Sean C. Morgan
After telling Sweet Home Sanitation last month by consensus to go ahead and move forward with a rate increase designed to help pay for higher costs associated with recycling, the Sweet Home City Council last week held off the first reading of an ordinance to authorize the rate increase.
Sweet Home Sanitation began charging the 8-percent increase this month. That followed an automatic annual increase – agreed to last year by the council – based on the Portland-Salem Consumer Price Index of 4.2 percent effective on July 1.
The ordinance authorizing the increase was on the agenda for the council’s regular meeting on Aug. 14. The increase is based on extraordinary circumstances in the rising cost of recycling, the result of China’s rejection of most exported recycling because it is too contaminated by non-recyclable material.
According to Sweet Home Sanitation officials, the company has gone from receiving revenue for recycling materials to paying to get rid of them.
Sweet Home Sanitation Site Manager Scott Gagner said in a letter to city officials in May that Pioneer Recycling paid Sweet Home Sanitation $30 per ton for mixed recycling in June 2017. China imposed an effective ban on recycling on Jan. 1, and as of May, Pioneer was charging Sweet Home Sanitation $84 per ton for the same material it was buying a year earlier.
Factoring in transportation and handling costs, the cost per ton rose from an average of $26.04 in 2017 to $118.47, Gagner said, an increase of 355 percent.
Councilor Lisa Gourley said she wanted to see a clause inserted into the ordinance to sunset the 8-percent increase, to give the council an opportunity to decide whether to continue it.
City Manager Ray Towry said that as part of the agreement, the council can initiate that any time it wants to revisit the situation.
Gagner also agreed at the council meeting on July 24 to provide monthly reports about the situation, and if the crisis is resolved, rates would decrease accordingly.
Gourley said the increase applies to things that are not related to recycling, such as an access fee, a recall fee and yard debris only.
“You shouldn’t have to pay for something you’re not getting,” Gourley said.
Brian White, district manager for Waste Connections, which owns Sweet Home Sanitation, told The New Era that recycling costs are interconnected among the various rates for service at the curb.
He said that if it weren’t spread among the various rates, the ones that do go up would go up by 8.5 percent or 9 percent.
The recycling rate increase does not apply across the entire rate structure, though, White said. It doesn’t apply to the rolloff service, large containers dropped and hauled away after filling. It also doesn’t apply to the transfer station. Those two sets of rates have increased by just the annual rate, 4.2 percent, which was effect July 1.
Councilor Bob Briana said he wanted to see an accounting of Sweet Home Sanitation’s business, profit and loss statements, for the past year or two, so he could make comparisons.
Towry said he would need to read the contract with Sweet Home Sanitation to determine what he can request.
Gagner said in his letter that the baseline for recycling expenses as a percentage of revenue was 3.3 percent. The company multiplied that by 355 percent to determine that an increase of 11.76 percent was required to recover the increased cost assuming Sweet Home Sanitation processed the same volume of mixed recycling it did in 2017. The additional expense per year for recycling services is $257,251.
“With the potential of double-digit rate increases, we believe it’s important to present options,” Gagner said. “If it costs more to recycle material than to dispose of it in a landfill, landfilling is an option.”
To landfill commingled recycling would require an increase of just 5.23 percent, Gagner said.
No one moved to conduct a first reading of the ordinance, and Mayor Greg Mahler stated that the ordinance “dies” until the council receives clarification.
The rate for 90-gallon carts increased from $28.85 per month to $30.05 under the annual increase July 1 and to $32.35 per month beginning Aug. 1 based on the recycling increase, which is slightly less than 8 percent.
The rate for 20-gallon service increased from $11.60 to $12.10 per month on July 1. With the recycling increase, the rate went from $12.10 to $13 per month on Aug. 1.
Recycling only and yard debris only increased from $5.25 to $5.45 on July 1 and to $5.90 on Aug. 1.
Rates for commercial services and larger containers increased similarly.
Present at the meeting were Mahler and councilors Briana, Susan Coleman, Gourley, Dave Trask, James Goble and Diane Gerson.
In other business, the council:
n Agreed to form a charter review committee.
