Dolcefino: New Republic Services Agreement was a "Set-Up" and a "Sham"

SAN ANGELO, TX — Months after the City of San Angelo and Republic Services agreed to reduce the types of recyclables the incumbent trash contractor must pick up curbside, veteran journalist Wayne Dolcefino claims the whole contract revision was a setup and a sham.

Using records obtained through the Texas Public Information Act, or TPIA, Dolcefino took a deep dive into emails exchanged between the city manager, council members, and the general public and now reveals how the deal went down.

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“Look, you have (City Operations Director) Shane Kelton on the record admitting he doesn’t know if Republic is losing money or not and the City rushing to their aid,” Dolcefino said.

The premise behind the revisions in the recycling contract was that Republic is losing somewhere around $55,000 per month paying a local vendor, Butt’s Recycling, to intake the items for recycling that Republic collects curbside.

No one verified that, Dolcefino claims.

Dolcefino’s report claims that the City framed the public relations in advance of secret executive session meetings where the council basically rubber-stamped what Republic wanted, and this is what Dolcefino said was a bailout.

As proof, Dolcefino unearthed a draft press release written a day before the vote on the contract revisions, announcing the decision that was made in executive session the next day.

“I mean why have public meetings at all?” Dolcifino asked.