Bob’s Not Thrilled With His Constituents’ Emails Lately. 

Well, we got a copy of Bob Cole’s response(s) to YOUR complaints about the lack of trash service choice in South Santa Rosa County. He used a form letter, but in his defense he has had nearly 1500 emails concerning trash pickup in the last couple of days to respond to :).

Thanks for your support so far! (If you haven’t signed it, here is the link! It takes about 10 seconds to do.)

In his letter, he basically made three points. 

1. He doesn’t want to end a contract entered into in “good faith”. 
2. He thinks that a second trash service option would mean too many trucks on the roads – which in turn would mean traffic jams in neighborhoods 
3. He says that because our owner’s husband, Nathan, is a county commissioner in Okaloosa County – he should know that a franchise, like the one in Okaloosa County, is a superior way to do business. He thinks this means we at Adams Sanitation should know better. 

Breaking down Bob’s bad argument 

The Commissioner of course is entitled to his own opinions, but he isn’t entitled to his own facts. Let’s go through the claims.

1. In order for a contract to be entered into in good faith, the contract would have to have been competitively bid – according to the county’s own bylaws. The County did not follow its own purchasing rules. The county’s own rules say that if a contract like this is not competitively bid, it is null and void. Bob Cole can’t deny that, because it’s true and he knows it. 
2. Bob thinks that the addition of another trash company into the southern portion of the county would mean too many trash trucks on the road, yet you don’t hear about any complaints like this from the north end. Furthermore, how would Commissioner Bob even know that ‘too many trucks on the road’ would be a problem for the people of South Santa Rosa County – he hasn’t asked anyone, held a single town hall or had the county’s public information team ask any questions of the public to that effect. What we do know is that almost 1800 families (as of the morning of September 3), have asked him to consider allowing the free market to work in the South End of the County just this week alone. 
3. Finally, and my personal favorite, he believes that because the Nathan is elected in Okaloosa County which has a franchise agreement – we are acting like a bunch of hypocrites. Well, we think that’s a bunch of malarkey. Adams Sanitation is not, nor has it ever been, opposed to the principal of franchises. Instead, we just believe that franchise agreements should be competitively bid producing the best value for taxpayers, which everyone knows, this one wasn’t. Heck, Florida statutes even say so! Commissioner Cole is missing the point. At a fundamental level, neither Nathan, Crystal nor anyone else at Adams Sanitation has an issue with franchise agreements. They certainly have their time and place in the world of trash. The issue with Santa Rosa County is not that it franchised, the issue is with how the County has gone about it. 

We believe the Commission needs to answer the following questions before making a decision on how to proceed:

1. Was the franchise ordinance properly adopted following the rules that the County made for itself?
2. Did the County seek input from citizens before abruptly deciding to transition from twice-weekly service to once-weekly service and remove recycling as an included service?
3. Does the Commission believe that by allowing Waste Pro to amend the current contract during the middle of the contract to increase pricing and reduce service that it acted in the best interests of the citizens of South Santa Rosa County, and if so, how so?
4. Did the County competitively bid the current service contract to ensure it was getting the best value for citizens? (I would bet that if Mr. Cole was making a very expensive personal purchase, he would first conduct due diligence on the value, by getting an appraisal or by getting several bids or quotes to ensure he was getting fair value….)
5. Did the County follow its own purchasing manual requirements when awarding the current amended contract?
6. Since displacing the natural regulating force of the free market, has the County properly overseen the contract provider to ensure citizens are getting what they are being forced to pay for?
7. Can the County say that the system is working or that the citizens are happy with it? What does the complaint data show?

At the end of the day, Bob Cole works for you – the taxpayer. Let him know what you want to see happen with trash in Santa Rosa County, even if he doesn’t want to hear it.