SWA votes to resume accepting pay

The county's solid waste authority voted Thursday to reinstate compensation for attending meetings, including back pay, after other county committees refused the authority's earlier example of refusing it.

But that move did not sit well with one of the authority's members.

Last month, Bill Lewis repeated his challenge to members of county boards and committees to give up their pay due to the tight economy and its effect on county budgets.

However, Bedford County Financial Management Committee members said last month that it should be an individual decision, not a county policy, if members of county boards and committees want to give up their pay and the committee took no formal action on Lewis' request.

County finance director Robert Daniel told the Times-Gazette last month that it would be hard to put a figure on how much would be saved if committees were not paid because some members who receive payment do not have a regular meeting schedule.

But on Thursday, Lewis launched into a series of critical statements directed at the members of other committees for not adopting his idea.

"We don't know how much money it's costing us, we don't know if we can even do this, and we don't intend to go find out," he said. "That is about the poorest performance from a group of individuals responsible for the money in Bedford County that I've heard in a long time."

County mayor Eugene Ray repeated Daniel's statement that it was hard to put a figure on how much is spent since all boards to not have a regular meeting schedule.

"If anybody on this board don't want the money, they don't have to take it," Ray said, adding that if any other member of a county committee or board want to give back their compensation, they can.

Lewis said he wasn't sure the item was brought up, but member Bobby Vannatta said it was and "discussed, discussed and discussed."

Lewis then criticized Vannatta for not making a motion for his idea, but Vannatta said "You asked me to bring it up, so I brought it up," adding that his making a motion would not have mattered because no one on that committee would have seconded the motion anyhow.

But Lewis continued at some length to criticize the fact his idea was not acted upon by any other committee or board.

Other business

In other business, the authority voted to get advice from the county attorney on the proper course of action to recover some $12,000 from a scrap metal dealer and "not let him off the hook."

The authority voted in June to send a certified letter to Robert Madeo of South East Recovery Group to ask that payment to be made within 30 days.

South East Recovery Group was awarded the contract last December at 65 percent of the average of the first and third Friday's price of metal on the New York Stock Exchange, after Middle Tennessee Metal Recovery fell behind on payments to the county last year due to falling metal prices caused by the economic downturn.

A letter to the authority from attorney M. Wyatt Burk of law firm Bobo, Hunt, White & Nance said it was clear to him that Madeo was unwilling to voluntarily agree to a proposed promissory note arrangement.

"His main concern was that he felt that he should not be required to pay interest on the money he owes the county," the letter stated. "Mr. Madeo further reiterated that he will pay $100/ month to the county with payment bearing no interest."

Burk told the authority that it was his opinion that he "has exhausted all means to come to a settlement agreement" and that next remedy available to the county would be a civil suit, where the county could seek a judgement against Madeo.

But Burk also added that "as previously discussed, collection on such judgement is highly suspect."

The authority debated what action they should take with Mayor Ray saying that the court cost involved would likely be more than any money recovered from Madeo, adding they had already spent $750 in legal fees already to recover the money owed.

The authority also wanted to get estimates on the cost of a suit to the county as opposed to a judgement

The other firm that owes money to the county for scrap, Middle Tennessee Metal Recovery, owes $6,000 but he has already paid $500 and has promised to continue making payments.

Solid waste coordinator Gay Ervin also informed the authority that the county's tire storage facility on Highway 82 South was inspected by the state's division of solid waste management and that no violations were found.