So how the heck did we get HERE? Trail Ridge, Part 2

So, after a bit of a detour into all the other wonderful things wrong with Jacksonville politics, let's get back to the garbage.

Trail Ridge Debacle, Part 2

Where left off last, we were talking about how Republic Services had started the push for a competitive bid process in an effort to take the contract for the Trail Ridge Landfill, which was (and is still) managed by Waste Management.

As a quick recap, you may remember that the Trail Ridge Landfill needs to expand. There's 144 acres being used right now, and that's getting filled up. There's a total of 978 acres available. The City, which owns the landfill, is going to expand the operation to take up some more of the available space. At question , of course, is who gets to manage the landfill, and make tons of money - estimated around $750 million over 30 years or so - dealing with the tons of garbage.

Waste Management believes that their original contract from 1991 gives them the right to continue to operate the landfill. They believe it so much, they told the city to re-new the contract in a no-bid manner, or they'd sue the city for huge sums of money.

In the words of WM's lobbyist, mouthpiece (and known Jax politics insider & power broker) Paul Harden, "believe me...if you don't pass this [bill], it's retirement for me, because we will litigate it until the cows come home." No, really, their lobbyist actually said that. Smooth, Paul. Real smooth. Now, I've never been involved in trying to get a city to give me a multi-hundred-million-dollar contract, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that big threats don't help.

So WM thinks they're all set. Republic Services believes otherwise - well, obviously, there's $750 million at stake, of course they're willing to believe - they believe that the 1991 contract is only for the original 144 acres. So they put a bug in the ear of the city that going with Waste Management for the Trail Ridge expansion would be a mistake, that they could do a better job and the City really needed to look at other options. A competitive bid process was the answer!

And sadly, that's when the three ring circus began.

Both sides went out and hired the best local talent they could - power brokers (like the aformentioned, tough-talking Paul Harden, and PR man and former political operative Paul McCormick on the Republic Side) and all manner of other consultants.

Then came the big push - the PR blitz and the television ad campaigns.

And then came the shenanigans - at least, the obvious ones, like a Mayor's aide "unintentionally" giving help to Waste Management or former aides & friends of the Mayor suddenly ceasing to work for Republic. All the sort of sneaky, dirty, political baloney that we at Angry Jax Voters detest.

The sort of stuff that makes us - and my heroes over at Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County - really, really angry.

But while all this chicanery and unethical behavior was going on over Trail Ridge - looking like it was all on Waste Management's side - there was a deeper problem, one that would go unmentioned for a long, long time. City Councilmember Jack Webb was running around all over town talking up Republic and the competitive bid process, ostensibly because it would benefit the taxpayers.

We'd find out later that that just wasn't the case. We'll talk more about that next time, in Part 3. Stay tuned, kids. It only gets uglier - and more unethical.

Forbes: Something stinks in Jacksonville (and they're not wrong!)

Forbes Magazine has ranked Jacksonville 8th overall in this year's "America's Most Toxic Cities" report. The Florida Times-Union noted in their coverage that City Hall is rankled by this report, claiming that they are in fact one of the cleaner cities in this fine nation.

I'm sure you'll be pleased to knoe that everyone and their brother has rushed to refute the claims in the Forbes article. FDEP claims that the study is flawed. Visit Jacksonville thinks the air down here is just fine. City Hall - via Mr. Ebenezer Gujjarlapudi (Director of environmental compliance for the city)  has pointed out that they city is working hard to clean up some of the sites around the city thar need remediation.

All that's great. But Forbes, whether their study was flawed or not, was correct in pointing out that there are hazardous waste sites leaking toxic chemicals into our environment, and that there have been a number of problems around the city that have required action by the EPA (you can see that chart here).

What would be REALLY toxic would be if our City government continues down its current path. As you've seen in this blog and in recent articles in the Times-Union, we need strong, ethical leadership in this city. While I'm glad to see (in this example) that our government is trying to defend itself from what it sees as flawed accusations, I think I (and the rest of the taxpayers in this city) would prefer that they actually go and work on fixing the problems.



Another one looms large: the Trail Ridge Landfill expansion. There hasn't been too much trouble there recently (well, relatively speaking anyway, it is a landfill) and hopefully, after the expansion there won't be. Of course, if the City Council hands the contract off to Republic Services, who knows? Some quick research shows that Republic has been in some environmental trouble recently. Is this the big business partner we really want when it comes to trying to improve the environment in Jacksonville?

Jacksonville's Toothless Tiger

Today's post is about Jacksonville's Toothless Tiger - Carla Miller, the City Ethics Officer (and her compatriots in ineffectivness, the Jacksonville Ethics Commission).

