Attempts to Recall Hillsdale Mayor Renewed

• Video shows Hillsdale Mayor Adam Stockford and petitioner for his recall Ted Jansen, as well as excerpts of documents related to recently-approved waste management contract.
• Mayor Stockford says the recall attempt is politically motivated.
• Petitioner Ted Jansen believes the Mayor and City Council did not have the public interest in mind when deciding between two competing bids.

It's a second attempt at a recall. Here in Hillsdale, efforts to remove Mayor Adam Stockford are underway once again.
At issue — whether a 5-year waste management contract recently approved by City Council stiffs local residents and constitutes indifference to the public interest.

Neighbor Ted Jansen is filing the recall. He points to a difference of about $128,000 between the winning bid — from a company called LRS — and the cheaper competing bid from Granger.

This difference, for him, is a red flag, as are the additional services LRS has promised the City. Their value, says Jensen, pointing to documents provided to City Council, seems to be far less.

According to Jansen: “Essentially, this is a bribe to the City. Say, ‘Hey, this is free. Take it. But let us charge you more than our competitor, and we’ll make it back almost four times the cost of what we’re giving you.’”

Jansen says some of the details of the deal remain to be examined because the competing proposal from Granger was not made public — only a summary was provided.

“I have to go through the formal process of filing a FOIA to see what their bid was because it wasn’t included in the Council package,” explains Jansen.

I met Thursday with Mayor Adam Stockford, whose campaign for the State House is just starting. He says the petition is politically motivated.

“The supposed infraction that the recall was filed for was a suggestion from our Public Services Department, which I trust our Public Services Director Jason Blake very much,” says Stockford.

Stockford notes that the bid was approved unanimously by Council after much deliberation on additional details like a fuel surcharge Granger had proposed that LRS did not, and the fact that Granger does not own a transfer station, which, the Mayor says, could have made the supposed savings moot.

Stockford also noted an additional cost for switching services. He said, added together, the savings that Jansen cites weren't what they seemed.

Stockford also questions the propriety of a recall.

“This isn’t what recalls are supposed to be for. Recalls are supposed to be for extreme dereliction of duty.”

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