The highly-anticipated awarding of the city’s waste hauling contract was thrown out of Tuesday night’s City Council meeting agenda after drawing out enough residents to pack Council Chambers.
Mayor Richard Montgomery’s absence from the meeting came with little warning, and led to an embarrassing display of miscommunication between the City Council and city staff, when the city Tuesday afternoon contacted all three bidders – Athens, Crown and Waste Management – to tell them the item would be postponed.
However, since the council must vote to remove an item from the agenda, the item could not be officially removed before the meeting.
As a result, all three waste haulers bidding on the city’s largest contract – a $22 million, seven-year agreement – showed up with bare-boned representation and supporters.
Representatives of Athens and Crown both asked for the hearing to be postponed. A representative of Waste Management said she would be happy to hear public comment, but that she would like the council’s vote to be postponed.
While the four council members faced residents who came to give opinions, Mayor Pre Tem Nick Tell and Councilmember Mitch Ward heatedly debated whether to hear the item.
“The public has invested a considerable amount of time and people have the expectation that this will be discussed and decided on this evening,” Ward said.
Tell considered moving the hearing to April 5, but other council members agreed it should not be postponed that long, especially since extending the current Waste Management contract would cost the city $60,000 a month.
Residents applauded when the council unanimously voted to postpone the item to its regularly scheduled March 1 meeting.
“It was a miscommunication, a mistake,” Tell said. “It just happened.” ER
