DATE: Monday, August 18, 1997               TAG: 9708150022

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: BY RICHARD R. HARRIS 

                                            LENGTH:   68 lines

IN DEFENSE OF COMPETITION

As a member of Suffolk City Council from 1992 to 1996, I respect the opinion of Andrew Damiani, my city's former mayor. His enthusiasm on behalf of Suffolk and the entire region is laudable. But his piece on behalf of the Southeastern Public Service Authority (``A defense of SPSA,'' Another View, July 28) is off-base.

Mr. Damiani correctly lists the beefs of Virginians for Effective and Efficient Public Services (VEEPS), a 90-person business group of which I am a member. True, SPSA does have enormous debt, private haulers can dispose of trash more cheaply and privatization is the national trend for solid-waste disposal. So local governments and the 1 million citizens they serve should be pleased that waste companies, in Mr. Damiani's words, ``are trying to muscle in'' on SPSA's territory. Indeed, it was only the insistence of city councils and boards of supervisors that prompted the SPSA board to force its staff to seek outside bids for future disposal. That's ``muscle'' the taxpayers should welcome.

The ex-mayor would like the public to believe that only SPSA can furnish the services required of an integrated waste system. The fact is, however, that private companies do this for public authorities like SPSA across the country. Indeed in the Richmond area and on the Virginia Peninsula, regional agencies contract with the private sector for numerous services, including curbside recycling, rather than borrow heavily, like SPSA, to do so themselves.

Mr. Damiani might be surprised to learn that SPSA's debt in FY 1996 was $267 million, almost 15 percent more than the general-obligation bonds the state has on the books for transportation, twice what it has obligated for jail construction and nearly triple the outstanding debt it has for port improvements. Indeed, SPSA's indebtedness is just slightly below the commonwealth's current debt for all of higher education.

The former mayor accuses VEEPS of ``hardball'' lobbying and dispensing of ``cash.'' Citizens should know that SPSA, which is supposed to represent city governments, is tapping into a lavish $250,000 public relations fund to lobby elected officials and business leaders. I ask, who's playing ``hardball,'' and is this a proper use of public dollars?

Mr. Damiani says VEEPS is playing the ``E'' (environmental) card. I ask: Is VEEPS wrong to join with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to oppose expansion of SPSA's regional dump into existing wetlands that spawn wildlife and clean the Bay, when there is plenty of safe, permitted private landfill space available?

Mr. Damiani questions VEEPS' seeking support from the Chamber of Commerce? Why shouldn't the Chamber, a business organization, stand up for legitimate businesses that have a track record of saving taxpayers money? And he accuses VEEPS of lobbying state regulatory agencies. That's a good idea, but not one the group has yet attempted.

Mr. Damiani says SPSA wants to ``mandate competitive bids for the complete integrated system.'' If only that were true. The SPSA board has only agreed to issue a Request for Proposal, or RFP, for disposal, not the transportation of waste from its transfer stations to a landfill. Suffolk's current representative on the SPSA board, then-chairman Chris Jones, is to be commended for voting in favor of issuing both RFPs.

Mr. Damiani applauds SPSA for standing up to ``VEEPS and their conglomerates to protect their turf.'' Actually, SPSA's preoccupation with ``protecting its turf'' is what this whole debate is about. And lost in the equation are the taxpayers of South Hampton Roads who could likely care less who trucks and disposes of their garbage as long as it is done safely, dependably and at the lowest possible cost with the least financial risk. MEMO: Richard R. Harris is a Suffolk businessman and former Suffolk City

Council member. He is a member of Virginians for Effective and Efficient

Public Services.

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