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Waste Professionals Press Room
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Trash Talk
A committee of residents assigned to study garbage options in Johnston said the group was infiltrated by employees of a solid waste company with a stake in the outcome of the study, said one of the committee members.
In a letter to the mayor and Johnston City Council members, garbage committee member Larry Mithelman said two of his colleagues - Curtis Hill and Bob Burke - were employed by Waste Management. He also criticized committee member Kathy Goranson , who lives next door to Hill .
"I feel their three votes against change skewed the final results," he wrote.
The solid waste committee voted 6-5 in January 2004 to ask the city to negotiate trash services with a single hauler. Residents currently hire their own trash hauler and choose from a list of several companies. Hill, Burke and Goranson all voted to keep the current system rather than the city selecting one company to serve all residents.
According to applications submitted by committee members, each were asked to state their occupation, experience and interest in the committee. Neither Burke nor Hill disclosed in the applications that they worked for Waste Management.
Hill said he was a general manager and had worked 23 years in the transportation industry. Burke identified himself as a driver. He also wrote he had previous experience in the sanitation business and had dealt first hand with the city's sanitation issues.
Mithelman said Hill did not disclose his employment until after the final vote was taken in the solid waste committee, when Mithelman challenged him on the conflict. Burke did not disclose his employer, Mithelman said.
"I felt like the committee was somewhat manipulated," he said. "(Burke) was in lock step with Mr. Hill the whole time. It just kept bugging me."
Johnston City Administrator Jim Sanders said employers of Waste management probably should have disclosed that to the committee, so everyone could understand the relationship they had to the debate. Asking for more specific information on committee applications might be something city leaders would examine, Sanders said.
The Johnston City Council will ultimately decide whether to hire a single garbage hauling company. Johnston City Attorney Tim Pearson said he didn't think residents could ask for a referendum to vote citywide on waste removal.
Burke did not return phone messages left at Waste Management or at his home regarding Mithelman's letter. Both Hill and Goranson said they applied to be on the committee as volunteers, not as people with a vested interest.
"My initial reaction was how dare he suppose that because I have a neighbor that is connected to Waste Management, that is the whole impetus of my concern for not having . . . freedom of choice," Goranson said. "That's why people get so emotional about it. Who cares who your hauler is? Who cares who your neighbor is?"
The garbage debate has become as much a struggle between solid waste companies, which stand to lose business if the city switches to a single hauler, as it has been between committee members and residents.
Representatives from several garbage companies showed up to a public hearing this month on the issue. Waste Management and Ankeny Sanitation sent postcards to residents urging them to speak out against a single contract, according to letters from residents to the city.
Most cities in the metro area that switched in recent years to a single hauler hired Artistic Waste Services, according to a summary of garbage and recycling fees by the Metro Waste Authority.
Hill, a manager with Waste Management, said his views in committee discussions on solid waste were not representing his company.
"I happen to work for them," he said. "I brought some information and background from the solid waste industry."
Councilman John Temple said the committee members' relationship with Waste Management should have been disclosed early in the process.
"Your employment background can affect your perspective on an issue, and the people you are meeting with have a right to know about it," he said.
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