St. Louis Beacon

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that three haulers are entitled to damages because St. Louis County followed improper procedures when it established trash districts And while St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley argued the ruling could have been worse and the trash-district plan saved county residents money, others say the entire situation was completely avoidable.

The case stems from the county’s decision in 2008 to divide unincorporated St. Louis County into trash-collection districts that each went to the lowest trash-hauler bidder. Three haulers – American Eagle Waste Industries, Meridian Waste Services and Waste Management of Missouri – sued after they were ousted after failing to win the initial district contracts. The haulers argued that the changeover violated a state law requiring two years notice.

Jane Dueker, an attorney with Stinson Morrison Hecker who represented the haulers, said the outcome is effectively the worst-case scenario for county residents. People in unincorporated areas of the county, she said, will have to pay for trash service and the damages. And residents who pay for their trash service through their municipalities will also have to cover the costs. The biggest question, Dueker said, is why the county didn’t wait to implement the program.

“What most people do when the legislature passes the law, they sue and say ‘Hey, does this apply to us? We’re a charter county,’” Dueker said. “And they didn’t do that. They just kept going. And they were going to implement this no matter what. And now taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill.” “Which is not what the companies wanted,” she added. “It would have just been better to just leave us alone and follow the law. This is not good thing for anybody. This is the worst of all results.”

“It was a good policy. It was a right thing to do. And I don’t apologize for it. Because it kept money in our citizens’ pocket, that’s my job,” he added later. “The process is still in place. It still goes on. We have the authority to do it. What they were talking about was the process, not the authority. So we did the right thing for the right reasons.” Read more…

Wait a minute? A $1.2 million dollar judgement that could have been easily avoided is keeping “money in our citizen’s pockets?” Is this  what Mr. Brunner’s $3k donation to Mr. Dooley -a week before the election– got us? A clearly incompetent leader who is terrible at math!

Related:

Ed Martin to Charlie Dooley: Open the Bidding Process

Quote of the Day: Former Temporiti Trash Client “Becoming Closer and Closer to a Monopoly All the Time”

Quote of the Day: Dooley Consiglieri: “I Have Never Told a Client that I Have Charlie’s Ear”

Comments

comments