Bidder continues fight in Carson City garbage pact

As the Board of Supervisors prepares to approve Carson City’s new waste management contract on Thursday, city staff is working to comply with a public records request from one of the vendors who vied for the job.

Joshua Hicks, partner, McDonald Carano, representing C&S Waste Solutions, sent a letter to Nancy Paulson, city manager, on Dec. 13 requesting public records regarding the formulation of its Nov. 1 meeting agenda item to award the contract to Waste Management of Nevada.

That includes emails, texts, or memos between city staff and others concerning the drafting of the language for the item.

The Public Records Act requires the city within five business days to either comply or give written notice of when it will be able to supply the documents, according to Dan Yu, chief deputy district attorney and counsel for the Board of Supervisors.

“Upon receipt of the public records request, the city has been in a comprehensive process of gathering all responsive documents for review and to determine any confidentiality, including communications that are protected by the attorney-client privilege,” said Yu. “Any record not confidential pursuant to law or otherwise privileged will be released, and any withheld will be noted in a privilege log.”

C&S earlier sent a notice of appeal to the city contending the decision to award a contract to Waste Management was “arbitrary and capricious,” based on a flawed agenda item and incorrect legal advice, and should be redone.

The Nov. 1 agenda item specified Waste Management, based on Public Works’ staff recommendation, and when the board considered a motion to award the contract to C&S instead, Yu told the supervisors the item language limited them to voting on Waste Management or to taking no action.

On Thursday, the board is scheduled to vote whether to approve the contract with Waste Management, which staff has been working on since the decision was made to award it to the vendor.