We’re sorry we didn’t get to sit through even more discussion about Henderson’s sanitation program Monday, but the HomeinHenderson staff had its attention on New Orleans and more important things (yes, for some of us, No. 1-ranked Tulane University’s second trip to the College World Series is more important than where and how often our garbage is collected).
We apologize to all of you readers, but for us, Tulane’s best-of-three victory over the Rice Owls to advance to the series in Omaha, Neb., is the equivalent of UNC reaching the basketball Final Four. So the last thing we needed Monday was to kill our euphoria by listening to more bickering over garbage and recycling.
But today is another day, so we’ll jump back into the landfill.
Based on the report in today’s Daily Dispatch, the City Council, working through its Finance and Intergovernmental relations Committee, has more or less confirmed that it will do exactly what we always knew it would do: nothing.
For those of you keeping score at home, Public Works Director James Morgan has now appeared three times before the FAIR Committee this spring to discuss his sanitation proposals. That fact alone is proof that this City Council is not in the habit of rubber-stamping anything; council members are willing to talk about the same points over and over again, no matter how little there is to discuss.
Morgan made a good, common-sense plan — shifting to once-a-week curbside garbage collection — even better Monday by offering a way to save the city’s curbside recycling program and to give it a real chance at success with weekly pickups — changing from contractor Waste Industries to staff collection.
So under Morgan’s recycling proposal, we would spend less money and double the service, a necessary step to increase participation in curbside recycling, which 56 percent of homes don’t bother with now.
As with Morgan’s garbage proposal, there shouldn’t be much to talk about. Morgan, the person we pay to know the best way to provide sanitation and other Public Works Department services, has offered a way to save money while getting the job done on garbage and recycling. As a council member, either you accept Morgan’s recommendations, which would bring Henderson into line with most North Carolina cities, or you cling to the status quo, whether out of concern for the elderly or out of a fear of change.
We wouldn’t have thought you turn that into three or four hours of discussion, but we would have been wrong.
According to the report in the Dispatch, council members keep presenting the same arguments and talking points. Only one comment surprised use: “Councilman John Wester said he didn’t think the savings are worth the change in service. Although the city will have to address the issue at some point, he doesn’t think that time is now.”
That’s from the man who complained about the council ignoring long-term consequences when making a short-term decision on group insurance last week. So now we’re supposed to ignore long-term benefits and make a short-term decision we know is wrong?
Just as important, we wonder how much savings is required to make a change in service worthwhile. When it came to insurance, Wester said $42,000 in a year wasn’t enough. Now, a sanitation shift that could reduce the Public Works Department staff by 10 people through attrition — saving on wages, benefits such as insurance, and workers’ compensation claims and insurance — won’t save enough.
So our first request is that next year, at the start of the budget process, the City Council agree on how much must be saved on any given program change for it to be deemed worthwhile. Why waste all of this time on discussions about things that aren’t worth the effort?
Our second suggestion is perhaps more practical. The sanitation fee is paid through the water bill; let’s use the water bill to see where Hendersonians stand on the proposals.
Include a survey card in the water bill for August. On the card, ask people whether they would like to see the city switch to curbside garbage collection if such a change would save money. And ask whether people want to continue biweekly curbside recycling, eliminate the program or upgrade to weekly pickup. And ask whether the continuation of the recycling program is worth $1 per month, $2 per month, $3 per month, $4 per month or some other amount to the respondent.
As for the garbage plan, we also suggest giving people the option to volunteer to pay for the $90 rollout garbage bins themselves, perhaps as a $30-per-month charge on the water bill. If enough of us are willing to eat the cost of the rolling garbage cans, maybe we won’t have to swallow high sanitation bills in the future.
Or maybe we Hendersonians will reject the change, and we can put all of this trash talk behind us for good.