08.24.07

Landfill Contract Proponents Met Secretly Today

Posted in Landfill, Williamson County at 4:03 pm by wcnews

An EOW reader informs us that County Judge Dan Gattis called an unannounced meeting this morning to discuss the county’s draft contract with Waste Management, Inc. (WMI). According to our source, members of the County Commission and Hutto City Council met with a representative of WMI to solidify support for the draft contract and prevent further defections.

Our sources have identified the following elected officials in attendance at this morning’s secret meeting:

• Hutto mayor Ken Love
• Hutto city council member Debbie Holland
• Hutto city council member Jason Wirth
• Williamson County Judge Dan Gattis, Sr.
• Williamson County commissioner Lisa Birkman Ron Morrison
• A representative of Waste Management, Inc.

The reason for the meeting, according to our source, was to stop more members of the Hutto City Council from joining a group of public officials who oppose the draft contract between Williamson County and Waste Management Inc. (WMI).

Our source informed us that the meeting was hurriedly called by Gattis in response to two Hutto City council members recently joining a group of public officials calling for the county commission to reject the draft contract with WMI and put an end to landfill permit expansion proceedings at the State Office of Administrative Hearings. A vote by the Williamson county commission on the proposed contract with WMI is scheduled Tuesday morning.

The two members of the Hutto City council who have come out against the draft contract and landfill expansion are Tina Slayton and David Bergier.

Update: EOW has learned that Williamson county commissioner Ron Morrison attended the private meeting instead of Lisa Birkman. Morrison has publicly opposed the draft contract with WMI, so the meeting is not correctly characterized in this post’s title. EOW has obtained independent verification that the meeting took place as reported, however. The agenda remains unclear.

Update2: EOW has received conflicting reports about which members of the Williamson county commission attended this meeting. Due to the haziness of the details, we are now retracting the details of this report except that a meeting including at least one representative from WMI, Hutto city council members and possibly one Williamson county commissioner met privately Friday for the purpose of trying to quell a growing resistance among elected officials to the proposed expansion of the landfill.

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