San Angelo taxpayers got trashed in Republic deal
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San Angelo’s City Council caved to Republic Waste in the new recycling deal.
Sure, Republic was threatening to charge higher fees because they can’t get anyone to buy a lot of the recycled stuff anymore. But wait a minute, wasn’t the recycling contract part of the deal Republic cut to get control of the lucrative landfill contract from the city? They also get to pick up trash from commercial customers.
It was a deal worth about $250 million. Republic said they were losing $55,000 a month picking up recycling, without having to provide proof.
Who cares? They made the deal. Why is it government that feels they need to cater to a private company?
The surrender by San Angelo City Council comes in the same week the 3rd Court of Appeals rules a lawsuit over the last time Republic got caught cheating San Angelo business owners can’t be a class action suit.
Republic overcharged commercial customers by at least 6.5 million dollars. Who knows how much because a draft audit of the rip-off that was never finished said it was too much to calculate.
Republic later claimed, again without any proof, that all but about $250,000 of the money was paid back. Republic refused to disclose the names of those San Angelo business owners they claim they couldn’t find, and San Angelo City Council never forced them to share the names. Guess in trash world, a quarter of a million bucks is chump change.
Dolcefino Consulting has repeatedly offered to try to help find the folks Republic and their crack lawyers claim they can’t find, and we will do it for free for taxpayers.
Crickets from San Angelo and Republic.
So, here’s another idea.
Rather than let Republic keep earning interest on money they ripped off from San Angelo business owners in the first place, why don’t they write a check to the City of San Angelo to help defray the costs of garbage pickup, to help pay the salary of the City Garbage official who obviously doesn’t care about getting the money back.
By now that pot of money has grown for sure somewhere in Republic’s bank accounts.
Republic should do that today. Mayor Gunter should tell them. She should also demand a list of the customers they couldn’t find and send it to me.
“I will never understand why the City of San Angelo wanted to keep doing business with a company in the first place that got busted for ripping off San Angelo taxpayers,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of the Houston-based Dolcefino Consulting. “I would have reminded Republic of their little rip-off when they came whining about recycling costs.”
Dolcefino Consulting exposed the leftover money from the overcharging in 2017, and since then we’ve been waiting for San Angelo City Council to demand the names.
Instead, it appears the politicians are too busy worrying about how much profit Republic is making.
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