Vendor withdraws bid to operate White Street Landfill

UPDATE: The city announces that the public hearing for the contract has been canceled.

ORIGINAL POST: Gate City Waste Services has notified the city of Greensboro that it is withdrawing a bid to operate the White Street Landfill.

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Here's a link to the letter from Gate City Waste Services to City Manager Rashad Young: [Document]

Council will have the opportunity to vote tonight to extend a contract with Republic Services to receive the city's solid waste at its Uwharrie Environmental Landfill in Montgomery County from Sept. 30 to to Dec. 31. Approval of the extension would buy the council some time to postpone a long-term decision on solid waste until after the Nov. 8 election.

"I think if we do anything at this point, it would be rushed," Vaughan said. "I think we need to let the next council move on this."

Vaughan said that when the time comes she would like to explore a proposal by Republic Services to save the city an estimated $3.5 million, and look for ways to increase recycling.

The text of the letter, digitally signed by lawyer Daniel R. Moore for David H. Griffin Sr., is after the jump:

Mayor Knight:

I am writing on behalf of Gate City Waste Services (Gate City) to respectfully request that our bid for the referenced services at White Street Landfill be terminated. As a lifelong resident and businessman in this community I had sincerely hoped to do something positive for the White Street Landfill neighborhoods, and the people of Greensboro. Those actions no longer appear possible.

In retrospect it is clear that a very painful process has taken place; one that has affected many of my fellow citizens. It was never our intent to provide anything other than a professional and competitive offering on what we believe to be vital, necessary, and fiscally responsive solid waste management services for the city. I am confident that this was your intent as well. Given the litigation and associated activities surrounding the recent RFP process it is clear that we have no other palatable option.

In closing I would like to request that the city continue to consider our recent offering under the last RFP/proposal to develop a landfill gas-to-energy project at the White Street facility. We are prepared to make the significant capital investment necessary for this project and participate in a revenue/profit sharing structure with the city. As you know, we have also proposed to assume operations at the city's transfer station, and help in development of an alternative disposal technology/method when the time is appropriate. Accordingly, we would request that our proposal, strictly associated with these additional issues, remain valid.

Sincerely,
David H. Griffin Sr.CEO, DH Griffin Companies

Landfill opponents seek to intervene in lawsuit

Greensboro residents opposed to the reopening of the White Street Landfill have filed a motion (link) to intervene in a lawsuit filed by Gate City Waste Services seeking to block Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan from voting on a proposed contract with the company and to compel Councilman Zack Matheny to vote on the same.

Chris Brooks, a staff attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said the matter will be argued in Guilford County Court tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.

Anticlimax after rumored recusal vote

District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny was playing coy tonight, but apparently wasn't playing ball with District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade.

An expected (link) vote to recuse Greensboro Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan from taking part in a decision to approve a solid waste contract did not materialize during a city council meeting tonight.

Typically, motions that are not on the agenda or added as part of an addendum come up for a vote at the end of the meeting during a segment called "matters to be discussed by the mayor and members of city council." Members discussed 9-11 commemoration activities, emergency response planning and the Greensboro Grasshoppers' winning streak, but no motion was made to recuse Vaughan.

At-large Councilman Danny Thompson and District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw — two of the four members who have voted to reopen the landfill in the past — indicated after the meeting that they were unaware of any plans to seek Vaughan's recusal.

Interim City Attorney Tom Pollard declined to comment on whether any of the four pro-landfill council members had approached him to ask whether it was legal to recuse another member against her will, but he said he discussed the matter with Steven J. Levitas, a lawyer who represents Gate City Waste Services. The company has been preselected to operate the White Street Landfill.

Pollard said his research into the legality of what he has described as an extraordinary parliamentary procedure "was derived from that conversation."

Gate City Waste Services filed suit against the city, Vaughan and District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny today seeking an injunction to prevent Vaughan from voting and to force Matheny to vote in the selection of the contractor to reopen the landfill.

