Our view: Wasting time when there’s no time to waste

Del Norte County government braces for cutbacks in state funding that Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Hemmingsen calls “the tsunami of all tsunamis.” Meanwhile, all levels of local government race to prepare “shovel-ready” projects that might capture part of the federal stimulus package. And City Hall struggles to emerge from a financial mess that led its leaders to suspend almost all discretionary spending.

These are tumultuous times. So why, exactly, are officials embarking on a costly new effort to study — and possibly dissolve — a local government entity that seems to be doing just fine?

The Del Norte County Solid Waste Management Authority was created in 1992 by the city and county to oversee the region’s solid waste issues. It monitors the landfill that was closed in 2005 due to environmental issues. It owns and oversees the transfer station where our waste is now collected and sorted — and where you can haul your own junk, seven days a week. And it manages the franchise through which Del Norte Disposal picks up curbside garbage and recyclables. Its contract expires next year, and the authority is expected to be considering bids from Del Norte Disposal and other companies for a new franchise.

All those services would still be needed if the authority was dissolved. They’d just have to be handled by what we would have left – city and county governments that are already struggling financially. There would likely be protracted negotiations over who would do what. The city and county might each award their own garbage collection franchises, likely to the detriment of residents in rural, harder-to-reach areas who currently pay the same pickup rates as city-dwellers.

In other words, we’d have less city-county cooperation and a lot more uncertainty.

Is the Solid Waste Authority operating at peak efficiency? We’ve heard nothing to indicate otherwise. It is audited regularly and it breaks even financially without levying its own taxes. That alone would seem to make it an unlikely candidate for additional investigation when so much else is on the plate of local governments.

Nevertheless, in one of his first acts as chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, and one that was not on the meeting agenda, Hemmingsen announced he was creating an ad hoc committee to determine if the authority is necessary. He appointed Supervisor Mike Sullivan to head the committee, which held its first meeting Tuesday — behind closed doors.

Among those in attendance were the county attorney, two county administrators and the city manager, officials who don’t exactly work for free. Their main objective at this first meeting was to decide which documents they’d request of the authority.

Neither Hemmingsen nor Sullivan has offered a compelling reason for this exercise. Hemmingsen said he’s heard concerns from constituents, whom he declined to identify. Sullivan noted the authority has an annual budget of nearly $4 million and said, “Let’s open it up and see what it looks like inside.” Okay, but the county government as a whole is a $102 million-a-year operation, so what is it about the authority that merits special attention right now?

When he was on the Solid Waste Authority Commission, Sullivan quite appropriately questioned the fact that board members are paid $375 a month — reduced to $300 if they don’t show up for meetings. All stipends paid to county supervisors and City Council members for serving on additional boards should be scrutinized and possibly eliminated.

Frankly, that’s a different issue entirely and falls far short of justifying the decision to expend precious time and money right now to launch an investigation of the Solid Waste Authority.