McKean County Commissioners will meet this morning with the
declared purpose of preventing the Solid Waste Authority from
sharing part of the money from the landfill sale with 20 county
municipalities.
“What they are doing is wrong,” Chairman of Commissioners John
Egbert said of the $1.3 million refund plan Friday, “and we are
going to tell them it’s null and void.”
“We’re going to challenge this gift.”
In addition to ordering the SWA not to spend that or almost any
other money, the resolution commissioners intend to pass at the
hastily-called special session will also dissolve the Authority as
soon as legal requirements are met.
The action comes after the SWA announced in a special meeting
Tuesday that, since Bradford City and Bradford Township had sued
over being forced to bring trash to the county landfill at a higher
rate than they would have paid in New York state and had forced a
settlement under which they were paid back some of what they had
paid the SWA, it was fair that other municipalities get the same
treatment.
The refund amounts to about a fourth of what will be left from
the sale after bonds and other debts are paid off. Each county
municipality that did not sue would get a share proportionate to
the $189,925 and $77,575 the city and the township received.
At the same time, the SWA designated $2.5 million to go to the
county, less than half of what commissioners believe the county
should get.
“Our intent has always been to invest the money,” Egbert said,
“to build future capital.”
“It is unfortunate they took this action – it is not within
their purview to give the money to municipalities.”
“The money will not be dissipated,” Egbert declared, as he
reaffirmed the commissioners’ desire to invest it.
He also complained that the SWA’s plan asked nothing of the
municipalities except that they agree not to take any future legal
actions against the Authority.
“What about requiring curbside pickups? How about recycling,
stopping illegal dumping?” Egbert said as he listed other things
the municipalities might have been required to do to earn their
money. “It’s irresponsible!”
After hearing of the SWA’s Tuesday actions, commissioners
instructed an Erie law firm, with which they have been consulting,
to draw up a dissolution resolution that also prohibits the
Authority from “expending, gifting, transferring or disposing of
any assets” except in certain limited specified cases.
It also orders the Authority to turn over to the county within
15 days all funds and assets and surrender control of all bank
accounts or accounts receivable to the county.
Within 30 days, the Authority is ordered to turn over control of
all its functions to the county and “directed to dissolve
itself.”
While commissioners had intended to adopt the resolution Monday,
they hurriedly moved their meeting ahead when the SWA advertised a
special session for today.
Apparently, a clerical error had prevented the Authority’s
Tuesday meeting from being duly advertised, and the actions taken
then were not valid.
This morning’s meeting was called to correct that error by
re-adopting the actions, but commissioners moved quickly to
pre-empt any action by the SWA.
SWA members had said they saw the refunds as a fair way to get
some money back to citizens who have been faithfully paying high
rates for two years.
Local officials, several of whom had already reworked their
projected 2006 budgets to include the refunds, which ranged from
$7,195 for the smallest township to $186,195 for the largest, were
predictably upset.
In Port Allegany Manger Dick Kallenborn noted that the refund
would prevent a property tax increase this year; Kallenborn said
that he would be at the 9 a.m. session to urge commissioners to let
the refunds stand.
On Friday afternoon, Kane Borough Manager Pat Nuzzo was calling
other area municipal officials to get them to attend and state
their cases.
The chances for those people to speak will be limited both by
space and by the way the meeting will be conducted.
The session is set for the commissioners’ conference room
adjacent to the main office, a room that is crowded when a dozen
people turn up.
And Egbert said Friday that public comment would be held to 10
minutes, so that action could be taken and the resolution hand
delivered across the street to the offices of SWA Solicitor Tony
Alfieri, where the SWA has scheduled a 10 a.m. meeting to correct
Tuesday’s invalid meeting.
