BOC Contract with Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful Terminated

In its first meeting of the New Year, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners voted to terminate the contract with Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful Services. This is in response to the temporary injunction issued by the courts in December. The recommendation was added to the agenda by Commissioner Kevin Kenerly, and passed unanimously. A couple of my favorite sites following this are Trash Gwinnett by Don S and Mack Perrys blog. Both attended the meeting yesterday and voiced their opinions.
Unfortunately, they were out numbered by the scores of employees from Waste Pro and Advanced Disposal. Many of which have jobs that depend on the previously exclusive contracts these two companies had with the county. While I do feel these two companies are victims in this whole mess, I don't believe most of the appeals they made were appropriate for this venue. Their major theme rallied around trying to get the injunction reversed and exclusive contracts upheld. While these companies invested in good faith for new capitol and job creation, I feel they should be making their arguments in front of the courts who issued the injunction. I'm not a lawyer but, if that fails they may be able to seek damages for breech of contract. In any case, just asking the Board of Commissioners to reinstate their contracts can not be done at this time.

Additionally, arguing some of their employees may loose their jobs if the exclusive contracts are not upheld should be pointless. Remember, these jobs are replacing the ones held by the previous companies. In fact, the number of jobs associated with the Solid Waste Disposal Industry in Gwinnett should be less if there are only two exclusive contracts covering the whole county.

In conclusion to the comments, Commissioner Mike Beaudreau stated this is not the end of issue. He said "anyone that says we don't have a trash problem in Gwinnett County needs to wake up and look out the windows. We have trash everywhere," he said. "But going back to the old way, in my opinion, is not acceptable. It will not work going forward." He then invited those wanting to help in a solution to contact him and join a new "Blue Ribbon Committee". You can find contact information for Mike and the rest of the board here.

I'm sorry Mr. Beaudreau, but the problem in Gwinnett is not as bad as you make it out to be. Gwinnett is still one of the cleanest Metro Atlanta counties. Yes, there are some problems under the old plan, but exclusive contracts with mandatory payments added to your tax bill is not an acceptable option either.

Some suggestions going forward should include:

• Enforcement of our dumping and littering laws by punishing those who are actually breaking the law.
• Lowering the number of trucks providing service without giving up the consumers power of free choice.
• Establishing one day each week for service in each area.
  
• Increase consumer recycling through technology and positive incentives, not fines.
• Definitely do not add it to our tax bill. This is a utility that should be able to be canceled if not needed. Even if it turns into a single government run department, like Water, we should be able to cancel it when it is not needed.

There may be many challenges to overcome, but it can be done. I look forward to working with this new committee and encourage everyone to get involved and be informed.

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