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Introduction
In the late 1980s, a number of counties in New York State created special purpose
governments to take over the development and administration their solid waste systems. These
entities, known as “public authorities,” had appointed boards predominately composed of local
businessmen and professionals and had control of an independent revenue stream based on the
amounts of garbage delivered to the county. Once created, these quasi-autonomous governing
bodies were tasked with the development of comprehensive solid waste system for the county – a
mission that typically included siting a new landfill or incinerator.
While local officials might give several reasons for their choice to create a public
authority, one recurring explanation was that regular local government, with its governing board
of elected officials, could not handle the “white hot heat” of public controversy associated with a
siting process.
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When a local government sent out letters to tell homeowners that their property
might be taken for a landfill or incinerator, or their neighborhood would be adjacent to such a
facility, communities would organize almost overnight in ferocious protest. It was not
uncommon for local officials to be publicly vilified on billboards, posters, t-shirts, bumper
stickers, and lawn signs, and in some cases, they were hung in effigy, spit upon, and even subject
to death threats. An elected official’s political career could be made or broken over solid waste
issues, opponents might seize upon the issue for political purposes, and the siting processes were
costly in terms of time and political effort.
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In Jefferson County, one of the founders of their public authority stated that: we created the authority to “get things
done” for the region (DANC-10 2003). In Oneida County, the public authority was created because elected officials
would have difficulty withstanding the “white hot heat” of public protest over solid waste (OHSWA-10 2002). In
St. Lawrence County, the public authority was created to take away the “political dimension” from the decision-
making (SWDA-18 Agency Official 2003). In Onondaga County, the concern about creating a “run away” agency
was hotly debated after a newspaper article asserted that a public authority in an adjoining county was out control
(Sanders 1989).
Convention