Minutes 03-26-2015 - Assembly of Governments

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expenditures. He said the rate of the fee could vary next year once the new budget is completed. Mayor Kleinschmidt noted the fact that the Solid Waste Convenience Center (SWCC) fees allocated to the rural portion of option 1 is twice that of the municipal portion. He said the basic 3-r fee for the municipal portion looks to be about 70 percent lower than the rural fee for that amount. He said he wants to be fair in noting the substantial differences in the basic fees in option 1. Council Member Bell arrived at 7:11 pm. Commissioner Burroughs asked for more information about the services included in the fee. Gayle Wilson said the basic fee includes almost everything except the urban curbside, rural curbside and the multifamily program. He said the fee includes the food waste collection program, commercial services, park and ride lot collections, parks collections, government building collections, unstaffed recycling drop-off centers, hazardous waste and electronics collection, several landfill based recycling services, as well as education and outreach. Alderman Slade arrived at 7:13pm. Chair McKee opened the floor for comments. Alderman Slade said his original perspective on this was to choose an option that reflects where the costs are located. He said, as he has further looked at the formulas, he feels it is a rough way to allocate costs based on the number of people in the rural and urban areas. He said this does not reflect the costs he would want to have reflected in a fee, specifically with regard to fuel costs. He said he is not sure which option he prefers, but he would like for this group to consider either option as a pilot option. He said this would allow a fee to be put in place before the deadline, given the amount that has already been drawn funds from the landfill closing fund. Alderman Slade said he is not sure if the costs for the roll out carts were paid for by the rural residents, but his understanding is that both rural and urban will be paying for this in the universal option, whereas it would be separated in the other option. He said the rural option would be a 3 to 5 percent increase over the next three years and then would taper off. He said this would mean residents would pay about $20 more on top of an already increased amount, and he felt this needs to be considered in the deliberation. Mayor Kleinschmidt said he likes the idea of a pilot program. He said the SWAG was challenged by using the data to justify the fee. He said the two main conversation drivers were equity and the principle that everyone is in this together with the goal of promoting increased recycling. Mayor Kleinschmidt said he and the other Chapel Hill representative, Council Member Ward, were struck by the way the fees are structured for the funding of the SWCCs. He said these fees supplement the general fund contribution from Orange County, and with both options 35 percent of the proposed fee would go to support the SWCCs. A survey was done to determine who uses these centers, and the snapshot showed the municipal residents make up 11 percent of the users. He said the $1.8 million in general funds from the County comes largely from the municipal residents. He said 42 percent is from the Town of Chapel Hill residents. He said there were some concerns about this as it related to equity.