Councilor Glenn Davis is proposing an ordinance that would waive garbage taxes for Columbus residents in September 2021, if passed.
A Columbus city council wants the city to waive municipal waste collection fees for a month, citing long-standing collection delays and problems.
Councilor Glenn Davis will issue an ordinance amending the 2022 Integrated Waste Fund at the Council meeting on Tuesday at 9 a.m. to allow Fund reserves to cover fees. According to the ordinance, the Columbus waterworks would issue every private customer a fee waiver for waste collection for the month of September 2021.
The monthly housing fee is $ 18. Low-income households pay a reduced rate.
The fee waiver, Davis told the Ledger Enquirer, is confirmation that the city has not provided adequate services.
“I think it’s the right thing,” he said. “There is a certain amount of tolerance and patience. But when you talk about 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 get customer satisfaction, you have to make the adjustments. “
Davis first discussed the month-long waiver during a council meeting on June 8 after receiving complaints from voters. In response, City Manager Isaiah Hugley and the city staff provided an update on the waste collection and presented research on waiver during the council meeting on 22.
Assistant city manager Lisa Goodwin told the city council that a month-long waiver would cost the city $ 1 million in revenue. Finance director Angelica Alexander told the council that the city’s integrated waste fund was in an estimated deficit of $ 5.9 million in May 2021.
The city had $ 7.6 million in cash and investments after its pending landfill equipment purchases and recent contracts. The city would need an estimated $ 13.5 million for costs related to a future landfill closure, she said.
Alexander added that the American Rescue Plan’s funds likely could not be used to replace the revenue lost from the fee waiver. The city administrator’s plan recommended that the city council not issue a waiver.
In an interview on Monday, Davis said the city’s numbers were “fuzzy math”. The city isn’t closing the landfill anytime soon, and the city’s overall balance is “about as good as it has ever been,” he said.
“That presentation was the city’s way of saying, ‘We don’t want this,'” said Davis. “For me it doesn’t fit together. The city will not miss this money. They will likely recapture it with the stimulus money returned to the city. Ultimately, they’ll likely come back one day and raise the (garbage) fees. I do not share this argument. “
The proposal comes amid longstanding delays and waste collection problems. In previous interviews, Public Services Director Michael Criddle told the Ledger Enquirer that one important factor was one Lack of state prisoner transfers to county detention center during COVID-19 Pandemic. The department is dependent on this prisoner work.
The city has invested in garbage collection over the past few months. Automated recycling trucks were introduced in May and the city got involved signed a contract with AmWaste from West Point from the end of June for the additional yard waste collection.
The Council could vote on the waiver proposal later this month.
Nick Wooten is the Southern Trends and Culture Reporter for the South Region of McClatchy. He is based in Columbus, Georgia, at Ledger Enquirer, but his work also appears in The (Macon) Telegraph and The Sun Herald in Biloxi. He is a graduate of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
