Sunday, December 22, 2024
When Rep. Tracy Edge looks back on his 2014 primary election defeat, he can thank the Horry County Solid Waste Authority (HCSWA), at least in part, for the result.
According to its check register, HCSWA donated $5,000 of public money, in Fiscal Year 2013-14, to sponsor two tables at the Conservative Voters of South Carolina (CVSC) annual Green Tie Luncheon fundraiser.
CVSC targeted Edge for defeat, directly supporting his opponent Greg Duckworth.
After seeing notice of a proposed nominee to the Horry County Solid Waste Authority (HCSWA) Board of Directors, it appears that everything is back to normal on Hwy 90.
As we have recently seen with Coast RTA, oversight is the single most important function that an appointed board should exercise over the public agency it is associated with.
Otherwise, you can wind up owing hundreds of thousands of public dollars to state and federal agencies because of poor program management leading to failed projects.
To be fair, in the case of the HCSWA, it is much more the wasting of millions of public dollars on lobbyists, attorneys and public relations firms because the board fails to say no to wasteful management recommendations.
Horry County Solid Waste Authority officials were singing the blues at a pre-budget workshop earlier this week claiming a loss of $400,000 in revenue next fiscal year because of the elimination of construction and demolition debris from county flow control regulations.
Truth and reality rarely are factors at the HCSWA Hwy 90 headquarters and they are quickly removed if they are. There is nothing to base this $400,000 assumed loss of revenue on, but it’s being put out for media consumption.
And some media outlets in the county will play directly into the hands of HCSWA officials by spreading it.
The Horry County Solid Waste Authority is looking for a way to continue lobbying activities in Columbia despite last week’s vote by Horry County Council to amend the county’s flow control ordinance.
The HCSWA Finance Committee will consider a request by HCSWA executive director Danny Knight to approve approximately $30,000 initially for continued lobbying activities.
If the committee approves the request, the HCSWA board will consider giving approval at its regular meeting in February.
In the meantime, Knight has approval of the HCSWA board to negotiate a temporary, month-to-month agreement in the $5,000/mo range.
Horry County Council will conduct its annual fall budget retreat next week among uncertainty about how much revenue the county will collect from property taxes in the coming fiscal year.
This is a budget reassessment year with all indications that property in the county will have a lower assessed value than it did five years ago, the result of the bursting of the housing bubble five years ago.
Some oceanfront property is known to have sold as much as 70 percent lower in the past few years as the result of distressed sales.
The state’s Act 388 of 2007 made the point of sale price the determining factor in new assessed values on property. Lower sales prices mean lower assessed values on which taxes are calculated.
The Horry County Solid Waste Authority (HCSWA) will have another day in court as the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in an appeal by William Clyburn, former owner of Sandlands C&D LLC and Express Disposal.
The arguments are scheduled for October 31, 2013 in Richmond. Clyburn will be attempting to overturn the district court decision that upheld the county’s waste stream flow control ordinance that established a monopoly in garbage disposal for the HCSWA, seriously hurting Clyburn’s businesses.
For the hearing, the HCSWA will be claiming it is a non-profit corporation. As HCSWA Executive Director Danny Knight said in an I&R meeting two months ago, “in court we’re not the county.”
The specter of further contretemps between Horry County Council and the Coast RTA board over appointment power to that board appears to be looming in the not too distant future.
Horry County provides approximately 50% of the total amount of state and local grants to the transit authority ($1.06 million of an approximate $2 million total). Those grants are matched 50-50 by the federal government to provide most of the Coast RTA operating budget.
Fourth quarter FY 2014 funds were only recently released to Coast RTA by county council. But, if information sources are providing to us proves accurate, the real showdown will come when next year’s budget is discussed.
The Horry County Solid Waste Authority (HCSWA) board ignored business while spending one-third of its meeting time Tuesday night in what appeared to be a choreographed criticism over the verbiage in emails sent by board member Dan Gray.
The entire exercise was utterly ridiculous, but it did accomplish its probable goal of altering the discussion from what the HCSWA board and staff is not doing to chastising the one board member who has the courage to point out what the board and authority should be doing.
The email that offended the board members is quoted below in its entirety. It was sent in reference to the public meeting held by the authority recently to discuss plans for HCSWA property after closure of the landfill.
When Horry County Council tabled a resolution to sign a contract with the Horry County Solid Waste Authority (HCSWA) it took the first step to get an out of control agency under control.
This was a much needed and long overdue step, but only the first of what must be many steps.
In refusing to sign the contract, the county is now in the ridiculous position of paying higher tipping fees at its own landfill than Waste Industries, which has signed a contract.
A private hauler getting better rates at the county owned landfill than the county?
And for anyone who doesn’t believe the landfill is owned by the county, one only has to refer to the many statements by HCSWA director Danny Knight in which he said the landfill was owned by all the citizens of the county.
By a vote of 8-3 Tuesday night, Horry County Council tabled consideration of a contract with the Horry County Solid Waste Authority (HCSWA).
In simple form, the contract would have reduced the landfill charges to the county based on the amount of recyclable materials sent to the landfill.
But, it’s a county owned landfill and all the waste sent to it from the county comes from the convenience centers spread throughout the unincorporated areas. The county charges residents in the unincorporated areas property taxes of slightly over $6 million per year, which it pays to the HCSWA to operate those centers.
Speak Up…