Forida Times-Union
Even though the Jacksonville City Council has approved the Trail Ridge settlement deal, the city’s landfill issues are far from settled.
The contract will be finalized in the coming weeks, but other Trail Ridge related issues remain, including a second lawsuit and the task of designing and permitting landfill expansion.
The council vote to allow Waste Management to continue operating the landfill, at least for another 26 years or so, brings to an end a yearlong court battle. Under the new contract, the city will start paying a lower fee per ton of trash dumped at Trail Ridge, saving taxpayers money immediately.
Trail Ridge has about seven years of capacity remaining. The Council Auditor’s Office calculated that the city would pay Waste Management about $90 million under the new agreement over that term, compared with $94 million under the old contract.
Over the long run, the settlement is expected to save taxpayers $29 million compared with what exists now but will cost $37 million more than Mayor John Peyton’s deal, rejected by the City Council last year.
What will never be known is whether competitively bidding the landfill contract would have produced better or worse numbers.
The council approved the settlement Tuesday, and the mayor signed off on Friday. However, it will take about two weeks for it to be finished.
Cindy Laquidara, the chief deputy general counsel, said the contract and attachments will receive a final review in the coming days for typos or errors. Waste Management will then be asked to sign before the mayor or a designee adds the last signature to the agreement.
The lawsuit Waste Management filed last year also doesn’t just disappear. The settlement addresses several disputes between the company and the city, as well as a real estate issue at the landfill site, but city attorneys still have to ensure everything is resolved.
Once all that is dealt with and documented, the judge assigned to the Waste Management lawsuit will be asked to close the file.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed against the city by Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County is still pending and could ramp back up. The organization filed suit before Waste Management did, back when the City Council was considering waiving procurement rules in order to approve the mayor’s proposed contract extension.
When the council rejected the mayor’s proposal and indicated it wanted to move forward with competitive bidding, the Concerned Taxpayers lawsuit became moot, according to the city, which filed a motion to dismiss. Attention turned to the Waste Management lawsuit, and the suit with the Concerned Taxpayers remained in limbo.
Now that the city has accepted the settlement, which requires the same waivers as the mayor’s proposal, the Concerned Taxpayers group pledged to reinvigorate its legal battle. John Winkler, an attorney and member of the organization, said he and others are working on the lawsuit but declined to discuss strategy.
“I think this is something that needs to play out here in Circuit Court in order to get a judicial justification on whether we even have a city procurement process that requires bidding,” he said. “And if not, we need to change that process.”
Even after all the legal issues are addressed, the task of expanding Trail Ridge remains.
Earlier this year, the city tried to move forward with hiring a firm to design and permit landfill expansion and received proposals from four companies. But Waste Management complained that it should have a say in the process and filed a motion to keep the city from choosing a winner. The proposals were never evaluated.
Now that a settlement has been approved, the city department overseeing landfill operations and General Counsel’s Office have scheduled a meeting to decide how to proceed with expansion, a task that will take several years and must be completed before the current mound reaches capacity. There is a chance some of the duties for which the city had planned to hire another firm could be handled by Waste Management.
The contract will be finalized in the coming weeks, but other Trail Ridge related issues remain, including a second lawsuit and the task of designing and permitting landfill expansion.
The council vote to allow Waste Management to continue operating the landfill, at least for another 26 years or so, brings to an end a yearlong court battle. Under the new contract, the city will start paying a lower fee per ton of trash dumped at Trail Ridge, saving taxpayers money immediately.
Trail Ridge has about seven years of capacity remaining. The Council Auditor’s Office calculated that the city would pay Waste Management about $90 million under the new agreement over that term, compared with $94 million under the old contract.
Over the long run, the settlement is expected to save taxpayers $29 million compared with what exists now but will cost $37 million more than Mayor John Peyton’s deal, rejected by the City Council last year.
What will never be known is whether competitively bidding the landfill contract would have produced better or worse numbers.
The council approved the settlement Tuesday, and the mayor signed off on Friday. However, it will take about two weeks for it to be finished.
Cindy Laquidara, the chief deputy general counsel, said the contract and attachments will receive a final review in the coming days for typos or errors. Waste Management will then be asked to sign before the mayor or a designee adds the last signature to the agreement.
The lawsuit Waste Management filed last year also doesn’t just disappear. The settlement addresses several disputes between the company and the city, as well as a real estate issue at the landfill site, but city attorneys still have to ensure everything is resolved.
Once all that is dealt with and documented, the judge assigned to the Waste Management lawsuit will be asked to close the file.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed against the city by Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County is still pending and could ramp back up. The organization filed suit before Waste Management did, back when the City Council was considering waiving procurement rules in order to approve the mayor’s proposed contract extension.
When the council rejected the mayor’s proposal and indicated it wanted to move forward with competitive bidding, the Concerned Taxpayers lawsuit became moot, according to the city, which filed a motion to dismiss. Attention turned to the Waste Management lawsuit, and the suit with the Concerned Taxpayers remained in limbo.
Now that the city has accepted the settlement, which requires the same waivers as the mayor’s proposal, the Concerned Taxpayers group pledged to reinvigorate its legal battle. John Winkler, an attorney and member of the organization, said he and others are working on the lawsuit but declined to discuss strategy.
“I think this is something that needs to play out here in Circuit Court in order to get a judicial justification on whether we even have a city procurement process that requires bidding,” he said. “And if not, we need to change that process.”
Even after all the legal issues are addressed, the task of expanding Trail Ridge remains.
Earlier this year, the city tried to move forward with hiring a firm to design and permit landfill expansion and received proposals from four companies. But Waste Management complained that it should have a say in the process and filed a motion to keep the city from choosing a winner. The proposals were never evaluated.
Now that a settlement has been approved, the city department overseeing landfill operations and General Counsel’s Office have scheduled a meeting to decide how to proceed with expansion, a task that will take several years and must be completed before the current mound reaches capacity. There is a chance some of the duties for which the city had planned to hire another firm could be handled by Waste Management.
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