County Residents Speak Out

County residents have been vocal in their feelings about no freedom of choice regarding their selection of a trash hauler. The following are comments posted by various residents. These can also be found under COMMENTS with the various articles at this site.

Comments received:

Charlie Dooley does owe the citizens of St. Louis County a great big Apology. He has now mismanaged this program into costing Taxpayers 10's of millions of Dollars. How incompetent do things have to get? St. Louis County needs a change of leadership.

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Let's face it....... St. Louis County, is NOT a good stewart of our Tax Money. Dooley said he was doing this to help and protect county residents. The only thing we need protection from is Dooley and his follow behind knuckleheads.

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It's time to shake the County Government blanket and elect new leadership. This is ridiculous. Their track record sucks.

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When you start adding up what this program cost the taxpayers, it is really scarey. In the beginning, the County was taking our tax dollares through fees at the landfills, they were hidden taxes, but over the years, it surpassed nearly $10 million over the years.

Then, they purchased recycle carts and handed them out like candy, this program cost over $4.5 million, with no control over the carts.

Then they bid the Districts and caused mass confusion costing well over $. 5 half a million, now add in the county government cost of defending itself in court over this bad decission.

Then, there will be a settlement with the loosing companies which could easily gover well over $5 million or more............

All of this over a simple system of competitive trash collection that wasn't broke, and was working. County government at it's best.

Good work guys and gals. You should be proud of yourself.

It's no wonder the County is having money problems..............

Oooppps, it us that are having the money problems, we pay for it.

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This issue isn't over. And I predict that we will not unwind the clock. The damage has been done.

The big question is, how much is it going to COST us taxpayers. The County will be forced to reach a settlement with the haulers that were damaged and pay damages for their loss of business. That will run into the multiple millions of dollars.

But the Districts and the contract agreements will stand and will be carried out as set up. If the county trys to cancel the awarded contracts and unwind things, the companies that were awarded the contracts will sue for their damages. So, settlement with the loosing companie is the lesser of two evils.

No one wins here. The existing companies lost their business, the people lost thier right to choose, the taxpayers will be paying for everything, the low prices that were awarded will be ramped up because of the settlement.But, not to worry, no one in the County will loose their jobs....not Dooley, not Earls, not Redington, no one.............just everyone else looses.

Good work County Government.

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The trash program itself was not a bad idea, and similar programs are being implemented all over the country- it really appears to be unavoidable. I realize some people fret over their right to choose, but trash service is essentially a utility and they do not have a choice over any of their other utilities- why? Because it’s more cost effective.

The follow through of the County does suck.

They should have been upfront about this and done this through a municipal tax type of program- if it went up for vote it would have passed. Despite what people like to think most people are thankful for this program they realize the obvious benefits and are not afraid to give up their "right to choose" over something that is so trivial.

It’s a good idea and in the end will be implemented but a lot of headaches and possibly some costs could have been saved if they would have just done this through a county taxed program.

One comforting thought is that the tax money that may be awarded to some of these companies as a result of various lawsuits will all be recovered by the people who use these services in less than a year’s time through the financial savings it offers to the customer.

I full heartedly agree that this was done sloppily, and that the county government needs to be more upfront and accountable - but the rest of the complaints really have no validity.