Commissioner questions waste consulting _¶ rm

If Orange County Commissioners build a proposed waste transfer station their consulting firm stands to earn close to half a million dollars.

The company Olver Inc. is being paid to sort out the future of the station in Bingham township" about 10 miles west of Carrboro.

Commissioner Barry Jacobs and some residents say that constitutes a conflict of interest ­— especially when the firm is being asked to look into the option of not building a transfer station at all.

The issue is part of a list of comments and concerns shared by commissioners and residents alike that complicate the validity of the county's transfer station search.

""I think it's a legitimate concern"" Jacobs said, adding that he's gotten into head butting"" with staff in the past about similar issues.

 ""I doubt I'm the only one who's looking with a skeptical eye.""

The county has been trying to site a waste-transfer station" which would serve as collection point for garbage before it is shipped out of the county for more than two years.

After the county scrapped plans to build a station on Eubanks Road in November 2007 commissioners interviewed two consulting firms to look for a transfer station site.

They chose Olver which has whittled down hundreds of possibilities to a final site in Bingham.

Recently commissioners also asked the company to look into the price of alternatives to building a transfer station like outsourcing the county's waste management to private contractors.

If the county moved to abandon plans to build a transfer station Olver would miss out on more than $400000 in engineering fees.

If the county chooses the company to manage construction it could earn even more.

But Gayle Wilson the county's solid waste management director says it's not a problem to ask Olver to provide an objective perspective on something that could lose the firm money.

Having a company both site and build a station is standard procedure Wilson said.

The people driving the complaints are residents who can't take no for an answer" Wilson said.

""Apparently there's not enough real news associated with this project"" he said. The conflict of interest is a dead end that people who are desperate for issues are trying to use.""

Residents have also raised concerns that Jim Reynolds" a former manager in Wake County's waste management division now works for Olver on the transfer station project.

Multiple news sources reported that Reynolds resigned earlier this year amid controversy over inappropriate expense reports that he signed. The forms had authorized staff not on official business to take trips around the country.

Bob Sallach Olver's project manager for the station search who said he spoke on behalf of Reynolds" said bringing up his history is a low blow.

""I think it's extremely cheap"" he said, adding that Reynolds' expertise is invaluable to Orange County.

I'm not sure that anybody knows what happened in Wake County.""

He said Reynolds is an analyst and not in a position to affect the future of county waste management.

Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey also said there is no question of whether the company has a conflict of interest.

""Professional engineers are bound by their professionalism and by their ethics to provide the best information" she said.

But Jacobs wasn't sure.

I'm not sure I would hire the gentleman" he said. I'm not sure I would have wanted to hire a company of which he was a prominent member.""

As resident groups like Orange County Voice gear up protests" some commissioners are eager to bring the transfer station search to a close.

But others say every question brings on a tangle of others" further complicating the decisions the board will have to make.

""It's almost like a rug that has rough edges" Jacobs said. If you start pulling one of the edges" the rug starts unraveling and you don't know where that's going to end.""



Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.