By D. L. Norris
As a citizen of Okaloosa County, residing in the extreme southwest corner of the county, I conduct most of my life’s activities in Santa Rosa County (SRC) due to proximity. I shop in Navarre & Gulf Breeze and attend church & frequent the beaches in Navarre. While I have no power of the vote in SRC, I do pay attention to the local politics because SRC garners the majority of my sales tax dollars and I like to stay informed on how they are being spent. In monitoring local news and social media sites, I came across various posts concerning Adams Sanitation, Waste Pro and SRC.
Adams Sanitation is located in Baker, FL and owned by Nathan Boyles. Nathan Boyles is also the Okaloosa County District 3 Commissioner. Waste Pro was founded in 2001 and operates regionally in more than 75 locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North & South Carolina.
Waste Pro has a franchise contract with SRC for the south end of the county. There is nothing unusual about Florida counties having franchise contracts with waste hauling companies, many counties have them. In fact, according to wastedive.com, only about 12 of Florida’s 67 counties still have fully open market systems.
My county, Okaloosa, has a franchise contract with Waste Management to service the south end of its county. As a homeowner under that contract, I do not have a choice in who picks up my garbage. In the past four years, not one of my Okaloosa County Commissioners, to include District 3 Nathan Boyles, has advocated for Okaloosa County to stop the practice of waste franchises and start allowing for free market competition in the arena of trash pickup.
It is interesting to note that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed into law SB 694. The law is intended to limit local governments from pursuing franchise systems or other actions that could displace private waste company competition. Any government seeking to change the nature of those systems would have to provide three years’ notice to any displaced private waste companies and pay those companies an amount equal to the company’s 18 months gross receipts. According to Keyna Cory, president of Public Affairs Consultants and a lobbyist for the National Waste & Recycling Association’s state chapter, this law does not apply to any local governments with franchise agreements all ready in place. The bill also defines “storm-generated yard trash” and says haulers are not required to collect this material unless specified by a local government contract. Additionally, the bill directs the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to review and update a 2010 report on the regulation of retail bags and related auxiliary containers.
Adams Sanitation claims on their website the contract between SRC and Waste Pro is invalid because SRC did not re-bid the contract through a competitive bidding process. They claim SRC should either “immediately put the contract out to bid properly and competitively, or allow the free market to reign supreme in South Santa Rosa County.” The website also accuses the SRC government of “collusion” between itself and Waste Pro to defraud the citizens of SRC of their rights to choose their trash service. Call me naive but, I believe only a judge in a court of law can declare a contract invalid or non-binding. I do not believe Adams Sanitation has that authority.
As an elected Okaloosa County representative since 2012, Commissioner Nathan Boyles has had a bully pulpit from which to advocate from on a bi-weekly bases. While I have not been watching Commissioner Boyles politically for nine years, I have been watching his politics for the past four years now and, in that time, he has not advocated for free market competition of waste franchises. Why hasn’t he advocated for free market competition of waste franchises in Okaloosa County as fervently as he has in SRC? Probably because the Florida Ethics laws prevent Commissioner Boyles from entering into a contract between the county he was elected to represent and his own sanitation company. But, if he truly believes in free market competition for waste franchises, he should be advocating for it in Okaloosa County as well even if he can’t profit from it.
According to SRC documents, in July 2020, SRC and Waste Pro entered into an Amended Residential and Solid Waste and Recycling Collection Franchise Agreement for all incorporated areas of SRC. The contract extended and expanded the pre-existing contract between SRC and Waste Pro which was originally entered into in July 2011 and included a smaller geographic area of SRC. The amended contract has an initial term of January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2025. It is a single service provider franchise agreement.
Sadly, Adams Sanitation is using SRC residents by asking them to “sign up for our deposit program. Here’s what happens, we sign you up for future service [with a $10 deposit]. This helps to show the powers that be the people are serious about getting a choice when it comes to their trash service. When the county approves our permit to operate in the area, you are on the priority list to get our service and the $10 goes toward your first monthly payment! If we are unable to get service in the south end of Santa Rosa County, or you just don’t want to use us – we’ll refund your money in full.”
How many $10 deposits has Adams Sanitation received so far? How long does Adams Sanitation plan to hold on to those $10 deposits? What about the interest on those $10 deposits? Will Adams Sanitation return the interest on those $10 deposits as well?
As stated before, if Nathan Boyles truly believes in free market competition for waste franchises, he should be advocating for it for all counties regardless of whether he can personally profit from it or not. As a businessman, Nathan Boyles should return the $10 deposits of the hard-working citizens of SRC and pony up his own money on a lawsuit in circuit court to prove his position that the SRC contract with Waste Pro is invalid; otherwise, as an elected official, Nathan Boyles should be quiet and stay out of SRC’s business because his trash war smells of hypocrisy.
Post Script: At the 20 July 2021 BOCC meeting, the issue of recycling was discussed. Once again, District 3 Commissioner Nathan Boyles had a clear opportunity to advocate for a free market waste franchise in Okaloosa County (and all FL counties) and failed to do so. He is obviously content with Okaloosa County having a waste franchise agreement with Waste Management for the south end of Okaloosa County and doesn’t care about the Okaloosa County citizens’ rights to choose their trash service; but, somehow he thinks there is “collusion” between SRC and Waste Pro to defraud the citizens of SRC of their rights to choose their trash service.
You can contact the author at dlnorris@theparadisepatriot.com