Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
Council raises trash fees
Rising fuel costs and pay increases for city workers are partly to blame for the 8% hike, officials say.
By Chris Wiebe
CITY HALL — Starting July 1, Burbank residents will pay 8% more to have their trash and recyclables picked up.
The 8% increase will add about $1.61 to utility bills for single-family residences each month, Public Works Director Bonnie Teaford said.
Rising fuel costs are partly to blame for the rate hike, she said.
"We run three trucks every week by everybody's single-family home in Burbank and that runs on fuel," she said. "And that's a huge part of our operational costs."
In addition, a renewed contract with city employees has bolstered their salaries and benefits — adding to operations expenses, she said.
"What's driving the rate increase from an operations perspective is our increased salary and benefits per the [Memorandum of Understanding]," she said. "Garbage, refuse is a very labor-intensive operation. It's people driving around and picking up the refuse, recyclables and green waste."
At the council's direction, Financial Services Department staffers looked into potential strategies for smoothing rate adjustments to minimize the impact on customers, Assistant Financial Services Director Justin Hess said.
But rates had to be pushed into the 8% to 9% range to pay for collection in the next five years, he said.
"This was the lowest we could go in order to meet the bond covenants, maintain some fiscal responsibility and not create such large deficits in the out years and not tap into the cash reserves as much," Hess said.
The city has two existing bonds that are outstanding, Teaford said.
The first was issued to pay for automated refuse tracks, which allow crews to work faster and safer, she said. And the second set of bonds was put toward improving the landfill, she added. The higher refuse rates were approved with the 2007-08 budget, which the City Council passed with a 4-1 vote Tuesday. Councilman David Gordon voted against the measure, saying he wanted to pull funds from different departments in order to lessen the impact on utility costumers.
But doing so would be a temporary fix and would compromise the stability of the refuse fund long-term, Vice Mayor Dave Golonski said.
"I don't think there's a single person up here that isn't sensitive to rate increases, and I think we, as a city, work hard to find ways to keep them at a minimum," he said. "But I think that you're proposing one-time funds to solve a recurring problem and what we end up doing is continue to go out with a refuse fund that loses money on an annual basis. So what you're doing is putting your finger in a dike."
CHRIS WIEBE covers City Hall and the courts. He may be reached at (818) 637-3242 or by e-mail at chris.wiebelatimes.com.
The 8% increase will add about $1.61 to utility bills for single-family residences each month, Public Works Director Bonnie Teaford said.
Rising fuel costs are partly to blame for the rate hike, she said.
"We run three trucks every week by everybody's single-family home in Burbank and that runs on fuel," she said. "And that's a huge part of our operational costs."
advertisement
"What's driving the rate increase from an operations perspective is our increased salary and benefits per the [Memorandum of Understanding]," she said. "Garbage, refuse is a very labor-intensive operation. It's people driving around and picking up the refuse, recyclables and green waste."
At the council's direction, Financial Services Department staffers looked into potential strategies for smoothing rate adjustments to minimize the impact on customers, Assistant Financial Services Director Justin Hess said.
But rates had to be pushed into the 8% to 9% range to pay for collection in the next five years, he said.
"This was the lowest we could go in order to meet the bond covenants, maintain some fiscal responsibility and not create such large deficits in the out years and not tap into the cash reserves as much," Hess said.
The city has two existing bonds that are outstanding, Teaford said.
The first was issued to pay for automated refuse tracks, which allow crews to work faster and safer, she said. And the second set of bonds was put toward improving the landfill, she added. The higher refuse rates were approved with the 2007-08 budget, which the City Council passed with a 4-1 vote Tuesday. Councilman David Gordon voted against the measure, saying he wanted to pull funds from different departments in order to lessen the impact on utility costumers.
But doing so would be a temporary fix and would compromise the stability of the refuse fund long-term, Vice Mayor Dave Golonski said.
"I don't think there's a single person up here that isn't sensitive to rate increases, and I think we, as a city, work hard to find ways to keep them at a minimum," he said. "But I think that you're proposing one-time funds to solve a recurring problem and what we end up doing is continue to go out with a refuse fund that loses money on an annual basis. So what you're doing is putting your finger in a dike."
Save/Share
 |
 |
|
| No temporary controls for the Rancho District | City raises power stakes |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of burbankleader.com.
Submit a Comment
We encourage your feedback and dialog, all comments will be reviewed by our Web staff before appearing on the Web site.
Not registered yet?
RSS