Steaming over an apparent lack of progress by West Marin's garbage Task Force, Supervisor Gary Giacomini bolted out of Monday's meeting at Civic Center after scolding two of the group's members.
Giacomini had hoped that the task force and landfill attorney Bill Yeates would agree on a dumping fee at the landfill that in turn could be calculated into a curbside-pickup rate increase for Shoreline Disposal customers.
The increase is needed to pay for pollution studies at the beleaguered Point Reyes Station dump and perhaps to pay for some of the dump's debts.
When Yeates told the task force he needed a $73 dumping fee - $28 more than the current rate - Giacomini wanted to know why that figure was $11 lower than the amount Yeates submitted in a proposal to the task force on Aug. 26.
Giacomini, irritated, told Yeates the task force is hamstrung until such numbers are produced.
Yeates himself had earlier said that operations at the landfill are grinding to a halt for lack of money. "The accounts payable are still there," the lawyer said. "I'm certainly not going to [work for the landfill] for free. I can't believe the time I've spent on this issue."
He added that the consultants advising the dump on cleanup work has yet to be paid, and "they're not going to do any more work unless we pay them."
What's more, the Regional Water Quality Control Board has required the dump to conduct a study of the pollution problems, and a proposal for that study is due on Sept. 30.
Meanwhile, representatives of Shoreline Disposal are getting restless.
"I don't think we can go on and on and on with cost estimates and analyses for every little [idea] that comes along," said Shoreline attorney Al Bianchi. "Just tell us what to do [with the trash], and we'll do it."
Rodoni told Bianchi that the cost estimates Shoreline produced for a proposed garbage transfer station seemed "soft" compared to figures supplied for direct haul of trash to Redwood Landfill in Novato.
Bianchi and county Planning Director Mark Riesenfeld repeated their statements from a previous meeting that the cost of any environmental review of transfer station remains unknown.
At this point, Giacomini had had enough. He castigated members of the task force representing environmental groups and dump critics for failing to settle on regular attendees.
"I really get frustrated with the fact that you guys send somebody different every time, and we never get anything done," he said angrily.
"If we agree to [a simple transfer] trailer, environmental review will cost zero," he fumed. "If you guys make a big deal about it" and locate it somewhere other than at the landfill, it will get expensive, "and that will have to be passed onto the customer."
Giacomini said, "I've got better things to do than dick around here," and stormed off.