Public commenter accuses county of not enforcing landfill contract, says penalties owed to Fund 189

Todd Bills used the meeting's public-comment period to urge Bradley County officials to enforce the county's landfill contract and to use landfill-related funds for public services. "My name is Todd Bills. You all recognize me. I'm always here about the landfill," Bills said, then accused the landfill operator of bringing substantially more waste than the contract allows and of avoiding penalties the county could collect.

Bills said the contract calls for a cap of about 400,000 tons per year but that county tonnage records he reviewed from 2015 onward show 600,000'700,000 tons annually and that the county has not enforced the contract or collected the resulting penalties. He asserted those unpaid penalties are "tens of millions of dollars" and argued Fund 189 (the discretionary fund) and the solid waste fund contain money that could be used for public safety and sheriff's department needs.

"The penalty for them bringing in more volume...they're supposed to be penalized. I'd like to know why we haven't done that because it's in the tens of millions of dollars that they owe the county," Bills said. He asked to be placed on a future agenda for a full discussion and said he has provided commissioners with packets of his findings.

Chairman Cry cut Bills's allotted time when five minutes elapsed. Commissioner Thompson objected to Bills naming particular commissioners and said he did not appreciate being characterized in that way. No county official responded with a substantive accounting of the landfill contract or penalty enforcement during the public comment period, and no action was taken at the meeting to open a formal inquiry.