Nashville's no-bid emergency trash truck lease, arranged without Metro Council approval, ballooned from a $3 million estimate to over $16 million
Subject of this story
What happened
After Nashville's main trash contractor went bankrupt in December 2021, Metro Water Services entered an emergency equipment lease with developer Mack McClung's Cumberland Capital LLC to rent trash trucks, bypassing Metro Council approval. Budgeted at $3 million over two years, the arrangement ultimately cost more than $16 million, with 14 trucks leased at $26,000 per month each (versus 9-10 originally planned) and engineer Roy Dale separately invoicing roughly $90,000-$162,000. A final $3.26 million settlement closed the contract in May 2025. The same officials, Honeysucker, McClung and Dale, are now under federal investigation, and Metro initially withheld related records citing the criminal case. Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston defended the deal as necessary given the supply-chain crisis.
By the numbers (2)
● confirmed by a primary document · ○ reported
Contracts
1 source
- nashvillebanner.comDocument
actual total spending over $16 million
1 source
- nashvillebanner.comDocument
budgeted $3 million for two years
Sources (1)
Response
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What happened next (0)
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