Broward News & Opinion

Before Plantation residents finish voting Tuesday, they ought to look at Wednesday's City Council agenda.

Mayor Nick Sortal faces Tim Fadgen on Nov. 3. The following evening, his administration is asking the council to extend Waste Management's garbage contract through 2033 without competitive bidding.

Residents using the blue bags would get a nearly 23% increase in their monthly service charge.

The current contract doesn't expire until September 2028. But somehow, this needs to come before the council the day after the mayor's election, with a workshop and proposed approval scheduled for the same evening.

As I've said about trash before, something here stinks.

Back in February, Sortal told residents Plantation had hired a consultant to evaluate garbage collection and help prepare the bidding process. The city would examine the blue bag system, consider its options and seek public input.

“Council members indicated the subsequent trash contract will go out for bid,” his newsletter said.

The no-bid trash contract has been an issue in Plantation for years. A decade ago we put massive pressure on the mayor over the blue bags. Four years ago, when Lynn Stoner was running for reelection as Plantation's mayor, I got into an argument with her about the city's garbage contract.

Stoner had campaigned on the lack of competitive bidding. It helped her win the mayor's office. She was campaigning on it again when she sought reelection, then signed the deal anyway.

I told her she had broken a major campaign promise. That was in late September, with an election still ahead of her.

AT LEAST NICK SORTAL HAS BETTER TIMING

Plantation had experienced service problems and Nick's newsletter article and direction to staff to seek competitive proposals was an attempt to address those issues.

Then Waste Management approached the city in July about another extension.

Now that extension is coming to the council, and the bidding process Sortal and the council promised residents has disappeared.

Here's my favorite part: Waste Management would reimburse Plantation for the consultant hired to help with competitive bidding.

The city hired someone (who is a whole separate story) to help shop around. Now the company keeping the contract would cover the consultant's bill, without having to face competing garbage bids.

I'm a consultant, and even I have to admire that arrangement.

Nice work if you can get it.

Plantation residents, meanwhile, are still arguing about the blue bags. I've polled the issue before, and the city is pretty evenly divided. Some people love paying according to how much garbage they produce. Others hate having to buy special bags.

But neither side should be satisfied with paying more while City Hall declines to shop around.

Under the proposal, the monthly blue bag service charge would rise from $24.16 to $29.71 next April, including the proposed 5% residential franchise fee. Residents would still pay $1.17 for each standard bag. That's nearly 23% more before you throw away the first bag.

The new monthly charge adds up to $356.52 a year before bags. Tamarac residents pay $278.75 annually for traditional garbage service from the same company, Waste Management. Davie residents pay $347.12.

Plantation's blue bag customers would pay more before buying their first bag than residents of many municipalities pay for regular garbage collection.

Those numbers ought to make the council interested in hearing from somebody else.

I've been through these garbage fights before. More than a decade ago, I was involved in the fight to break Broward's old garbage monopoly. Cities got the ability to shop around, companies competed and disposal prices fell. I wrote about that history earlier this year because Broward seems determined to forget what competition accomplished.

Now Plantation is voluntarily passing it up.

The city's presentation says the blue bag collection system costs more to operate. Fine. Ask other companies what they would charge. Waste Management can submit a proposal along with everybody else.

How would anyone know it has the best deal when nobody else gets to bid?

WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO SORTAL AND WEDNESDAY'S AGENDA.

By the time his administration explains this agreement at the workshop, the mayor's election will be over. Residents will have made their choice before that discussion takes place.

That works out nicely for the mayor. It does considerably less for the people paying the garbage bill.

The council should remember that it directed staff to seek competitive proposals. Council members don't have to abandon that instruction just because Waste Management asked for an extension.

And Sortal ought to explain to voters why the bidding process he described in February is being set aside, with a no-bid contract snuck in the day after the election while nobody is paying attention.

There's no need to commit Plantation through 2033 the day after an election. The existing contract has nearly two years left.

Nick, put the damn thing out to bid. You've got time.