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Perkins: Selma could make $500k yearly on providing city garbage

The Selma City Council looks like it will have two options for solving its garbage collection problems going forward.

One option is for the city to take over garbage collection. The other is to update its contract with Martin Environmental to firm up what its responsibilities will be.

During a Selma Public Works Committee meeting Thursday, Mayor James Perkins Jr. presented his proposal for taking on the garbage collection for the city by purchasing over 6,000 90-gallon carts, two side-loading garbage trucks compatible with the carts, two pickup trucks for runners to move carts before and after collection and hiring at least five employees.

The proposed city garbage trucks would require drivers with a CDL. The other trucks would be general laborers with a regular driver’s license who would pull carts to and from the road for customers who are not able to get their carts to the road.

He said they believe the city could make as much as $500,000 in profit for the city.

“We’re convinced that we can in fact convert the garbage service back to the city to do the collection, and we can get that done without increasing the cost to the citizens,” Perkins said. “And if we move quickly, we can get the equipment that we need and initiate that process. October 1.”

Chairman Clay Carmichael said he wasn’t certain if they could move that fast, but he said they are working to get whatever agreement in place by the beginning of the new fiscal year, which begins October 1.

Carmichael also presented the committee with a non-exclusive franchise agreement with Martin Environmental. The agreement would require them to service all residential customers.’

He said he would have liked to have had the agreement to the committee before Thursday, but they will have a public hearing on the agreement before any decision is made.

“I think one of the main sticking points about this is the fact that in our previous ordinance we had capped garbage fees at $20, and landfill tipping fees have gone up 75% since then,” Carmichael said. “We’ve capped them. So that’s the most that they can make. In order for them to continue their business, they need a contract with an increase and so that they can invest in more equipment and more labor. And so this is back to the drawing board like we had previously, where we had a contract.”

Carmichael said the city had an agreement with LDI prior to Martin buying the assets of LDI. Because Martin didn’t purchase the whole business, the previous contract did not go to Martin.

If the city decided to take on garbage collection, each resident would get one cart and be responsible for their fee. Perkins said the city could also do commercial pickup if they didn’t already have a garbage service in place. Details on those fees were not released.

Perkins said they would initially charge $20 per residential address for garbage collection, but by the end of two years, he is hoping the city would be able to hold a referendum on a property tax increase to pay for the garbage service to eliminate the need for a fee. Residents who have property valued at less than $100,000 would likely see an increase of $20 or less on their annual taxes while those above that threshold would likely pay more.

Jannie Thomas asked what would happen if the property tax wasn’t passed.

“We need to let the citizens know,” Thomas said. “So the question was to me, does this include the property tax if we propose the property tax increase and what happens if it doesn’t pass?”

Perkins didn’t answer that specifically, but the fees would likely continue.

Carmichael asked if they would have to bid the garbage items due to the price of the project, but Perkins said they were approved on the state bid list. Perkins said the projected $500,000 extra per year could help the city with its cash flow issues.

“We do have some cash issues that we really are going to have to address and it’s going to require some additional revenue,” Perkins said. “There’s only two ways to fix this. You either get more revenue or you cut costs. Where our primary costs are located is in salaries. And if we start cutting salaries, cutting staff and cutting services, we don’t want to go back down that road.”

Carmichael said the committee will forward the proposal to the city council for consideration at a future meeting.

One issue with the Martin contract is that if the resident doesn’t pay for garbage collection, the garbage will not be collected. Carmichael said that would have to be addressed in a new garbage ordinance, which was presented to the committee Thursday.