Citywide trash proposal debate continues at Hillsboro utilities committee meeting

Members of the Hillsboro utilities committee met Thursday, Oct. 10 to resume talks on a proposal for citywide trash collection and heard comments from several concerned citizens.

As previously reported, a resolution to advertise and solicit bids for citywide waste collection passed as an emergency in June after suspension of the three-reading rule. According to utilities committee chair Greg Maurer, the committee was told that “waste collection companies would not provide RFPs and that we needed to authorize the administration to get bids to see if we want to proceed making this part of our city utilities.”

If approved by council, trash would be added to residents’ water utility bill as an additional mandatory charge.

As the dozen individuals in attendance Thursday marked a significantly larger crowd than usual for the meeting, Maurer opened the floor to questions and comments from the audience. As one trash company had representatives in attendance, Hillsboro public works superintendent Adkins also asked them to weigh in on some of the topics.

A woman in attendance, who did not identify herself, asked about the reasons why the city is looking into the proposal.

Some of the previously discussed reasons for the proposal are to save money and to cut down on code enforcement due to the lack of trash pickup at certain residences.

Adkins pointed out that it was previously considered “several years ago” and that they ultimately decided not to set up the utility at that time due to not wanting to put smaller, locally owned trash collection services “out of business.”

At that time — in October 2018 — the proposal came before council in the form of a drafted ordinance, with immediate opposition from members of the community and even some in the city administration at that time.

Adkins said Thursday that another reason for the proposal was to cut down on the “wear and tear” to city streets.

“If you're out and about through town, you'll see four or five different trash companies on the same streets, almost at the same time,” Adkins said. “Some streets have four different trash pickups, have four different trucks going down all the time. This way, there's going to be one truck going down that side street.

“That’s part of it. We're trying to alleviate some of the wear and tear on some of our side roads.”

On a related note, one of the residents in attendance, Jay Hamilton, said that on his private street, they “use a pickup truck for removal” to avoid having a heavier trash hauler tearing up the street. He asked if that would be an option.

“We've put out a lot of information to the companies to bid for what we want, but there's still room for whether or not it's picked up at each person's house, or if there's specific places that we’d want picked up at the end of the street,” Maurer said. “We can tell the company where we want that picked up, so if there were instances like your street, it can be picked up at the end of the street.

“If there were residents and they were all along the main road here in town and they wanted to pick it up at one spot in the alleyway, we could have it picked up in one in the alleyway, or we could just do it at each individual house. There is leeway in that.”

Eric Mathews echoed similar concerns from previous meetings, where residents spoke about preferring the independent contractors or companies they use. Matthews said he wanted the ability to choose which company to use and to negotiate his own price and asked if there would be “an option to opt out.”

“What we're trying to do is get the best price in a collective for everyone,” Maurer said. “The price that we're getting is because of the quantity and the consolidation of the greater area.

“If we start [opting] people out, that might not work as far as the collective price, the lowering the price, to make it to where we're saving money.”

Similarly, Tom Zile said he “doesn’t want to be a part of” one particular trash company, “period,” and also asked about opting out, including if residents “don’t use the service” at their home.

“At this point, the way we've set it up is that if you have a water tap, we're adding it to the bill,” Maurer said. “If you have a water tap, you have to pay trash.

“We have so many taps, and the pricing was based on that, how many single family homes like that we have. If we go to change the rules and have options for people to opt out, then they may have to rebid, because it's going to be less people.”

The woman asked if the city could renegotiate with the trash companies under the assumption a certain percentage would opt out. Adkins said he was “pretty sure there's not going to be any opt-out.

“I’m not saying it’s too complicated, but again, we're not alleviating more than one truck on the streets,” Adkins said. “We're trying to help several different things. Part of it is also, there's a lot of people this town that doesn't have trash picked up. If you drive around some of the side streets, look at all the trash that's all over this town. People just throw it out on their porch, and that will alleviate that. They can't say they don't have trash pickup. It will help with our code enforcement.

“Again, like council members said, the more numbers we have, the cheaper the price going to be. We start cutting out numbers, we're never going to get it down where anybody can afford it.

