Thousand Oaks City Council Hesitates to Send Waste Hauler Contract Out for Open Bid
By Dr. Kevin McNamee January 2, 2020
Thousand Oaks City Council should put the brakes on the decision for a 15 year renewal with Waste Management and E.J. Harrison and Sons, the city’s two waste-hauling providers, until a competitive bid process takes place. This especially needs to occur when the proposed agreement will cause city residents a 13% fee increase and commercial customers a staggering 67% fee increase – which will be passed along to Conejo consumers.
City council at the December 10 meeting voted three to two to postpone voting on a 15 year contract that will give a monopoly to the current waste-hauling companies so council members can “think” about the need for a competitive. What is there to think about? This decision to postpone is a no brainer. It should have been unanimous.
The first rule in economics is the consumer searches for the lowest price for the greatest value of a product or service. Second rule in economics is competitive bids for a product or service allows the consumer to find the highest quality product for the lowest price.
City council members and city managers are custodians of wise spending of our tax dollars for the highest service at the lowest price. A competitive bid process will do this. Keep the money in your pocket, not theirs. You spend it the wisest.
Hoover Institute Economist Thomas Sowell says what is important to a healthy economy is both the amount of money flowing through the market but also the velocity it moves from person to person. By city council members not going to a competitive bid does not ensure the best use of our tax dollars. This is an example of when people in authority spending other peoples’s money, the price goes up.
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