Zirana City Blog

In response to a searing letter from San Mateo Supervisor Jerry Hill that took issue with the transparency of the board’s process for choosing a new garbage and recycle pick-up service, SBWMA has removed Kevin McCarthy, its executive director, from the selection process.

McCarthy was the source of Hill’s complaint. After SBWMA settled on Norcal Waste Systems, dumping Allied Waste which has held the contract for nine years, two weeks ago, McCarthy then took the unusual action of emailing the four unsuccessful bidders asking them to write a letter defending the SBWMA’s bidding process.

“[I] have a special and awkward request to make: can [you] write a letter stating that while you are certainly disappointed with the results and you not being selected you feel the rfp processes were conducted professionally, thoroughly and with the highest level of transparency and integrity,” McCarthy wrote in the Aug. 23 e-mail.

After that, Hill took issue with the transparency of SBWMA process which, he wrote, makes him “suspicious of what I’m getting from them.”

Besides removing McCarthy from the selection process, SBWMA chair Larry Patterson wrote that the executive committee will review and approve direct correspondence with the proposers regarding the selection process and the committee’s role in contract negotiations with the short-listed firms will be increased for direct oversight.