“Really, the county has no dog in that fight,” Vera said. “Our concern is that someone owes us some money.”

The new contract with Grande Garbage is solely for transporting garbage from the transfer station to the landfill and therefore has no bearing on the ongoing proceedings between Allied and Rio Grande City, according to Vera.

Allied Waste is suing Rio Grande City for unlawful termination of their contract after the city council voted to terminate it last September. The move came after an audit discovered that Allied was paid to service the county although the county was being serviced by Grande Garbage.

“At that point in time, we were told that since we were a government we could determine who we wanted,” Vera said.

The county decided they wanted Grande Garbage and opted against using Allied Waste’s services. However, former city manager Juan Zuniga testified that he decided to continue billing the county for trash collection services because the city’s contract with Allied stated that they should be the exclusive contractor within the city where the county offices are based.