I'm want to make this clear up front - I'm NOT attacking Ms. Miller on any sort of personal level. I think she's made it clear that she takes her job seriously and believes in what she's doing. She's a fomer federal prosecutor, she's been all over the world helping cities develop ethics program...she knows her stuff. The problem is that she can't do her job properly even if she wants to! Because here in Jacksonville, "politics as usual" means that that last thing anyone wants is the Ethics Officer to go around enforcing any sort of decent standarss!

The Florida Times-Union has put out two interesting pieces in the last few days. I apologize, readers, for taking so long to get to them, because they're pretty important pieces. The first details an akward, embarrasing moment for this city and the second explains how we've come to this situation.

While you should absolutely read both of those stories, I'll sum up for you. The Jacksonville Ethics Commission is a 9 member board and the members are appointed by the Mayor, City Council President, School Board, etc. Each of those members owe their position to someone - the person who appointed them. The Commission has no full-time staff and no real budget. They don't have any real power to go initiate investigations. If the Florida Times-Union has it correct, Ethics Officer Carla Miller doesn't even report to the Commission - her bosses (plural!) are the Mayor and The City Council.

Even if - IF - either the Commission or Ms. Miller WANTED to do an investigation, they'd be stuck in the gates. No money, no staff, and the fact that at any given moment they have a natural conflict of interest themselves - do they serve their bosses, the city, the taxpayers? Or do they just do the best they can to cover their own behinds in an ugly situation?

Again we come to my favorite topic, Jack Webb and Trail Ridge. As I'm sure you know, City Council VP Jack Webb has done a real good job of making it look like he sold his vote - and his influential voice - to Republic Services, the billion-dollar waste management company that wants to operate the Trail Ridge Landfill. You'll see in various posts here and in all kinds of news stories at the Times-Union that both Webb and Republic look really bad - it's hard to see how this wasn't some kind of a premeditiated, back-room smoking-a-cigar kind of deal between them.

At the most recent meeting of the Ethics Commission, the best our theoretical "watchdogs" could do was resolve to "invite" Mr. Webb before them at their next meeting. INVITE? To come have some tea? And maybe a biscuit or scone, too?

Our watchdog is a toothless tiger. Impotent. Useless. Not because they're bad people, and not because they don't want to do their jobs. It's because the City of Jacksonville won't give them them the tools and independence to do their job. After all, they sure wouldn't want any investigations going on - politicians might lose their seats and big businesses with their lobbyist pals might lose their big paydays.

Mayor Peyton, City Council - give our Ethics Commission and Ethics Officer the tools and freedom they require to do their job!

Ethics Commission, Ms. Miller - please, 'invite' Mr. Webb a little harder and make sure you get to the bottom of this Trail Ridge story!

A Long Time Ago, a Landfill Not So Far Away

 As promised, here is Trail Ridge Debacle (The Quick Version) - Part One.

Trail Ridge, of course, is the landfill where all of the trash from Jacksonville goes. At issue is the question of who gets to operate the landfill when it expands. The whole site is 978 acres - but so far, only 144 acres have been used. The 144 acre portion is running out of capacity, so it's time to expand the landfill using more of the land on the site. Currently, the landfill is operated by Waste Management. Republic Services, a major competitor of Waste Management, would like to take over.

Waste Management believes that the contract they signed in 1991 gives them the right to operate the entire landfill, although that is disputed by a number of people.

Republic Services, along with a variety of people and organizations, contend that, when the city-owned landfill is expanded, the contract to operate the landfill should be put out to a public bid (and in the interest of fairness, I should probably state that I don't really disagree with a public bid).

Seems simple, right? How could this go so wrong? Oh, in so many ways. Each side lawyered up, hired big gun lobbyists, and lined up whatever insiders & influential friends they could to fight for their position.

As you'll see in future posts, both sides pulled some pretty nasty manuvers to try to get their way. As you'll see from those above links, this political horror story starts out just like so many others: a lot of money to be made, and a lot of money to be made off of deciding who makes that money.

What Garbage - Jax Politics as Usual

The Trail Ridge Landfill debacle is going to be a pretty popular topic here at Angry Jax, because it demonstrates in clear detail everything that's wrong with Jacksonville politics.

This is such a huge topic - and there's so much media on out there about it - that it could take you a week to read all of it. Have no fear! I'll be happy to tell you all the story (the quick version!) over the next few posts, with links to some of the more exciting news stories written on the subject. Note that almost all were written by Miss Tia Mitchell of the Florida Times-Union, who has been all over this since the beginning, and done a real good job covering this debacle.

Over the next few posts, I'll bring y'all up to speed on the history of the project, the players, and why we need to take some action here. In the end, you'll see why City Council VP Jack Webb needs to resign and why Republic Services needs to withdraw from the competitive bid process.