COUNCIL AGAIN DELAYS VOTE ON TRASH FEE HIKE

A proposed $1.46 per month trash fee hike was again delayed Monday as the Cape Girardeau City Council voted to have a citizens group examine volume-based billing options.

But the council refused to take steps to bid out city trash service to private contractors.

A motion by Council Doug Richards to request proposals from private trash companies failed in a 3-3 council deadlock.

Richards asked that the city use a process similar to the one employed to solicit proposals from riverboat casino operators: with a request for proposals document.

Mayor Gene Rhodes and Councilman Melvin Gateley supported Richards' motion, which was in the form of an amendment to Gateley's motion to yield the volume-based billing issue to the city's Solid Waste Task Force.

But Councilmen Mary Wulfers, Melvin Kasten and Al Spradling III voted against Richards' amendment. Gateley's original motion then passed unanimously.

"I can't understand why we are so opposed to looking at privatization," said Richards. "How can we justify to the citizens of Cape Girardeau that we can give businesses the option to select between the city and private trash vendors when we won't let the voters decide the same thing for residential service?

"The commercial trash fees have not increased the same amount as residential fees, and I don't think it's fair that we won't at least look at what privatization can do."

Richards' motion came after a representative of BFI Industries of Southern Illinois, a solid waste company, asked that the city consider bidding out residential trash service. The issue has resurfaced several times in the past few years, typically with hikes in the city trash fees.

Mike Post, district manager and vice president of BFI of Southern Illinois, said the company could save the city money on trash service.

Brenda Dohogne, a city council candidate in Ward 2 for the spring municipal election, also said the city might want to consider bidding out trash service.

She said a relative living in Chesterfield pays $10 per month to have BFI pick up her trash and recyclables each week.

Dohogne also urged the city to adopt volume-based billing as an alternative to increasing the trash fee.

"Volume-based rates give a big boost to recycling, as residents are given an economic incentive to recycle," she said. "Volume-based programs also create greater equity for those, like senior citizens, with less to spend and who generate less waste."

Dohogne said she supported a basic service fee to cover solid waste expenses beyond residential waste collection in addition to a volume-based fee for added trash bags.

That's the type of program envisioned by the city administration.

A base monthly fee could include collection of a single container of trash with additional waste placed in a bag or container displaying a special city sticker at an additional cost.

City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said during the council's study session Monday that volume-based billing has disadvantages.

"Let's be honest. If we go to this program, the few thousand senior citizens out here on fixed incomes will benefit from this," he said. "But the folks out here with a family are going to be paying for it.

"There are going to be people paying $14, $15, or $18 a month."

Richards said that's why it's time to again consider bidding out the trash service to private company.

"We've got a good system," Richards said. "We can account for every cent of that trash fee. But it's the price that's got us into trouble.

"I think we ought to table this increase for two or three months and give staff the time to come up with a volume-based system and also to solicit proposals from private trash companies."

The measure approved by the council asks the city staff to work with the solid waste task force to:

-- Develop a volume-based program.

-- Reconsider the frequency of curb-side recycling collection in an effort to find cost savings.

-- Present billing alternatives for special solid waste services such as leaf collection and special trash pick-ups to try to recoup more costs.

In other business, the council tabled action on the appointment of a public housing authority.

For 52 years, Cape Girardeau has had a housing authority ordinance on the books, but no public housing. The city staff has recommended the council enact a new ordinance and appoint a housing authority to begin to develop scattered-site public housing units in Cape Girardeau.

Steve Williams, Cape Girardeau's housing assistance coordinator, said there are few options available in the city for low-income residents faced with a housing shortage.

The only available government-assisted housing is federal Housing and Urban Development rent vouchers and a Missouri Housing Development Corp. program that helps finance developers building apartments for low-income tenants.

But the HUD program has a long waiting list, and the MHDC program doesn't address the needs of poor families, Williams said.

"The MHDC program is a profit venture, and those developers are looking for something safe," he said. "That's senior citizens housing."

But some council members said they were reluctant to give a housing authority free reign to develop properties without first understanding more about a cooperative agreement the group would have with the city.