Here’s why Columbus residents might not have to pay trash fees for a month
A Columbus councilor wants the city to waive residential waste collection fees for one month, citing longstanding delays and pick-up issues.
Councilor Glenn Davis introduced an ordinance at a council meeting earlier this month to amend the 2022 fiscal year budget’s integrated waste fund to allow fund reserves to cover the fees. The Columbus Water Works would issue a fee waiver to each residential customer for solid waste collection for the month of September 2021, according to the ordinance.
The ordinance will be read for a second time and put up for a possible vote Tuesday. The monthly residential fee is $18. Low-income households pay a reduced rate.
The fee waiver, Davis told the Ledger-Enquirer in mid-July, is an acknowledgment that the city hasn’t provided adequate services.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “There’s a certain level of tolerance and patience. But when you’re talking four, five, six, seven, eight weeks, that’s just unacceptable. ... A lot of what the government does is customer service, and if you can’t meet customer satisfaction, you’ve got to make the adjustments.”
Davis first discussed the one-month waiver during a council meeting on June 8 after receiving complaints from constituents. In response, City Manager Isaiah Hugley and city staff provided a waste collection update and presented research on the waiver during the council’s June 22 meeting.
Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin told the council that a one-month waiver would cost the city $1 million in revenue. Finance Director Angelica Alexander told the council that the city’s integrated waste fund had an estimated deficit of $5.9 million as of May 2021.
The city had $7.6 million in cash and investments on hand after the pending purchases of landfill equipment and recent contracts. The city’s current liability for costs associated with a future landfill closure is an estimated $13.5 million, she said.
In an updated presentation at the last council meeting, Alexander told councilors the total cost of landfill closure and post closure care is roughly $26.3 million.
Alexander previously said that American Rescue Plan funds likely couldn’t be used to replace the revenue lost through the fee waiver. The city manager’s plan recommended that council not pass a waiver.
In an interview before the meeting, Davis said the city’s figures were “fuzzy math.” The city isn’t closing the landfill anytime soon, and the city’s overall fund balance is “about as flush as it has ever been,” he said.
“That presentation was the city’s way of saying ‘we don’t want to do this,’” Davis said. “To me, it doesn’t add up. The city is not going to miss this money. They are probably going to recapture it with the stimulus money that the city is going to be reimbursed with. Ultimately, they’ll probably come back and raise the (garbage) fees one day. I don’t buy into that argument.”
The proposal comes amid longstanding waste collection delays and issues. In previous interviews, Director of Public Services Michael Criddle told the Ledger-Enquirer that one major factor was a shortage of state inmate transfers to the county’s prison camp during the COVID-19 pandemic. The department relies on that inmate labor.
The city has invested in waste pick up recent months. Automated recycling trucks were introduced in May, and the city entered into a contract with West Point-based AmWaste for supplemental yard waste pick-up beginning in late June.
During the last council meeting, Criddle said that some progress is being made. The city is behind a week to a week and a half on yard waste pick-up, down from the three to four week average in June. Bulk waste is four to six weeks behind on average. However, the city department is currently 12 waste truck drivers short. The problem is compounded when drivers call out.
“The biggest challenge we have is no drivers for the trucks. We don’t have an inmate shortage, per se, anymore in collections,” he said. “ ...What we have is no drivers.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 4:32 PM.