Hall County government is hiring a third party to help it determine who will operate the county landfill.

The county put its solid waste services, which handles the county’s 13 compactor sites and transports the collected waste to the landfill for disposal, up for bid.

By forcing the county’s Solid Waste Division to compete with private companies, Hall officials hope to give taxpayers a better deal.

On Thursday, the Hall County Board of Commissioners will choose an independent contractor that will review the bids to run the landfill.

County Finance Director Tim Sims said there were six bids delivered in June to provide solid waste services. Those bids are not available for public viewing yet, but the Public Works Department prepared one of them.

“This is the proposal to see what is the best for the landfill,” Commissioner Scott Gibbs said.

County staff has recommended the Atlanta-based Mercer Group for the task of reviewing the bids.

Hall County doesn’t normally put out a bid to companies to review other bids.

Typically, county staff look at contractor offers and make recommendations to the commissioners.

However, since county staff has actually offered one of the bids, a third party is coming in to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.

“It takes away the bias, so it’s the best for the county taxpayer,” Gibbs said.

The commissioners will choose between two companies on Thursday as their third-party review agency, with Mercer Group offering the lowest hourly rate.

Commissioner Craig Lutz proposed the county set a cap on how much the winning bidder could charge.

Once the county selects who is going to analyze the offers, it could still take several weeks before a recommendation comes back to the commission.

“This will be a highly technical analysis,” said Randy Knighton, Hall County’s administrator.

With economic conditions forcing officials to look at the cost of county services, the Solid Waste Division has been one of the service providers under the microscope.

At the same time, a few commissioners have been pushing to have some county services compete with the private sector for efficiency.

“It think what will happen through this process, if it stays in-house, is that it may be a more efficient operation,” Gibbs said.

Still, questions remain about turning over public resources, like a landfill, to a private company.

Gibbs said there are still some concerns, particularly if the firm wants to bring outside trash into the landfill.