Sunshine Law and Procurement Violations May Bury No-Bid Landfill Contract

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., June 1, 2010 - The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Inc. (CTDC) and a group of individual citizens announce today that they have filed new counts in their ongoing lawsuit challenging the right of the Jacksonville government to enter into a 19 to 25 year, multi-hundred million dollar, no-bid contract extension with Waste Management to operate the City’s Trail Ridge landfill and future waste disposal technology.

Specifically, they have amended the complaint filed last year against the City of Jacksonville and the City Council to request that the Court declare the passage of Ordinance 2010-217 to be both illegal and void.  The several grounds asserted include multiple City and Council violations of Florida’s open government meeting (“Sunshine”) law.

The lawsuit further seeks to protect the public interest by asking the Court to force the City to correct violations of the public records law, which require government and officials to make records available to every citizen for review and copying.  The City has failed to create and provide minutes of a public meeting (related to Trail Ridge), and refused to make a Council member’s records of the official business use of his cell phone available to the public.

A press conference will be held at 12:00 noon on Thursday, June 3, 2010, in front of the Jacksonville City Hall, 117 West Duval Street, Jacksonville, Florida, by Victor Wilhelm, President of the CTDC, and John Winkler, lead attorney for the Plaintiffs.

The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County Incorporated (CTDC), is a not for profit corporation and nonpartisan political committee dedicated to serving the community as a watchdog group, using public information to oppose corruption, waste, and “Sunshine Law” violations in government. Additional information is available at www.jaxtaxpayers.org as well from the author of this press release, immediate past President John Winkler, 904 384 9918.

Tags: City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council, Sunshine Law, Trail Ridge Landfill, Waste Management

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 9:36 AM and is filed under Local Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.