“It's not feasible,” Adkins continued. “There's no way we could estimate who would want it and who wouldn’t.”

The trash company representative in the audience said that opt-outs “can be written into a bid.

“It usually has to be tiered, though,” he said. “The way we did it was assuming that the number was going to be exactly what we were given, that's kind of how we bid it. Legally, unless it's specified a certain way, that's kind of the way it has to be done.”

The trash company rep also pointed out that the city may also want to consider how they structured their bid packages, with “limits” on what is included.

“We took a lot of assumptions in that [bid], like carryout service, senior rates, carts, unlimited trash with a cart,” he said. “If the goal is to ultimately drive down the cost, you have to set limits, like carts have to be at the curb, there is no carryout service, all contents have to be in a cart and you get one extra item per week. That's usually what's driving your price.

“The way we look at it is if somebody sets the garage out, we’ve got take it, because there was really no specific limits or anything on there.”

The trash company representative also acknowledged that each area company or contractor has “things that they do that we may not do, and vice versa,” that would make it an adjustment for citizens. He asked if the city had “polled” residents to see if “they have certain things that they're looking for” and if they are “even willing to go with a single hauler.

“If you guys get to a point where you want to have that discussion, I would recommend inviting us [and other local trash companies],” the trash company rep said. “Just to ask for the input, and that way, all of us kind of have the same advantage or disadvantage, so to speak.”

Dr. Glenn Roush said he was “concerned that there's been no discussion whatsoever about recycling” pickup along with the trash pickup. Maurer said that he did bring that up to city administration but that his committee had sought trash collection quotes only, fearing recycling would be cost-prohibitive.

“It is something that we can add, or we can even change direction and rebid to have the recycling added as part of it,” Maurer said. “I wasn't sure how much more would add to the price.

“In the economic times that we're in, I wanted to make it as economical as possible, so that it would be a savings for our residents here in Hillsboro, and make it a fiscally responsible thing for everyone.”

Roush suggested that they could look into possible grant opportunities through the RPHF Solid Waste District. The trash representative said a similar deal structured recently in another city was “right around $7.50 a month, but we have some that are as low as $4 a month.

“It’s really driven by how it’s serviced,” he said. “Is it done weekly, is it done biweekly, is it done once a month? There’s a lot of things to it.”

The woman resident asked why the city has the trash service “tied to the water” and whether the “water company gets a piece” of the cost.

“It's to save money, as far as the way we're structuring it,” Maurer said. “The city will pay the contractor of choice for the trash, and then we are going to collect the money.

“The city will be in charge of collecting the money and then making sure that the services are provided, and the easiest way for the city to do that, without creating a whole other department, is to add it to the water bill.”

Regarding whether the water department will “get more money,” Adkins said the city is “only adding a little bit of money to help offset the cost of paper and help pay the salaries.

“We're not hiring anybody else,” Adkins said. “There's enough room on the water bill through software to add the trash bill on it, so it's not much of a cost to us, but the money is not going toward the water company.”

The lady pointed out that some residents do not pay their water bill and asked how that would affect their trash pickup.

“They will still collect their trash, and their bill will keep accumulating,” Adkins said. “Your water bill still accumulates a minimum charge, even when we shut you off.

“They'll get the [trash] service, and we'll just keep accumulating the bill, and at a certain point they will assess their taxes or take them to small claims.”

Zile also asked who would handle complaints regarding service if the city contracts with one company.

“You would deal with the city, and the city would deal with the contractor,” Adkins said.

The trash contractor asked about a time frame for the proposal and whether they were still “trying to move this forward by Jan. 1.”

“No,” Maurer said. “We're not going to move it by January 1. That was the intention, but  we're going to try and do it as quick as possible.”

Committee member Jason Brown added that even if the utilities committee eventually recommends the idea, “it means everyone [on city council] can then discuss it,” with no guarantee it will be approved.

“I think there are enough questions and lack of clarity at this point that in order to make any kind of a decision, I think some additional investigation needs to be done to kind of hone what we're really willing to consider as a city,” Eichinger said.

“I agree,” Maurer said.

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