City proposing sanitation rate increases to help cover costs, including protested landfill fee jump
City staffers presented their annual review of the sanitation program and proposed changes during the City Commission’s April 1 meeting.
The city annually reviews their utility funds to determine if fee increases are needed to cover costs. Commissioners approved a rate
Chris Gaub, public works director, said that a significant impact to the program is a large increase in landfill fees that the city is protesting.
Republic Services owns and operates the High Plains Landfill.
The city and Republic offer trash pick up services within the city limits. The city rate increases only apply to city customers.
Gaub said he’d spoken to Republic staff that day who said they’d attend the meeting, but they weren’t in the room.
Ross Bartell, city sanitation manager, said that the city has 16,904 residential and 1,364 commercial customers for a total of 18,268.
City considering landfill options [2023]
He said their division had some positive feedback recently for drives going above and beyond.
Bartell said that a city resident in the Mountain View area had called to thank their driver who stops every week to give a treat to their dog.
“It’s very uncommon anymore for people to take the time to care about anything other than themselves and feels like that driver is a huge asset to the city,” the resident told city staff.
A Fox Farm Road resident thanked the driver who noticed that his 96-year-old father couldn’t get his trash can to the roadway due to snow and ice so the driver took it to the street weekly for him to empty it and put it back.
A northside resident reported a big mess in the alley that sanitation crews cleaned up.
Bartell said that the city had added nine new commercial stops in the last two days and of those, seven had dropped Republic and two were new businesses.
Bartell said staff had heard commissioners were interested in multi-year rate increases, rather than voting on increases annually, which Mayor Cory Reeves had asked about recently.
Staff said they are proposing two years of increases, but there are pros and cons to that method.
A pro is that there’s more time to plan for customers, and staff in terms of longer-range and strategic planning, as well as reduce staff time preparing the actions each year.
But it also reduces the city’s ability to react to significant unforeseen or emergency events, there’s more time for those unknowns to develop, and may require higher rates to hedge against those unforeseen circumstances, Bartell said.
Staff are proposing an 8 percent residential increase for each of the next two years, one this summer, another next summer, and a 10 percent commercial rate increase for the same two years. If approved, the rate increases will go into effect June 1.
Significant cost drivers for city sanitation include a 16.75 percent increase in landfill fees from Republic.
That includes the 2.45 percent consumer price index increase, as included in the city’s contract with Republic, but also 14.3 percent “due to a late notice methane infrastructure project,” according to city staff, equating to a $282,000 annual increase in landfill fees, for a project total for landfill costs of $1,430,402.
City staff said they were notified of Republic’s methane project at the landfill in January and that it was coming with a big fee increase, which will compound each year with the remainder of the city’s contract with Republic, meaning the city will have to raise rates to keep up with those costs.
Cascade County officials, who have had their own recent issues with Republic, said they had not been notified of the project or any associated fee increase.
David Dennis, city attorney, said the city sent Republic a letter detailing their disagreement with the rate increase and Republic’s interpretation of their 2016 contact.
The contract expired in 2024, but had options to extend.
Gaub told The Electric that late last year, the city opted to let the contract auto-extend through December 2029, when there will be the option to auto renew for another five years.
The city has to give 180 days notice if it’s not going to renew the contract, he said.
Dennis said the letter is a first step and if Republic doesn’t respond, the city has the option to file legal action, asking a judge to interpret the contract.
Dennis said it would be unusual for a company like Republic not to respond, but if it doesn’t, staff will come back to the commission to discuss next steps.
Roman Blahoski, Republic’s director of external communications, told The Electric on April 4 that the landfill completed the installation of a new gas collection system in 2024 as required by federal regulations.
“Once the project was complete, Republic submitted a contractual fee increase request, consistent with the terms of its contract with the city,” Blahoski said.
Commissioner Shannon Wilson said that she looked at the city’s 2023 solid waste study, because landfills interest her.
She asked what the future looked like in terms of the landfill and rising sanitation costs.
Gaub said that the city would have to charge 40 percent more than what Republic is charging to pencil out a city landfill.
She asked staff if they foresee the city looking at opening its own landfill.
Gaub said it’s something they’re keeping an eye on and will see how their protest of the rate increase turns out.
In November 2024, as the county was looking at challenges in their own sanitation issues, Gaub told The Electric that the city was not currently exploring the option of opening its own landfill and wasn’t in discussions with the county about joint operations.
Gaub told The Electric on April 3 that for now, it still wasn’t practical to open a city landfill without bringing in other partners to share the cost and resources.
City updating sanitation fleet [2024]
But, he said, if Republic keeps raising rates, “it could make those partnerships—and serious discussions about alternatives—more realistic in the future.”
The sanitation rate increase proposed by city staff will generate an additional $489,000 in revenue, allowing the division to break even, but won’t allow for any capital outlay, such as purchasing new trucks, which staff said they’ll delay the transition to front end loaders, which make the program more efficient.
From 2017 to 2024, the average annual increase for residential sanitation was 73 cents, according to the city.
Staff is also proposing to phase out the senior rate and phase in a rate for low-to-moderate income residents.
The senior rate isn’t covering the cost of providing the service, city staff said.
City Commission approves utility, sanitation fee increases [2024]
The current senior rate is $12.13 per month and will increase to $14.20 this summer under the proposed rate structure.
The cost would need to be $15.89 to break even and $18.14 monthly to fund any capital improvements, such as new trucks, according to staff.
The city is proposing to move to a new structure under which residents can fill out paperwork to qualify as low-to-moderate income and have a lower rate. That will be available to all qualifying citizens, not just seniors.
Staff said there are currently 2,500 customers on the senior rate.
Those who qualify for LMI will pay $16.84 starting June 1, and then $18.18 next summer, under the proposed free increase.
In June 2026, seniors who qualify will be moved to the LMI rate.
Staff is also proposing to add a multifamily rate for properties with 10 or more units that can be charged per unit.
Commissioners set a public hearing on the proposed rate increase for May 6.
Pingback: Wednesday Wrap: April 9 - The Electric
Pingback: City considering garbage rate increases - The Electric