Terrell Garrett - Are taxpayers being scammed by recycling contractors?

Taxpayers expect public projects to be completed honestly, especially when it comes to protecting the environment. But what happens when a contractor allegedly admits to falsifying recycling reports while continuing to receive government-funded work?

Terrell Garrett, CEO of GreenWay Recycling, joins the show to discuss allegations that a Portland recycling contractor misreported recycling rates on taxpayer-funded projects, why the company continues to receive public contracts, and what accountability should look like.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome back to the Lawrence Larson Show. It's a pleasure to be with you, and I'm glad to get to back to get back to your phone calls and emails in just a moment. I gotta tell you something. This does not surprise me one little bit. If you ask what is one of the greenest areas in the Pacific Northwest, politically and otherwise, when it comes to recycling and hugging trees and all that, it would have to be the Pacific Northwest and places like Portland and Seattle. Then consider this. What happens when a contractor allegedly admits to falsifying recycling reports for years while landing taxpayer-funded projects? And even when the government finds out that that has happened, they go ahead and renew the contract instead of putting a stop to it. I thought we'd talk about it with Terrell Garrett, who is CEO of Greenway Recycling. Terrell, welcome back to the program. How are you, sir?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Good. Thank you. Good to talk with you, Lars.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

So tell me about the story that I just referenced generically. What happened when Metro, a regional government, said we have a contract with a company? The company allegedly falsifies recycling reports, fibs about what they're doing, and when they get caught, Metro, the government agency, goes ahead and renews the contract anyway. Is that accurate?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Uh mostly, yes. Uh, you remember last fall the Multnomah County auditor came out and said that on all the library projects, that City of Roses had grossly overstated recovery rates in order to get lease certifications?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Well, it turned out that two more government auditors fell in step with that for other like city and school projects. Finally, the United States Green Building Council made findings those numbers were invalid and revoked recycling points and even downgraded one of the library projects from gold to silver. Well, on December 5th, Metro fined City of Roses for a number of items, misreporting materials as far as what they called them, misreporting inventories, throwing recyclable materials illegally into the landfill, and taking recyclable materials from Metro's own convention center and throwing them in the landfill. And Metro fined them $10,500 and said, Don't do it anymore. Then on the 18th of December, the CEO of City of Roses sat in front of the Metro Council and said, We're not doing this anymore. We're walking the straight line and being good citizens. And they had a whole lineup of people that said how good a people they were and how trustworthy. Well, Monday, Metro issued another violation and said, Guess what? They never stopped throwing the stuff from the convention center in the garbage. They never stopped misreporting materials. In fact, in the violation, the CEO of City of Roses admits to throwing all sorts of materials into the landfill in violation of state law. And these are materials that came off of local government projects where they claim that those materials have been recycled. Now, this is not a one-time thing. This is over a period of three years of continual behavior of this type. So the, you know, they use these statements to gain a five-year extension on their transfer station permit with Metro. And yet, not one government agency has thrown them off a single job. In fact, the schools right now are considering hiring them for the solid waste collection and recycling contract for the Jefferson High School replacement.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Which is a gigantic project. This is the one where they're going to build a school that it's a separate issue, but it's far too big, far too expensive. They're literally some of the most expensive high schools in America, built at about a half a billion dollars apiece, and we've documented that. So they set up a tremendous incentive, if I'm understanding this right, to say we meet all the criteria. We recycle, we do all this. And as long as you're not caught and then punished for lying about it, lying can be very, very lucrative, and it seems to have been for City of Roses. Is that a fair conclusion?

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yes, I believe so, Lars. And what I did instead was I learned that there was a third-party certification nonprofit called the Recycling Certification Institute that was formed as a joint venture between my industry association and the United States Green Building Council as a way to combat false reporting of recovery rates. I immediately signed up and I was the first in Oregon to become certified and remain so today.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

So explain this to me. They took almost a million pounds of drywall, 409 tons of drywall, which would be, you know, just short of a million pounds of drywall, and just dumped it in the landfill. How are they getting away with this? And why is Metro so I want your theory as to why Metro seems willing to say, oh, you broke the rules? That's okay, we'll sign you up for a few more years.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Well, uh, quite frankly, I think staff is really upset about this. I think the problem is with the council, because when Core City of Roses had their December renewal of their transfer station franchise, staff said, Hey, we're still investigating these guys. Renew them for a year, not five, let us finish our investigation. And rather, council gave them the five years against staff's wishes, and so now we're faced with a situation where you've got a five-year extension and but the behavior has not changed. But also the question that I have is why are they still doing the convention center job after have they having been found to do be doing bad things on that contract, not once, but twice?

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Well, let me ask you a specific question about that. Does CORE, City of Roses, make political contributions, or do they have friends who are in the elected official positions that are signing off on this?

SPEAKER_00 6:57

They're incredibly well politically connected. They sit on all the right boards and have all the right friends. Do you know, Lars? Why are they still hauling boxes at the airport when now the airport cannot apply for construction recycling credits for their uh lead certification?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Because they because they lied about it, then the lead certification was either denied or downgraded from gold to silver, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Uh that was on a library. Actually, with the United States Green Building Council, any project they're involved with goes under audit at this point. Wow. And if they claim anything over a 16% recovery, it will be denied.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Well, why are you? I'll tell you what, Mr. Garrett. I think what you've suggested is it's very sensible. Put them on a one-year contract. That's at least a warning shot across their bow saying you guys may have broken the rules, and if we find out you've broken it again, we're going to knock off the contract altogether. You only get a one-year renewal. That is Terrell Garrett, who is CEO of Greenway Recycling, talking about City of Roses, who, by the way, I'd be glad to talk to if they were willing to come on the show and explain how do you cheat and break the rules and still get a five-year contract renewal. You got the Larren Larson show.