Dr. Guarino breaks the news that Greensboro City Council member Nancy Vaughan will be allowed to vote on the contract with Gate City Services to operate the White Street landfill. Vaughan was not allowed to participate in other council votes and discussions because her husband, Sen. Don Vaughan, is an attorney representing one of the other companies that bid to operate the landfill. Ostensibly Nancy Vaughan’s conflict of interest disappears because Don Vaughan’s client is no longer in the running.
A couple of things going on here. For starters, prevailing opinion seems to be that Vaughan’s vote would deadlock the council 4-4, thus spiking the contract with Gate City Services. Vaughan also raises the possibility —for some reason never raised before —– that nearby residents could file a protest petition to keep the landfill from opening:
“Residents with adjacent property would have the opportunity to file for the protest petition. If that’s the case, in order to use IV and V they will have to have a super majority…. That means they need seven affirmative votes. Do you think there are seven council members who would vote for that?”
Vaughan also told Yes!Weekly that she supported the proposed Randolph County regional landfill, which the N&R endorsed on Sunday.
This is total chaos, which has pretty much been the norm for G’boro’s council for years now, contrary to what you read in the paper. For now, I’ll just point to a comment over at Ed Cone’s that kinda echoes my post on the subject. Basically things would be a easier if local governments just took care of their own garbage.
