Gainesville City Commission delays decision on 25% increase in residential trash collection fee

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At today’s General Policy Committee meeting, the Gainesville City Commission postponed a decision on increasing residential trash collection fees until at least January but increased the franchise fee for commercial trash haulers from 10% to 15%.

Status of the Zero Waste ordinances

Jared Lloyd, Public Works Operations Manager, reviewed the effective dates and current status of various pieces of the 2022 Zero Waste Ordinances. 

The “Solid Waste” ordinance established new requirements for commercial establishments, including providing an equal number of receptacles for recycling as are provided for garbage, requiring pharmacies to provide a take-back program for prescription drugs, and requiring all properties that provide commercially-collected residential garbage service to also provide recycling service. Residential multi-family properties are required to provide a plan for diverting “usable and functioning household goods, furnishings, and electronics” instead of disposing of them when residents move out; properties with 200+ units were required to submit the plans by July 2023. 

The “Food Waste” ordinance requires restaurants to separate food waste from the waste stream and deliver the food waste to a food waste processor; deadlines for implementation depend on the size of the restaurant.

Lloyd told the Commission that it is not practical to enforce the food waste sections of the ordinance due to a lack of infrastructure, but the City is currently partnering with nonprofit organizations for networking and resources. He later added, “That is changing, and that’s a good thing. We’re starting to see a lot of change in that area, and I believe the enforcement side of that and the diversion side of that is coming very soon.” He mentioned several large projects that are coming in the next few years and can be seen in the presentation.

Commissioner Reina Saco asked Lloyd to say more about his comment that the City has not collected all of the diversion plans from apartment complexes despite a deadline that was over a year ago “but we are starting to hit them up a little harder to try to get them to submit them.”

Lloyd said the issue is, “Where does it go, right?… We have a shortage of areas for it to go – they only have so much space they can store.” Saco said the City knew that “two, three years ago – that was why we phased it in as we did.” Lloyd said the City is “actively trying to find solutions.”

Moving on to the topic of “pay as you throw” trash collection, Lloyd said the program “encourages recycling through reduction in cart sizes and saving a dollar or two when you can” because residents can opt for smaller carts with a lower monthly fee. A resident can request a different cart for a one-time fee of $15.

City is negotiating a 10-year contract with a single trash hauler

Lloyd said the City is in the process of negotiating a 10-year contract with a single hauler to handle trash pickup from single-family garbage, recycling, bulk, and yard waste; multi-family garbage, recycling, and bulk trash; and commercial garbage and bulk trash. He said they can’t do commercial recycling due to a state statute. The contract would require the hauler to have electric or bio-diesel garbage and recycling trucks that would reduce emissions by 80% within two or three years, “or they would have to prove that the technology doesn’t exist.” The contract is expected to be signed by October 1.

The new contract will require the company to purchase new trucks (at $575,000 each) and new garbage carts for 28,000 homes. 

25% increase in residential cart fees would shore up the Solid Waste Fund

The City’s annual costs for solid waste collection have increased about $3 million since 2019, so the department proposed a 25% increase in residential cart fees that would increase the charge for each cart size by $5-$10 per month. The monthly fee for the largest cart, for example, would go from $40.75 to $50.94. Staff also recommended a 15% franchise fee for commercial haulers, up from the current 10% of gross revenues. The increase in cart fees would increase revenue by about $2.5 million dollars a year, and the franchise fees would increase revenue by about $730,000 a year. 

Lloyd said that if the fees are not increased, the Solid Waste Fund (which is used to maintain roads) would be reduced by $4.4 million in FY25, but increasing the fees puts about $900,000 into the fund before withdrawals for roadway maintenance.

Previous increases were 5% every other year

In response to a question from Commissioner Bryan Eastman, Singleton said the fees have increased by 5% every other year for the past decade or so. Eastman said the 25% increase would be “a big increase, just in one single year.” He wanted staff to come back with multiple options, including the financial impact of each option, “so that we can not have as much of an impact on our ratepayers. Or maybe even look at where road money could come [from]… We need to get more money into roads and we need to be repaving those, but I don’t know if this is necessarily the right way.”

City Manager Cynthia Curry said staff “made the recommendation in order to set us on a path to not dig into the fund balance as much as we have been,… but we could wait and review this a little bit more, maybe come up with just some different scenarios.” But she said it was important to make a decision by January, “whether it’s 25%, whether it’s 15, 20, or whatever… Otherwise, we’ll get a hole in this fund, and we’ll have nowhere else to go.” She suggested moving forward with the increase in the franchise fee for commercial haulers and looking at cart fees again in January. She said waiting until January would reduce the Solid Waste Fund by about $630,000. 

Commissioner Ed Book said, “There’s not a circumstance where I would vote to raise the cart fees 25%,” but he said he would consider a “phased-in approach.” 

Saco said that given the current “cone of silence” on the waste hauler contract, the public will have more information on the City’s costs after the contract is signed. She said she had been prepared to vote for the 25% increase “because we have a lot of trash, and it’s not getting any better, and our department’s been doing the best that it can with what it has.” She said she was uncomfortable with delaying the fee increase, “but if that is the will [of the Commission], I will go with it.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said, “25% in one year is too much for me,” but he said he would support 5% or 10%, and he supported the recommended increase in the franchise fee. 

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker said she would like staff to come back with options because she wanted to “move forward with addressing what we know we have to do as a City, but also in terms of protecting the most vulnerable amongst our ratepayers.”

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut supported the increase in the franchise fee but wanted staff to come back, “perhaps by the end of the year or so,” with options to raise cart fees; she favored phasing in higher fees and explaining to the public why they will be increased. 

First motion

Eastman made a motion to increase the franchise fee to 15% and ask staff to return with multiple scenarios for funding the Solid Waste Fund. Chestnut seconded the motion.

During public comment, Jim Konish asked why trash collection fees are on the monthly utility bill: “If you don’t pay this bill, they cut your electricity off.”

After public comment, Book said the City had let this problem build up for several years, so “I think that the City does take the burden at this point, as opposed to putting it on our neighbors, and we deal with this delay to figure out what our other options are, while still increasing the franchise fee.”

The motion passed unanimously. 

Second motion

Book made a motion to direct City staff to conduct a public relations campaign to inform residents that fee increases are coming and that they can reduce the size of their carts to reduce their monthly costs. The motion passed unanimously.