Just as the meeting was beginning, Pollard and members of council received an e-mail (link) from Chris Brook, a lawyer for landfill opponents, requesting that the vote be delayed. Brook's argument that requiring Matheny to vote on whether Vaughan should be recused "is the equivalent of giving him a vote on Gate City as a vendor" — a company that he is deemed to have a conflict of interest with — might have been read as a shot across the bow.

After a break earlier in the meeting, six members of council reconvened without Thompson, Rakestraw and District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade. Rhinoceros Times Editor John Hammer was also outside of chambers.

The six council members began rapidly moving through a motion to allocate funding for "downtown support activities" — an item expected to especially run counter to Wade's fiscally conservative, parochial proclivities. At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins, who was smiling mischievously with District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small, made a rolling motion with his arms to urge the mayor to call for a vote. Everyone on the dais understood that as the three absent members were not excused their votes would count as yes.

Just then, Thompson, Rakestraw and Wade rejoined the meeting, looking stone-faced. Wade read the item on the screen and said, "I'm against it."

Matheny said he had been approached by a fellow council member, whom he declined the name.

"I was asked, 'What would I do?'" he said.

Asked how he answered, he said cryptically: "You'd have to ask them."

Presumably the reason the motion was not made was because the four did not feel confident that it would pass.

"I was waiting just like you were waiting," Matheny said.

Gate City sues to block Vaughan from voting on solid waste contract

Gate City Waste Services files a complaint (link) seeking an injunction to affect Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan and District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny's participation in a vote on the selection of the solid waste company to operate the White Street Landfill.

Complaint:

Plaintiff respectfully requests that the court declare that: (i) Ms. Vaughan has a “financial interest” within the meaning of NC Gen. Stat. § 160A-75 in the award of the contract and therefore has a conflict of interest and is required to recuse herself from voting and participating in the proceedings related to the award of the contract; and (ii) Mr. Matheny has no “financial interest” within the meaning of NC Gen. Stat. § 160A-75 or any other conflict of interest in the award of the contract and is therefore not excused from voting and participating in the proceedings relating to the award of the contract.

Vaughan told me today that she expects her pro-landfill colleagues on council to take a vote to recuse her from the landfill decision against her will, adding that she believes tonight's vote is tied to the lawsuit filed today because if the vote is successful the city would be enjoined from representing her as a defendant.

Vaughan said that interim City Attorney Tom Pollard has been researching the matter this afternoon and determined that the city council does have the authority to take a vote to recuse the mayor pro tem against her will.

"He thinks it can be done," Vaughan said. "From what I understand, he thinks it's not something that should be done lightly. It's certainly not something done regularly. It should be done only in the most extreme circumstances."

Chris Brook, a staff attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, has been monitoring events today. Brook said Pollard has determined that all members should vote on Vaughan's possible recusal.

A key fulcrum of the vote tonight is likely to be Matheny's role.

"Even though Matheny is conflicted out of voting on Gate City, he could vote to recuse Nancy, which would help Gate City," Brook said. "My understanding from talking to people is that Matheny is saying, 'I don't want to vote'.... If he is deemed okay to vote and he doesn't vote then he would be counted as a yes vote. That strikes me as too cute by half. By default he's voting yes, and then by default he's voting for the company that he claimed to have a conflict with."

UPDATE: "I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it done before, but I do think it’s possible for council to take that action," says Tom Pollard, who served as city attorney for the city of Wilmington from 1983 to 2009.

"It would just be the statutes that apply to a conflict of interest and the council making the decision that the statutes apply to a member of council," Pollard said, explaining the legal basis for his decision.

UPDATE2: Tonight's city council meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.

Solid waste vendor proposes to take over gas development at landfill

Gate City Waste Services proposes (link) "four additional solid waste management related services" after being preselected as a solid waste vendor to operate the White Street Landfill by the Greensboro City Council last month.