After increases in contracted amounts to both the City of Columbia and Marion County, city officials discussed the trash collection contract with the provider Waste Pro.
Chris Lockwood of Waste Pro was on hand at the Columbia Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday night and was questioned about the number of residences served and an 11.33 percent increase in fees to the city.
The Board had recently increased user fees to residents by $5 per month, which means monthly garbage service in the city costs $15. City officials said the increase in fees was necessary to offset a $6,000 to $8,000 per month loss on the service. The city has had an outside provider for several years and Waste Pro bought out the contract of the city’s original provider, Red River nearly two years ago.
“The concern of the Board has been why we had the drastic jump of 11.33 percent?” Mayor Justin McKenzie asked.
Lockwood defended the increase, stating it was part of the city’s contract.
“Pretty much, we just went and did all of the calculations by the formula and submitted all of the backup for it, along with the letter,” he said. “It is simply based on the contract.”
Lockwood explained that the 11.33 percent was arrived at using a formula that included the Consumer Price Index and a diesel adjustment.
“This is actually calculated from May of 2016 to May of 2017,” he said. “The CPI change was about 1 percent and the diesel was more than 10 percent. It has nothing to do with where we’re buying diesel. We review all of our contracts on an annual basis, we write down what dates of adjustment there are and look at the deadline to submit the letter. We look at the contract and calculate the formula, that’s pretty much how we came up with that number.”
Aldermen confronted Lockwood, questioning the increase when diesel prices had stabilized.
“The calculation is based on the Gulf Coast price for diesel for 2017,” Lockwood explained. “The difference over one year is 10.31 percent. We fall into that zone and that’s why the contract says to use that.”
McKenzie was also concerned about the bill the city received from Waste Pro recently.
“A concern of mine is that we are paying for 2,641 services,” he said. “That is 61 of the rear-load red dumpsters for once a week, 14 of them are picked up twice a week and 15 of the cans (commercial) are picked up twice a week. The rest of it is residential. Based on the numbers and calculations we obtained, 2,169 accounts is all we are billing for. There is a difference of 472 accounts in those. If it was adjusted to the number of accounts, the price per account would go up. According to Mr. Lockwood, the cost is the same whether they are picking up 2,600 cans or 2,100 cans.”
Lockwood explained that costs to Waste Pro would not decrease drastically with the lower number of customers.
“Costs to you would be reduced if you were able to cut more routes,” he said. “If you cut a whole route off of the work, it would reduce it.”
Alderman-at-Large Edward Hough expressed concern over residents being able to obtain new cans. Lockwood explained that the cans are ordered yearly. He has replaced several since a shipment arrived in the area.
Ward 3 Alderwoman Anna Evans expressed concerns over the conditions of commercial cans, particularly the dumpsters. Lockwood said crews would be working to weld and paint damaged units when the weather cooled down.
Waste Pro will also conduct a route audit to determine if there are customers who should have multiple cans instead of one. City officials said often residents put out several cans per week, but only have one of the 96-gallon cans from the provider.
Ward 4 Alderman Mike Smith expressed concerns that the increase came just as the city submitted its budget.
“If we could absorb half of it now, we could revisit the 11.33 percent,” he said. “If we wanted a long-term contract where we would renew and renew, you could go up half and not hit us with 11.33 percent.”
Lockwood said he could discuss it with Waste Pro officials but offered no solution.
“There is a possibility it could be decreased, but if you’re looking at reducing the house count to 450, that opens up a whole different calculation,” he said. “What I’m worried about if you split it is next year’s calculation. It’s already looking like a 5 or 6 percent increase for next year. It’s based on how things are trending based on diesel prices and CPI.”
McKenzie said that when the initial contract with Red River was signed, diesel was around $4 per gallon.
“I don’t think the diesel surcharge is valid to base it on per year,” he said.
The Board will continue its discussions with Lockwood and Waste Pro at a future meeting.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Columbia Board of Aldermen is set for 4 p.m. on Oct. 3 at City Hall.
