services as a mouthpiece and a shill?

The taxpayers are hosed. The City has to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to defend themselves in court agains the monster lawsuit that Waste Management has filed against us. Planning & execution of the much-needed expansion of the Trail Ridge Landfill is set back by months, if not years, while everyone tries to figure out how the lawsuit will end. The entire bid process is in question, as we as citizens don't know which - if any - city councilors we can trust to lead the committee.

This is waste. This is unethical. This is probably - if we really drop the pretense - an classic example of City Hall Corruption. And the culprits are going to get away scott-free. Unless we can convince the City to do a real conflict of interest investigation into the Webb & Republic's little arrangement, both Webb and Republic get to ride off into the sunset, with a whole bunch of our tax dollars in their pocket. So please, please SIGN THE PETITION FOR AN ETHICS INVESTIGATION.