MOUNT JEWETT – The McKean County Solid Waste Authority is still
alive, and apparently will continue to exist, but with
significantly reduced scope and powers.
After a two-hour long “concurrent” meeting of the authority
board and county commissioners, the board unanimously agreed in
principle to become what Commissioner John Egbert called “a
shell.”
Authority attorneys objected to the term.
As outlined in a Jan. 31 letter from the county’s attorneys, the
authority agreed to allow its scope to be reduced to “include only
the administration and compliance with the Asset Purchase Agreement
with Rustick LLP.”
The agreement also states that the authority will hold only one
meeting per year and that its budget is restricted to $500
annually, plus expenses for “any legally required audit.”
Almost any action the authority wanted to take, other than
election of officers, would need specific and official approval of
the commissioners.
Even at that, the agreement is not final, and attorneys for both
the commissioners and the authority will work out certain language
issues.
More than an hour of the session was taken up by executive
sessions while Ken Joel, the Harrisburg-based attorney for the
authority, and Tony Alfieri, the authority’s solicitor, talked to
authority board members.
In a second closed session, the commissioners apparently also
held an executive session to hear advice from Jennifer
Gornall-Rouch and Neal Devlin, their Erie-based attorneys.
The major matter of contention came over a clause in the sales
agreement by which Rustick bought the landfill; that clause says
that if the authority should cease to exist, Rustick would no
longer have to make royalty payments, currently set a $1.25 per ton
of intake.
While the commissioners later secured an agreement from Rustick
that the royalties would continue, even in the absence of the
authority, the authority’s attorneys questioned whether that
agreement would hold up if Rustick went bankrupt or no longer owned
the landfill.
Much of Monday’s meeting was taken up with discussion of that
issue, with mentions of possible “financial difficulties” in the
Rustick operation.
Board member Terry Palmer’s motion to accept the terms of the
January letter began with the preamble, “to protect the revenue
stream.”
In what was at times a difficult-to-follow discussion,
Commissioner Chairman Clifford Lane at one point suggested that
lawyers be sent out of the room and the authority and the two
commissioners present, Lane and Egbert, talk about what their
objectives were.
“Back in October, with no lawyers present,” Lane said, “we
agreed on dissolution – this has gone on too long.”
He continued by noting that too much money was being spent on
lawyers.
While Lane’sðsuggestion was not followed, it was echoed some
time later by an attorney, when Gornall-Rouch told the group that
what they were arguing about were largely “policy decisions,” and
“You people need to talk without lawyers.”
Authority Chairman Mike Holtz also made that point, saying I
think we’re all on the same page.” But in the end, the matter went
back to the attorneys.
There was also discussion, mainly prompted by attorneys, about
the terms of the limited power agreement and how it might inhibit
the “shell” authority from applying for grants that might not be
available to the commissioners, and exactly how the powers of the
authority would legally be spelled out.
The session began with a minor disagreement over whose meeting
it was; apparently the authority had advertised a regular monthly
meeting, while the commissioners, in a separate advertisement, had
called for a joint session.
Holtz, who chaired the session, opened the meeting at 4 p.m. and
answered a question from Bill Belitskus, who asked about the
apparent conflict, by saying that it was an authority meeting, and
that the commissioners did not have the authority to call a joint
session.
Gornall-Rouch suggested that it was a “concurrent meeting” of
the authority and the commissioners, and Lane called a
commissioners’ meeting to order at 4:09 p.m.
There was also contention over money in a bank account,
apparently earmarked some years ago as a fund for post-closure
expenses.
The fund, now approximately $360,000, had evidently gone
unnoticed for three decades until County Financial Officer Dustin
Laurie last year questioned a bill from Hamlin Bank for fund
management.
While some authority members seemed to believe the money is part
of the authority’s responsibility, according to Egbert, the fund is
jointly owned by the county and Sergeant Township, where the
landfill is located.
