FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 FOLLOW DENISE SHEEHAN ON FACEBOOK

SHEEHAN CONDEMNS MAHANS COLONIE LANDFILL DEAL

On the eve of the transfer of control of the Colonie landfill to a private contractor, Denise Sheehan, candidate for Colonie Supervisor, condemned incumbent Supervisor Mahans landfill deal as a sellout of all of the citizens of the Town of Colonie and a deal designed to mask Supervisor Mahans mismanagement of Colonies finances by bringing in an initially large sum of cash while giving away the landfill for a fraction of its actual value. Speaking in the shadow of the landfills already large mountains of garbage, Sheehan announced that Supervisor Mahan soon will turn over the keys to our landfill and when she does she will effectively cede control of the landfills future operations from Colonies elected officials to a private waste conglomerate from California for the next 25 years. I suspect that incumbent Supervisor Mahan will be announcing in the next few days that the deal has solved the Towns fiscal problems, problems that have gotten worse under Supervisor Mahans watch, Sheehan said. I want to warn the voters of Colonie that this unfortunate landfill deal does not solve the poor fiscal management of the Mahan administration. The large sum of cash that has come in from the deal will only act as temporary Band-Aid on the Towns chronic fiscal woes. In return for this Band-Aid, Mahan has given-away operational control and future income stream of one of the Towns most valuable assets for the next 25 years, Sheehan added. Sheehan said this bad deal is the result of a process that was kept entirely secret for over a year, only being revealed to the public two weeks before the Town Board approved the deal. Supervisor Mahan denied the public even the right to review the contract until after she signed it. The consideration and decision to cede public control of this valuable public asset was made without meaningful engagement with any neighborhood group, business association or any of the Towns citizens as a whole. The four public information sessions held in two weeks in July were a sham and it was readily apparent that the Supervisor had her mind made up long before those sessions were held, Sheehan said. Countless people have told me during my campaign that they believe that Supervisor Mahan should have given the voters of Colonie the opportunity to vote on the deal through a public referendum. Residents believe they should have a say about whether to give up control of this valuable Town asset. I understand that Supervisor Mahan has recently emphasized that the transfer of control is not a sale of the landfill, and that Colonie retains ownership, Sheehan said. While I agree with her that the deal is not a sale, I am puzzled as to why she emphasizes this fact because ceding control of landfill operations while maintaining title ownership in the Town is actually the worst of all worlds. The Town has no control over landfill operations but incredibly will retain legal liability in case anything goes wrong over the next 25 years.

While Mahan boasts of assurances of performance in the lease contract, ultimately those assurances are only as good as Waste Connections ability to remain financially stable over the next nearly three decades. With some of the biggest and strongest corporations in the United States having failed in the recent past, 25 years is a long commitment for any company to remain viable. If anything goes wrong, Colonie will be left holding the bag for closing costs and other expenses. Town Board member Dan Dustin, a certified public accountant, demonstrated that the landfill deal actually loses money for the Town over the life of the lease agreement noting that payments on outstanding bonds for the landfill and the costs for retaining the Towns landfill staff in other parts of the Town will drive future unfunded costs. Sheehan also reiterated some of the worst parts of the landfill deal: The Towns own engineering firm places the potential value of the landfill at between $300 and $600 million while the lease contract will only bring the Town about $70 million over 25 years with slightly more if the landfill expands The Town has agreed to consider using its eminent domain powers to seize private land around the landfill at the suggestion of the private contractor, to allow the private contractor to further expand the landfill beyond its current borders. The Town has not capped tipping fees for the landfill as Mahan has said, but instead has only capped the annual increases in such fees, while also leaving major loopholes to increase fees above these caps. There is nothing to stop the private contractor from increasing tipping fees for garbage each year for the 25 year life of the lease. The lease does not prevent waste being brought in from out of state, but only prohibits waste being brought in from a handful of east coast cities. The Town has transferred all public landfill employees, formerly funded by the landfill, to other parts of the Town budget, shifting their cost onto taxpayers and leaving the employees with uncertainty about their futures. The Town retains no on-going supervision or observer at the landfill. The Towns limited oversight comes from a request to review the contractors books during normal business hours. The contractor is not obligated to develop operating reports to the Town but instead must only give the Town copies of reports that will be filed with state officials. ### For more information on Denise Sheehan, please visit her website.