A Case For City Council & Citizen Oversight

Published 5/14/13 Edited 5/20/13

5/3/12 COUNCIL PRESENTATION

The serious problem with city operations that I will present this evening has existed for several years in the solid waste/landfill department.

Since the failure of six months worth of public and non-public negotiations has failed to resolve the situation I, along with the president of council and the solid waste committee chairman felt it was time to place the problem in the public record.

I have shared my concerns about this issue with both the former and current mayors as well as council. Most, if not all have shared and supported my approach.

The following brief history of the situation may prove helpful in understanding the problem.

Three years ago this month the solid waste department requested, and council passed, an amendment to the existing fee schedule ordinance in order to increase revenue. The amendment included a substantial increase in residential collection charges. 

During the discussion of the amendment it was publicly revealed for the first time that the landfill was selling space to outside the city haulers, also called tippers.

Information led me to believe that the fees being charged to commercial tippers were too low but neither Mr. Wells, solid waste committee chairman, nor I could obtain the true charges.

Finally in October of 2011, I was informed by landfill personnel, that in city commercial tippers were being charged $10.28 per yard ($30.84/ton) and outside the city companies were being charged $13.42 per yard ($40.26/ton)

The correct charges should have been $11.78 inside city and $17.50 for outside city.

It appeared that the service director had inadvertently missed the increases in Ohio EPA and County Solid Waste, per ton, fees and had not adjusted the fees as authorized by the ordinance.

Not wanting to cause a public stir over what I considered human error I requested an October meeting with the Mayor, Mr. Wells, the Service Director and the landfill superintendent. As a result of the meeting the Service director agreed to send a letter to all commercial haulers/tippers informing them that the corrected fees would be in effect as of January first 2012.

I later obtained a copy of the letter only to discover that the fees were $3 per ton lower than ordinance mandated charges.

In January the new Mayor invited me to meet with him concerning the fee structure and he agreed that action would have to be taken to correct the situation that he called, a real mess.

In February a solid waste committee meeting was called to discuss the landfill situation. At that meeting it was announced that prior to the January letter, outside tippers had been charged the same as inside the city companies.

This rate was $7.22 per ton lower than the ordained fee. It is not known how long that the undercharge had been in effect.

Discussions at this meeting included the claim that due to the new fee schedule many outside the city and outside the county haulers were taking their business to other landfills. A request was made to allow the service director to reduce the fees in order to regain these customers and keep the cash flow up.

As I recall the discussion, the legality of fee setting by an entity other than council was to be cleared by the law director prior to implementation.

My understanding is that the law director gave both an oral and written opinion that only council can set base rates and fees.

The claim that the higher January rates drove away commercial haulers may be true but that is good news. Cash flow was up over $3,000 due to the increased fee collection even though those fees were still $3 per ton lower than mandated. Just as important is the slowing fill rate of valuable landfill space.

In any event no one, including the solid waste committee, seems to know what fees are being charged now except that those fees have been set by individuals and are not those contained in the landfill law as passed by council in 2009 and reinforced by the law director’s opinion.

In conclusion: The city’s residents are paying the increased fee while commercial users of the landfill have been getting bargain rates in, what appears to be a mistaken attempt to gain revenue. Please see back of handout for a suggested ordinance amendment.

Postscript: Since the above 2012 presentation significant progress has been made at the landfill. a. A truck scale has been purchased and installed to more accurately determine tonnages; b. Council has established a new fee structure; and c. The solid waste committee will monitor and review the results of these actions at the end of the year.

Paul Hunter 
[Since the above postscript  Reporting in the News Journal "According to Larry Reinsmith, the city's public service director, the department has already received commitments from two carriers to return since the ordinance passed May 2. He told council on Thursday they used to average around $33,000 a month which is approximately $400,000 a year."

My data indicates that when the landfill was charging illegal low fees the the average revenue in In the first six months 2011 was $22,036 from from an average monthly rate of 1153 tons of space consuming waste was dumped.

In the tree months in 2012 when legal rates were applied the average revenue increased to $39,927 and the average dump rate was 1069 tons.  It was a win win situation revenue increased and valuable air space was saved, 

The new fee structure to become effective in June is a mixture of the old and new charges. Time will tell whether the revenue at least remains stable and airspace not sold cheaply. 

Paul Hunter