KLST Drops the Trash Bomb, Villarreal Ambivalent

SAN ANGELO, TX — KLST evening news anchor Carolyn McEnrue served as the forum moderator at Monday evening’s mayoral forum at the Brooks and Bates Theater inside the Stephens Performing Arts Center. This is the last candidate forum before the May 6 mayoral election. About three-quarters through the otherwise uneventful question and answer format, McEnrue dropped the trash bomb.

Acknowledging the trash contract with Republic Services signed in July 2014 was a very dramatic change for trash service in San Angelo and “the subject of much controversy,” she asked, “Do you have any specific adjustments that you’d like to see put into effect if you’re elected mayor?”

What a perfect opening for candidate Tony Villarreal to call for an open market for commercial trash pickup again! Instead, he tossed the trash contract into a cauldron with any and all other contracts—hundreds or thousands of them—that the City is currently agreed to comply with.

“As the mayor and a new council, it is our responsibility to understand and review all contracts, not only the trash contract,” Villarreal said. Without mentioning what other contracts the City of San Angelo has signed that are causing as much trouble for San Angeloans and San Angelo business as the trash contract, Villarreal only noted that, “We have big contracts in place.”

“So we have to familiarize ourselves with these contracts and see what options there are, if any, to make them better. To make them fit better for our citizens. We will continue doing that to make sure that the citizens are getting the best deal available to each and every one of us; it is our job, and our role as mayor and council as a whole to fully understand what are the pros and cons of each contract. And we will definitely review each and every contract to make sure we are all informed of the decisions going forward,” Villarreal said.

Villarreal has a history of inconsistent statements on the trash contract with Republic Services. When the council led by Mayor Dwain Morrison selected Republic Services as the winner of the Requests for Proposal process on April 1, 2014, Villarreal went to the podium in front of council that morning to praise the council’s selection of Republic and the RFP process. He continued, offering Republic a big, wet kiss saying that as a former mayor of Fort Stockton and as a county commissioner in Pecos County he had worked with Duncan Disposal, a company Republic gobbled up a decade or so ago, and they were awesome.

Watch:

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At the April 12 San Angelo Home Builders Association forum, Villarreal reversed his pro-Republic stance and called for an open commercial trash market, absent the current monopoly Republic enjoys within the City of San Angelo. Those monopoly prices San Angelo businesses are paying are nearly double the commercial dumpster rates in Abilene, a comparable city. The City of Abilene operates its own trash pickup service.

Villarreal doubled-down on his call for an open market for commercial trash collection at the Pachyderm Club forum a few days later.

“I came out against them because I disagree with the part of the contract where they have an exclusive (to collect trash). And I talked to them directly, and they know my feelings on that. I don’t agree with it. I think it should be an open market, I think it should be open to where competition makes a difference. And that’s something that I will pursue if elected mayor…. So it hasn’t been a change (of position). I know you can turn around and make it look like that, but it hasn’t. My stand remains the same,” Villarreal said in response to a question from SMD 4 council candidate Chris Giroux.

Now, Villarreal says he wants to examine all contracts the City of San Angelo has inked.

Reviewing all contracts by a city government with a $135 million budget will consume all of the meetings of the next council, if he’s serious. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of deals. By linking the controversial Republic contract with all others, is Villarreal serious, or is he engaged in a game of moral equivalency to cover for his original praise and then rejection of the Republic deal?

Gunter addressed the dissatisfaction with the current trash contract she has heard from many corners, and suggested the deal was not transparent.

“The contract with Trash-Away (Republic) doesn’t seem to be providing a service the citizens feel very good about. In fact most people are still quite angry about it,” Gunter said.

“What do the citizens want in a trash contract? Did we (the City government) ask you, or did we tell you?” she asked, hinting at the lack of transparency in inking the deal.

Gunter called for a review of the trash contract to see if it provides what the citizens want and need.

Candidate Charlotte Farmer countered. She said the City conducted surveys and received feedback from citizens for 14 months prior to signing the contract. The single biggest request, she claimed, was for curbside recycling. She said there was even a committee that reviewed the surveys and presented their findings to council at various times.

“About 53 percent of the time, what came up was recycling. People wanted recycling,” Farmer said.

Farmer is correct that there was a definite buzz in the political air to consider curbside recycling. Mayor Dwain Morrison said the City looked at it in early 2013 and he decided it was too expensive for all citizens at about $20 per residential home.

We didn’t start covering the trash controversy until November 2013. At that council meeting, Farmer and Councilman Winkie Wardlaw were attempting to pass a no-bid contract for Republic. The trash company had been testing the single-driver mechanical arm trucks in the six council districts and promised to purchase new trucks to inaugurate the automated service if council would close another 10-year exclusive contract.

Mayor Dwain Morrison stopped the no-bid contract motion saying, “It makes no sense to sign a contract and then negotiate its terms afterwards.”

Councilman Johnny Silvas, who supports Villarreal today, tried to reword the motion to convince more councilmembers to go along with the no-bid deal with Republic. Morrison intervened. “Let it die, let it die,” Morrison urged Silvas.

The motion died.

City Ops Director Shane Kelton was eventually given marching orders in late 2013 to initiate a request for proposals for trash service. News of the trash RFPs was mostly silent until early in 2014 when the council discussed who they wanted to appoint to be on a committee to review the RFPs.

The next action on the trash came on April 1, 2014 when the city moved quickly to award the trash contract to Republic and then negotiate the terms of the agreement afterwards, despite what the mayor said made no sense in 2013. The City instituted a “No Lobby” clause over the contract negotiations that forbid City officials and Republic officials from discussing the trash deal.

All public discussions of the deal went dark at that time.

That was the last four months of Farmer’s stated 14 months of public discussion where the contract’s services, terms, or prices were not allowed to be discussed with the public.

At last night’s forum, moderator McEnrue said candidate Zach Taylor was invited, but declined to participate.