Humboldt Waste Management Authority sticks it to the taxpayer

It is not as exciting, perhaps as Board of Supervisors or City Council Meetings but it has an immediate effect on taxes you pay and local jobs lost.

Taxpayers may want to attend the next HWMA meeting which is on May 8 at 5:30 PM in the Eureka City Council Chambers. Item numbers 5, 6 and 8 on the agenda of the next meeting is what should concern taxpayers.

Humboldt Waste Management Authority (HWMA) owns and operates a transfer station that includes garbage drop off, green waste drop off, a recycling center and a household hazardous waste collection facility located at 1059 West Hawthorne, Eureka CA.

HWMA is a Joint Powers Authority made up of the following municipalities: Arcata, Blue Lake, Eureka, Ferndale, Rio Dell and Humboldt

The Board of Directors are: Jack Thompson, City of Rio Dell, Chair; Mike Newman, City of Eureka, Vice Chair;  Lana Manzanita, City of Blue Lake;  Alex Stillman, City of Arcata ;John Maxwell, City of Ferndale
and Rex Bohn, County of Humboldt.

I will be posting again with links to local articles and providing background about why the public should be attending and questioning past and present HWMA decisions.

If you cannot wait until then, the nutshell is that HWMA liabilities in the April 2014 balance sheet is more than the assets. Local jobs have been lost; not preserved. This has been the result of bad decisions by the HWMA board over the past few years.

With no ratepayers on the Board and the public not interested, government officials are not wisely investing your money.