“I think it’s fair to say some of it is a bit dated,” Towry said of the charter, which is essentially the city’s constitution, dictating how it should operate. “There is a feeling the City of Sweet Home’s Charter has some dated elements within it that are not considered best practices, are cumbersome, inefficient and may not conform to current state law.”
For example, he isn’t aware of any other cities that must read ordinances three times prior to adopting an ordinance.
The first reading is a full reading of a proposed ordinance. The council can vote unanimously to read the proposed ordinance a second time immediately following the first reading. A third reading may be held at the council meeting following the second reading. The council may take action on an ordinance following the third reading. Ordinances are normally effective 30 days after the mayor signs the ordinance, but an expediency clause can make it take effect immediately after the mayor signs the ordinance.
At full length, the process for an ordinance to take effect is about 2½ months. With two readings at the first meeting and an expediency clause, an ordinance can take effect two weeks from its introduction.
In 2014, a charter review committee recommended changes to the 1986 City of Sweet Home Charter. Those changes included simplified and gender-neutral language; removal of previously repealed sections that were no longer applicable; renumbered sections; removal of charter amendments that were no longer applicable and did not conform to current law; and revisions of the council voting requirements for council action and removal of sections on damage suits and debt limits, relying instead on state law. Voters approved the changes in November 2014.
Towry said multiple councilors had approached him about changing the charter.
Gourley suggested that it isn’t necessary right now with so many other things going on, and Mahler noted that it comes with an expense for the election.
Gourley suggested that the extended period to adopt an ordinance may be designed as it is because the decisions affect so many people.
“I’m very cautious about changing that language and changing the ordinances without all costs considered,” she said.
Briana said that six weeks plus 30 days “kind of slows down the progress.”
Trask said that just because the council could move an ordinance process more quickly doesn’t mean it cannot slow the process down, but changing the charter would make it easier to move an ordinance through the process without wasting six weeks.
The council voted 7-0 to convene the committee. Mahler said membership would include three at-large residents, two past city councilors and two current city councilors.
Trask and Gerson said they would serve, and former Mayor Tim McQueary agreed to serve. McQueary served on the 2014 committee.
n Discussed which councilors would travel to Washington, D.C. next December to participate in the lighting of the national Christmas tree, which is being selected from the Willamette National Forest and most likely the Sweet Home Ranger District.
The city budgeted funds to pay for travel to the event.
Mahler, Trask and Gourley said they intend to go regardless of whether the city pays for it. Coleman also said she intended to go.
Gerson said she was not going, and Briana said he hadn’t considered it.
“I think the Capitol Christmas tree is very important to our community,” Mahler said, and the council should have a presence there.
Goble said he wasn’t going and did not think the city should use taxpayer funds to pay for councilors to attend.
“I’m not cool with spending funds in the budget for vacation,” Goble said. “Training and staying someplace to train is one thing. This is completely different.”
“I think it shows respect for some people to be there,” said Coleman, who has helped lead the effort to make ornaments and plan a local event Nov. 9 as the tree leaves Sweet Home. Just 53 cities have been selected for the honor, and “it’s very important to the city.”
Trask said it was included in the budget, and he didn’t remember hearing any objection previously.
“I’ll pay part of mine,” he said. “Because I’m going to stay longer.”
“I’m only going there to attend the events, not as a vacation,” Mahler said. “It’s very important to represent the city.”
Towry recommended that only three councilors attend the event, noting that the city could provide notice of a possible forum of the City Council gathering in Washington, D.C., if four go, but “I think perception is a key thing.”
A quorum of the council is four councilors and is required for the council to conduct business. By state law, a majority of the council cannot convene – anywhere – without public notice.
Towry suggested the councilors draw lots to attend the lighting, and the council agreed to continue the discussion later.
n Approved an update to plans for construction of a sidewalk from 54th Avenue to Riggs Hill Road. Among changes, the project will no longer include a multi-use path along Foster Lake. That project is being merged into a Linn County project.
n Approved an agreement with the Sweet Home Community Foundation to manage the city’s Community Grants Program. One city councilor will be involved in the foundation’s decisions for the city-funded program.
n Held the first and second readings of an ordinance updating city council rules.