Jerry Hill…one last garbage move on his way to Sacramento

Apparently Supervisor-turned-Assemblymember Jerry Hill hasn’t been too busy getting his staff together to continue to dog (or Watch Dog) the local garbage agency.

In a press release, he calls for the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury to investigate the operation contract the South Bayside Waste Management Authority awarded for their Shoreway facility in San Carlos.

Watch Dog readers will remember some of the past highlights of this saga…and for you newbies, check out the timeline here.

But if you don’t have time for the full history, here is a brief. The SBWMA oversees the garbage contracts and they awarded a new contract for pick-up and a new contract for the Shoreway facility that deals with the trash/recycling that is picked up. Seems pretty straightforward…except…

The current contractor, Allied Waste, didn’t get these new contracts and they weren’t going down quietly. In fact, they claimed that the Shoreway facility could be rebuilt for a fraction of the cost the government agency (SBWMA) thought it could be built for. Allied complained loudly to everyone.

When the new contracts came for County approval, Jerry Hill looked into the bid process and didn’t like what he saw. He criticized SBWMA’s chief Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy fired back by ginning up letters from bidders. The newspaper found out that the letters were solicited by McCarthy, and Hill got really mad.

Fortunately for McCarthy, Hill is headed up to Sacramento shortly to become an Assemblymember. Unfortunately for McCarthy, Hill asking for an investigation will likely lead to one by the Civil Grand Jury. And it is assured that the Civil Grand Jury investigation will be a lot more thorough and a lot less friendly than the internal audit that McCarthy ended up doing on his own organization.

This is the same Civil Grand Jury that continues to haunt the goings on in Atherton Town government. Expect the same of the Civil Grand Jury as they look into McCarthy, his Board, his staff, and the contract process.