Republic Services of Southern Nevada worker Willie Green collects recyclable goods at a residence on Friday. Green, who has worked for Republic Services for 16 years, says that there seems to be a decline in the amount of people who are recycling in the valley. Photo by Ronda Churchill.

Not even the contentious issue of refuse rates could spoil that January morning in 1999 when former Clark County Commissioners Erin Kenny and Dario Herrera took the oath of office.

Elected officials called for unity and promised prosperity as cameras captured the swearing-in ceremony and jocularity that followed.

Moments later, with little community input, debate or press coverage, the seven-member commission unanimously revamped the way that refuse rates were raised in Southern Nevada.

Not one customer addressed the commission that day, but the chief executive of the region's trash monopoly said he was "real excited" about the new system for setting refuse rates. The revision made annual rate increases automatic, tied them to consumer prices and essentially eliminated the public unrest that had surrounded rate hikes every several years.

Since that day seven years ago, four of the seven commissioners who enacted the refuse-rate ordinance have been convicted of taking bribes from topless club owner Michael Galardi. All four left office between 2000 and 2004.

Meanwhile, the region's trash company, Republic Services of Southern Nevada, later in 1999 received no-bid contract extensions worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the county and the city of Las Vegas; recycling efforts fell far short of the national average; and federal regulators criticized the ordinance enacted that day by the commission and weeks later by officials in surrounding cities.

With the County Commission scheduled today to consider a recycling pilot program, which could spread to surrounding cities, some policymakers are saying its a good time to consider if the law enacted that day has derailed Southern Nevada's recycling efforts.

A 2002 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency analysis of Southern Nevada's recycling programs states that the ordinance has impeded recycling efforts by stripping elected officials of their discretion to dictate rates and hold Republic accountable for its performance on garbage collection, recycling, maintenance of its landfill and other community concerns.

Bob Coyle, area president for Republic Services, said he approached county officials about increasing recycling efforts shortly after he took over the company two years ago. He said last week he is open-minded to revising the region's refuse service if elected officials want to explore options.

"I am always open to talk to anybody about whatever service they would like. They are the customers," Coyle said. "There are lots and lots of things you can do, but many of them have a price tag that goes with it."

A County Commission candidate, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, and state Assemblyman Joseph Hogan, D-Las Vegas, said the 1999 ordinance should be revised, and control over the region's refuse rates returned to Southern Nevada's elected representatives.

It's especially prudent to review the ordinance considering the commissioners who served at the time and the bribery allegations that most of them have either admitted to or been convicted of since 2003, they said.

"The county should still be the one to provide (recycling) incentives and to raise and lower rates," Giunchigliani, who is running against Commissioner Myrna Williams, said Friday. "If I were elected (to the commission), I would ask that the ordinance from 1999 be revised. They (county commissioners) gave away the stick and the carrot with that ordinance, and we should get them back.

Williams could not be reached for comment late last week.

Hogan, a member of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, which oversees recycling, recalled that in 1999 controversy surrounded the lucrative no-bid contract extensions Republic Services received from the county and city of Las Vegas and the coziness between elected officials and company executives.

"I think it ought to be looked at seriously and soon," Hogan said of the 1999 ordinance.

Seven years ago, the trash company was one of the largest contributors to county and city campaigns, and the company was making nearly $100 million a year from its long-term contracts in Southern Nevada, according to press accounts at the time.

During Herrera's first-and-only campaign for the commission in 1998, Republic donated $20,000 to his campaign. The contribution was the largest received that year by a commission candidate.

During former City Councilman Michael McDonald's re-election campaign in the spring of 1999, Republic and its related entities contributed $36,800 to his campaign, and the company's top executive at the time hosted a fundraising event for the councilman.

Others on the council abstained in 1999 on decisions regarding Republic because they had business ties to the trash-hauling monopoly.

"While we don't have evidence of actual wrongdoing, we do understand the circumstances surrounding the contract extension (in 1999) and the absence of competitive bidding," Hogan said. "It would be good at this time, when there may be some new commissioners seated, to take better control of our recycling responsibilities and aim for a better solution."

The recommendation comes at a time when the County Commission and officials in surrounding cities are scheduled to receive a report from the Southern Nevada Recycling Advisory Committee that lays out plans for a residential, recycling pilot project in a handful of neighborhoods. The commission is scheduled today to consider the committee's final report.

Under the proposal, the current twice-a-week trash pickup may be reduced to once a week in the selected neighborhoods. The pilot program is intended to help improve the region's dismal record on recycling trash over the past 15 years.

The Nevada Legislature in 1991 set a goal for Nevada communities to recycle 25 percent of their garbage within two years. Nationally, about 30 percent of trash is being recycled, and the EPA has a new goal of 35 percent.

In Southern Nevada, between 17 and 19 percent of the region's overall refuse was recycled annually between 2003 and 2005, but only 2 percent of household trash was recycled during that time, according to county records.

However, the Advisory Committee report doesn't address federal regulators' criticism of the 1999 ordinance or other recommendations for a viable recycling program from the EPA and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

An EPA official faulted the proposed pilot project because it fails to explore alternatives to the program proposed or other options such as neighborhood drop-off centers, the recycling of glass and recycling in apartment and condominium complexes.

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, one of three sitting commissioners who enacted the ordinance in 1999, said the EPA's input should have been included in the Advisory Committee report.

"We need to find ways to encourage more recycling," Woodbury said Friday. "If there are recommendations made by the EPA and not deployed (in the report), that needs to be discussed and considered very seriously to see why that is the case."

Susan Brager, a Clark County School District trustee who is running against Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, said last week the 1999 ordinance is a "major concern." She said, "It's hard to hold them (garbage company) accountable when you don't have control."

Boggs McDonald could not be reached late last week.

State Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, a member of the Senate's Natural Resources Committee, which oversees recycling legislation, said she doesn't like automatic rate increases in any government-regulated industry but sees no need to revise the rate-setting system for Republic's fees unless voters want a change.

"I have never been a supporter of COLAs (cost-of-living adjustments) or automatic increases, because we (elected officials) are there to regulate them and check their books every few years to review what they have accomplished and what they haven't accomplished," Carlton said Friday.

At the time of the ordinance and the no-bid contract extensions for Republic Services, the company was recovering from a scandal that resulted in the convictions of company executives on charges of misusing company funds. Also, at about the same time, new allegations surfaced of cozy ties between the company and some elected officials.

The stink surrounding the trash company in the mid-to-late 1990s was so great that Woodbury and Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates returned the company's campaign contributions in 1996.

Republic Services lobbyist John Pappageorge had strongly backed Kenny's two campaigns for the County Commission. She held the seat for eight years before she was indicted on bribery charges after an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2002.

Leading up to the 1998 commission election, Republic contributed more to Herrera's campaign than any other commissioner. But the 25-year-old politician said at the time that the $20,000 donation would not affect his votes on refuse matters. At the time, he said, "I don't have any difficulty distinguishing what is right for my district."

Later in his four-year term, Herrera was criticized after the press found out he had vacationed at the California beach home of former Republic President Steve Kalish.

Meanwhile, at Las Vegas City Hall in 1999 Mayor Oscar Goodman and Councilman Larry Brown had business ties to the trash company that prompted them to abstain on votes affecting Republic.

McDonald, who received more than Herrera for his successful re-election bid in 1999, was also friends with Kalish. And McDonald was dating a trash company employee during that period.

McDonald at the time was quoted saying, "Friendship aside, business is business. ... The public perception may be, 'Did Steve Kalish buy Michael McDonald?' But the answer is no."