Minutes 05-13-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner McKee said that answers his question. He said he feels the system is confusing. Commissioner porosin asked if the Board is supposed to make decisions about what to do for rural recycling for next year, such as whether to have it, what will be the scope, and how to pay for it. Michael Talbert said all of this is in the budget. He said if the Board makes no decisions and continues with the current services, funding with the reserves that are already in the manager's budget, then the budget will just need to be approved. He said if the Board would like to do something different, this would be the time to let staff know. Commissioner porosin asked if that budget would keep the fees the same as described. Michael Talbert said yes. He said the towns have agreed to levy a $59 fee for the urban curbside and $19 for the multi-family fee; and the rural service would cost the taxpayers nothing and will be paid for out of reserves. Chair Jacobs said the point of the earlier discussion was to make the commitment to resolve this by this time next year, but there is still an equity question about using the reserves generated by everyone to subsidize only the rural curbside. He said this should be discussed or decided on now. He said if he was an urban taxpayer, he would want to know why he was paying twice. Commissioner Pelissier said she would actually argue that the towns would be paying three times - from the reserves, the general fund for the SWCC, and the recycling fee. She said there was a plan to gradually increase the SWCC fees for the rural population, and this should be done this year to make it more equitable for the towns. Chair Jacobs said the Board needs to come out of this discussion with a list of decision points that staff can bring back as a decision item on what is being funded and how it is being funded. John Roberts said one of the funding items that was discussed would involve a recycling ordinance requiring residents to separate designated materials and increasing the countywide convenience center fee to a facility sustaining fee. He said this would free up $1.8 million of general fund dollars that could then be used to provide curbside recycling countywide. He said there are a lot of details that would need to be worked out, but there are no glaring legal issues. Chair Jacobs asked if these fees are differentiated by rural, multi-family, and urban. John Roberts said yes. Chair Jacobs said when there was a past working group represented by elected officials from all of the municipalities, the entire group recommended the current solid waste convenience center and structure. He said the group agreed there was value in having a SWCC system with two large centers and three smaller satellite centers. He said this was a mutually agreed upon system. Commissioner Price said her concern is that there are people that don't want to be bothered with curbside recycling. She said those people living out in the County are acting as their own pickup service, and they are paying for the gas. She wants to respect the view of those who don't want to pay for a pickup service they will not receive. She hopes the Board would be able to discuss this as part of the whole big picture that includes both the urban and rural areas. Chair Jacobs said a decision just needs to be made for this fiscal year. Commissioner Gordon asked John Roberts if his reference to providing curbside service countywide meant providing this to rural areas. John Roberts said he meant countywide, but no one would be forced to utilize curbside. He said the current routes would be kept, and the service would be expanded into the rural areas to those residents that wanted it.