Trash Talk

Dave

Bob Grover was instructed to send Hiltz a letter by Nov.1st. Informing them that their last day would be on December 31. I would like a copy of that letter first thing in the morning. Additionally I met with your auditor two weeks ago and I am still waiting for a copy of the information that you were going to supply him with. I would like that information in the morning as well. Next Tuesday night I fully expect that this trash issue will be over and tied up with a nice neat bow. I am giving you fair warning that if anyone outside of Stoneham makes a single comment about trash policy in Stoneham that night then  the trash will not be the only vote that we take that night.

This is the email that has been circulating around. I wrote it and sent to everyone the trash subcommittee last Wednesday night that list included Selectmen Frank Vallarelli, DPW Director Bob Grover, Town Administrator Dave Ragucci and Town Council Bill Solomon.  We need to get this done next Tuesday night or we will have to wait until after the first of the year to complete this.

I have been on the Trash Subcommittee since last April, in this time I have spent several hundred hours on this issue including over 12 hours of public hearings and a presentation to the finance board. The trash committee has met continuously for over seven months now, we have looked at many different options and interviewed several trash companies to try find out what works best for Stoneham, we developed an RFP that we sent out to 10 contractors and we received five bids back. We reduced that number to three contractors and interviewed them, once we collectively decided the best direction for Stoneham we brought the three contractors back in and asked them what value added impact that their company would bring to us to make them more attractive

Since this time I did 10 minute power point presentation at a selectman’s meeting explaining the five different options and the cost of each option and including the difference in price of each contractor in each option. We have been having public hearing at almost every meeting since August and have made changes based on the input from the citizens.

 From the beginning our goal has been to reduce the cost of trash and contain future cost by increased recycling.   In order to give us enough time to research and implement the right system we extended Hiltzs’s contract to November 31st. then to December 31st.   See the meeting minutes from the May 14th meeting below.

May 14th meeting minutes

Trash Discussion/Selectman Vallarelli

Selectman Vallarelli states that himself along with Selectman Boussy, Town Administrator Ragucci and head of Public Works Bob Grover have met to discuss potential changes that they would like to look at in our current trash contract. We have not gone out to bid in 10 years. The changes they would like to see are in recycling issues which will bring trash fees down and will return money to tax payers. We would like to put out for a proposal for the single stream method. The current contract expires June 1, 2013. Bob Grover has agreed with the current disposal company to let us have a 6 month extension.

Every time that we had a subcommittee meeting it included the Town Administrator and the DPW Director and at the end of each meeting we had a consciences agreement on the direction that we wanted to go. The problems started when we had public hearings, the Director of the DPW is much more interested in giving Hiltzs a new contract then doing what is best for Stoneham. He did a break down on the cost of the trash and handed it out to the selectmen as well as the Finance and Advisory Board telling us that the trash fee would have to be raised if we did anything other the extend the contract with Hiltz, His figures had two major flaws, first he didn’t include the tipping fee in any of his cost analysis and second he continuously states to the BOS, FAB, and also said at a public hearing that we would have to come up with an additional $350,000 to but the barrels even though he is fully aware that the proposals include the cost of the barrels. At subsequent meetings Mr. Grover has repeatedly spoken during public hearing about policy issues, he is an employee of the town and does not live in Stoneham furthermore the Selectmen set policy, the Town Administrator procures contracts and the DPW Director manages the contractor. The town administrator has told me at ever subcommittee meeting that he was going to announce at the next selectmen’s meeting that he is going to enter into a new contract negotiation yet does not do it.  

During this process I have repeatedly asked for accurate information explaining how we can have an trash fee assessment of $1.6 million when the cost of pick up and disposal has never been more the $ 1.3 million and after not getting a straight answers I had to start requesting specific information and this is where I started to find impropriety’s including making an extra payment of over $70,000 to Hiltz in FY2012 and a trend of budgeting 2,500 extra tons of trash at a cost of around $160,000 an additional $92,000 for a line item that has not been properly explained call  “OTHER PURCHASED SER” .  Interestingly within that line item is storm basin cleaning, someone is going to have to explain to me why the trash fee is paying for storm basin cleaning when we are paying over $10 million a year into the water and sewer account that by the way has over $1million in surplus . Additionally I have asked for the last quotes that we had for renewing the trash contract and while  I don’t believe I have all of them I do know the we gave the contract to Hiltz even though they quoted $250,000 more than JRM for a three year contract with a two year option.  The more information I got the more questions I had and when nobody could answer my question all that was left to do was call for a forensic audit of the trash fee. I spoke with the auditor last Friday and although he has only just started looking at it he has come up with a lot of the same questions I have.           

About two years ago I decided to run for Selectmen, why? I couldn’t get any information about this town, I decided that the only way I could find out what’s going on around here was to become a Selectmen. 1 ½ years later I can tell you that I still can’t get any information about this town.  The budget is impossible to follow its about 18 line items with no explanations about the actual expense.  When I ask for information, I don’t get it and I typically need to send 2nd and 3rd request by email and the response is not I’m looking for. I’m constantly getting lip service “great idea, we’ll get right on that Tom,”

Was that email harsh? As the owner of a small business I would never put up with this type of  behavior from any of my employees and I don’t expect it from the town administrator  either.  I put a tremendous amount of time into this job and I getting a little tired of being misled to believe that they are working with me when all they are doing is delaying until it is too late to get anything done.  Everything around here gets done with a whisper campaign of innuendos now we have Paul Rotondi claiming that the town is going to get sued for following the town bylaws.  Everything we did was transparent and aboveboard. There is a Selectmen’s Meeting on Tuesday night and I encourage people to attend, there are many pressing issues that Stoneham is facing like Weiss Farm and we need to start moving forward