Waste board choice vexing

July 22, 2008, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach
By Mike Cherney

A fight has erupted between some area mayors and Horry County Council members about the reappointment of a board member to the Horry County Solid Waste Authority, and the outcome could influence who serves as the authority's next chairman.

The council will reconsider today the appointment of Norfleet Jones, whose four-year term on the authority's board expired at the end of June. Last month, the council unanimously rejected Jones' reappointment.

The board is the main policymaking body for the authority, which is funded through taxpayer dollars and dumping fees at its landfill facility, and approves the authority's budget every year.

Jones was renominated by the Horry County League of Cities, which is comprised of the mayors of the county's cities and towns and is allowed to nominate three of the authority's seven board members. The council, which appoints the remaining four, must approve the nominations.

Instead of submitting a different nominee after Jones' rejection, the league offered him up again for the board position. John Long, another league nominee whose term on the authority's board also expired last month, was approved for reappointment by the council July 1 after it initially rejected him, too.

In the midst of the impasse over Jones' reappointment, the authority is trying to settle on a new chairman for next year. The authority postponed that process to wait for new board members to be appointed.

Jones and board members Roderick Smith and Basem Hilal have expressed interest in serving as chairman, said Danny Hardee, the current chairman of the authority. Jones would be knocked out if he was not reappointed to the board by the council.

Hardee said the authority's nominating committee would meet on Thursday to make a nomination for the chairman position. Other board members can also make nominations, and the authority's full board would then vote on the nominees.

Marilyn Hatley, the mayor of North Myrtle Beach and a league member, said last month she thought Jones had done a good job and hoped the council would change its mind regarding his appointment out of respect for the cities.

Hatley and Jones could not be reached for comment Monday.

Councilman Harold Worley said he disagreed with Hatley. He said the board has made poor decisions while Jones has served, such as discussing a proposal to build an expensive retreat center at the authority's landfill facility. Worley said that would not be a good use of public money.

"It's not a personal thing with me," Worley said. "This is a business thing for me."

Other council members have said the board needs an overhaul, but some were undecided Monday as to whether they would vote against Jones' reappointment.

"I would like to see some new people on the board, but this is not a battle that I want to have as [chairwoman] with the mayors," said County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland. "I am caught right now. And my hope is that I don't have to be the swing vote."

The council will also consider paying more money to a company with a waste hauling contract with the authority to offset high fuel costs. Unlimited Sanitation signed a five-year contract for about $1.75 million per year in 2006.

Depending on the cost of fuel, the surcharge could cost anywhere from $130,000 to $400,000 extra per year, according to a June letter from the authority to the county. Property tax dollars would pay for some of the increase.

Proponents of the change say paying the fuel surcharge would be cheaper than finding another company to haul the trash. Hardee said Unlimited Sanitation's bid was $850,000 less per year than other companies.

Others have criticized the contract change, noting that Hardee received campaign donations from the company's co-owners in his failed bid for a County Council seat earlier this year. The authority also recently hired Mike Bessant, who managed Unlimited Sanitation and signed the 2006 contract.

"Now what's wrong with that story?" Worley said.