ATHENS, Ohio — Messages the Independent received through public records requests indicate that the public and some council members perceive the city’s actions toward forming a council of governments for solid waste services as slow and obscure.
The Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District began the process of forming the Southeast Ohio Area Resources COG in early January; Logan and Amesville have approved membership and Nelsonville is considering it. But the entity whose actions threw Athens-Hocking Recycling Centers’ budgets into chaos has been quiet about joining — and people have noticed.
Since December 2023, local political leaders have discussed creating a council of governments to absorb operations of AHRC after the city of Athens ended its trash hauling contract with the nonprofit in November.
At Athens City Council’s April 1 meeting, Council President Sam Crowl said the body had received approximately 40 communications via email and phone to encourage the city to join the COG. Owners of 11 businesses urged the city to join the COG in a letter to the editor published in the Independent on Feb. 1.
According to council member Alan Swank, however, not everyone is a fan of the COG. In a March 30 email the Independent received through a public records request, Swank told Mayor Steve Patterson and Service Safety Director Andy Stone that “I’ve received numerous communications from residents pointing out the superior service they are now receiving as well as the money they are saving.”
In Monday’s council meeting, Swank said that the he had received “a very well orchestrated series of emails from a group of Ohio University students,” some of which, he said, were “downright disappointing — some vicious, particularly that attacked the character and motivation of at least one elected official in this room today.”
AHRC on Monday reminded supporters on its Facebook page to “remain respectful.”
The Independent has requested all messages to council members and the administration from the public regarding the waste contract and the COG since March 1. Responses to that request are pending.
Swank’s statement about “numerous communications” in support of Rumpke was made in an email forwarding a March 30 message from a resident that raised questions about Patterson’s and Stone’s interest in joining the COG. “There does not appear to be any real evidence that our administration is acting in good faith in this process,” Carrie Gibbons wrote, describing Patterson’s and Stone’s “sluggish pace” regarding the COG.
Swank forwarded the message to Patterson and Stone, writing, “I for one am troubled by the attack on your character and dedication to your craft and the citizens of Athens. Quite frankly, I’m growing weary of this uninformed bullying.”
“We had an election (bid) and one company won,” Swank continued. “To have another election (bid) to overturn the initial results would be most troubling and set a terrible precedent.”
Patterson replied to Swank, “This is an interesting juxtaposition of emotional content and context from the email that you shared with me from the same resident.”
Gibbons is not the only one who has noticed the city’s lack of progress toward joining the COG.
In another email received through a records request, local environmental activist Heather Cantino wrote to council members Michael Wood and Micah McCarey, “We have heard no word on progress either from the Administration or Council” about joining the COG. “There is no excuse for the City’s delay, given long-expressed community concern for the viability of our non-profit compositing, recycling and trash processing organization and the 40+ union jobs that are at stake.”
In a draft response to Cantino that he shared with McCarey, Wood wrote that “we as a council have fairly limited, if any agency as far as joining the CoG. The administration has been encouraged to explore it, and now it’s mostly, possibly entirely, in their hands to take action.”
The draft included an excerpt of minutes from city council’s Jan. 16 meeting stating that Swank had responded to a resident who asked about forming the COG. According to those minutes, Swank told the resident that the council could only vote on joining the COG and that the details of the agreement would be the responsibility of Stone and “another member of the Administration, yet to be named.”
At Monday’s council meeting, AHRC board president Andy Voigt apologized to city officials for “threats and just vicious dialogue” they had received, but also noted the importance of moving forward.
However, residents aren’t the only ones who perceive a lack of interest in the COG from the administration. In an email Monday, city council member Solveig Spjeldnes told the Independent that she has “received zero communication from the Mayor or Director Stone regarding Solid Waste_Rumpke or AHRC,” adding, “I find it disturbing that we have not received any such communication.”
Stone did respond to a March 24 email from council member Jessica Thomas requesting an update on the COG.
In his response the next day, Stone said the city has “several concerns with the documents, including that the COG is able to borrow funds for operating expenses and assess repayment costs to the members, that liability assessed beyond the COG’s liability insurance coverage limits would extend to the members, that members dues may be modified to cover expenses, and several other issues.”
“Athens would be the largest payer for services, but only get 1 vote out of upwards of 11 voting members on the COG,” Stone wrote.
Additionally, “AHRC told us at the first meeting that they had operating funds to stay solvent until mid 2025, but recently they contacted us and said they were incorrect and would go insolvent in mid-2024, and wanted to rush progress on the COG with the expectation that Athens would both join and opt for collection services by July 2024,” Stone said.
At a Dec. 13 public meeting about forming a COG, AHRC Executive Director Crissa Cummings said that the organization would deplete its cash reserves by May 2024.
That means the city would have to implement the 60-day termination clause in its contract with Rumpke on or about May 1, Stone said in his email.
“Even if the membership documents were perfect and it was financially advantageous for Athens (neither of which is the case), given that it takes 7 weeks for council to do anything, | do not believe this timeline is remotely realistic,” Stone wrote Thomas. “We intend to continue to explore the idea, and will bring forward a proposal to council when and if it makes sense.”
Thomas replied and encouraged transparency from city administration toward the public: “It’s also fair to be open about it,” she wrote.
The Independent is awaiting further responses to its records request for all communications since March 20 between the city administration and council regarding the COG.
This story was updated on April 8 to clarify which emails Swank described as “vicious.”
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