THE TOTERS ARE COMING! THE TOTERS ARE COMING! (PART 2)

LET ME “EDUCATE” YOU

I tend to cringe when I hear politicians talk about “educating the public”.

I cringe twice as hard whenever local politicians use that phrase.

It strikes me as more than a little bit patronizing.
And it makes me wonder what our elected officials are thinking.

Do they think residents are a bunch of ignorant, unschooled dummies?

Things really get really problematic when “educating the public” is used as a sales tool after controversial decisions have been made.

When did post-decisional “education” become an acceptable substitute for pre-decision dialogue and persuasion?

THE SPLIT VOTE
Council President Cathy Murphy was all about “educating” the public last Tuesday.
She announced:

“We plan to roll out a lot of education if we pass this tonight”

The “this” she was referring to was legislation, adopted by a bare majority that night, authorizing Mayor Coleman to enter into a new 5 year garbage contract with Kimble, the city’s current trash collector.

The split vote was significant…and big news.

Council usually shows a unified face in public.

It’s extremely rare to see resolutions that aren’t sponsored by everyone on Council.

This one wasn’t.
According to the agenda, it was sponsored by:

“Mayor Scott E. Coleman and Council Representative (Chuck) Brunello, (Leo) Lombardo, (Bob) Mastrangelo, and (Cathy) Murphy.”

Not surprisingly the 4 yes votes were, you guessed it: Murphy, Brunello, Lombardo and Mastrangelo.

IT’S NOT ABOUT RECYCLING….

One thing is certain.

Council members are unanimously in favor of recycling.

They aren’t necessarily tree huggers.
Recycling is environmentally sensible and responsible…a point repeatedly emphasized by Judy Dearden of the Highland Heights Green Task Force.

For Council members, though, recycling means saving money.

Landfill costs are rising…and recycling minimizes what gets dumped in landfills.

That’s a good thing.

It translates into lower garbage disposal costs for the city.

IT IS ABOUT THE HUMONGOUS GARBAGE TOTERS
The contract that only 4 Council members approved on Tuesday provides for “automated” garbage collection.
Kimble will issue 2 wheeled garbage carts to every resident:

A green 64 gallon toter for recycling and a monster black 96 gallon toter for garbage.

Garbage collectors will use robotic arms to pick up and empty the carts while remaining warm and dry inside their garbage trucks.

This isn’t the first round for the contract.

Council members considered switching to “automated” garbage collection and the toters a few years ago.

Boy did they get an earful.

The bugaboo issue: the black 96 gallon garbage toters.

Back then residents were quite vocal, questioning the need for humongous garbage carts.
Although wheeled, they worried about senior citizens’ ability to haul such large garbage carts to the curb.
They also pointed out that many residents didn’t have garages large enough to accommodate the monster toters.
Council backed off after hearing from residents.

That was then…this is now.

Two years later…. and it appears that Council has amnesia.
No different deal was negotiated.
Like the previous one, the contract approved on Tuesday night hinges on the 96 gallon toters.

As for residents and their concerns?
According to Council President Cathy Murphy:

They just need to be “educated”

JUST HOW BIG ARE THEY?

Two sample Kimble toters were sitting in the Council Chamber on Tuesday.

I took a quick tape measure to the black garbage cart.

It stands about 43” high, is 33” deep and is 28”across.

Match that up to your current garbage cans why don’t you!

Actually….I did.

I have several standard wheeled garbage cans in my garage.
They are 30” high and 18” deep.

The Kimble black garbage carts are about 50% taller and almost twice as deep as my standard garbage cans.

I can only imagine how heavy they’ll be when full..
I live on a cul de sac filled with “family-size” homes.
Of the 22 houses, only about 6 put out enough garbage to fill more than one standard size garbage can each week.
That's an informal, non-scientific survey for sure.
Still, the fact remains: 

Fewer than 1/3 of my street will actually need monster toters for their garbage.Everyone else won’t.

ANOTHER DOG AND PONY SHOW
I was surprised by the size of the crowd at last Tuesday’s Council meeting.
It always makes me happy to see residents interested and involved.

Well I was partially right.

A number of the attendees were nonresidents, invited by the powers that be to shore up support for the garbage contract.

When the meeting was opened to the public, Council President Cathy Murphy introduced 3 such guests in quick succession: the Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District (which worked with Service Director Thom Evans on the contract) and two council members from Lyndhurst and South Euclid.

Highland Heights residents patiently waited their turn to speak….

And when they did they expressed, once again, concerns about the need for, the manageability of, and the lack of storage space for the Kimble garbage toters.

OH….. THE IRONY
Although he was there to talk up the garbage contract, Lyndhurst Councilman Joe Gambatese illustrated just how differently his city had handled the transition to automated collection.
Gambatese said:

“We took a two phase approach.
We started by talking to residents.
We used Council coffees to talk to them.
We started with (just) a recycling program…
We wanted to step back and see what we have.”

As a result of that slow, communicative approach, Gambatese said he’s “only had a handful of calls” about the program.While saying:

 “People don’t like change” 

Gambatese also acknowledged the concerns expressed by Highland Heights residents about the oversized garbage toters.…admitting that he regularly helps an elderly neighbor with his.

He isn’t the only one.

Another audience member confided to me that he, too, regularly helps his elderly parents get their monster garbage cart to the curb.

South Euclid followed a similar path before inking its automated garbage contract.

Councilman Dennis Fiorelli told Council members that his city obtained a lot of community input ahead of time:

“We had citywide meetings that the public was invited to.
We talked about it for 6 months at Service Committee meetings that were open to the public.
We wanted to be open with residents.”

WHY THE RUSH?

The city’s new garbage contract was put on a fast track for approval.

Council even held a special meeting last week (no public speaking) for the sole purpose of hearing a second reading of the legislation.
That paved the way for a vote on Tuesday, 2 weeks after the legislation was first introduced.

The rushed process caused Councilwoman Lisa Stickan to hesitate and ultimately----along with Councilwoman Ann D’Amico and Councilman Ed Hargate---to vote against the garbage contract legislation.
Stickan said,

“I do feel with the first reading in January, that was a quick period of time. That’s what my hesitation is…

I perhaps wish we had explored it a little bit more before passing it (the garbage contract legislation) tonite…

It’s not like South Euclid where their contract was up. We are still under a contract that people like.”

Murphy interrupted Stickan, interjecting that the rush was necessary:

 “… to meet the time frame to give notice (under an opt-out provision in the current garbage contract). “

She then seemingly undercut that explanation, admitting:

“Mr Evans prepared a time line for us to use several months ago.”

Stickan concluded her remarks, commenting:

“Since we are currently under a contract with 2 years remaining….we could continue this discussion.”

CONTRACT STATS
1. The contract is for an initial five years, with two possible one year extensions beyond that.
2  It is set to begin in June….a break for Council given that residents won’t have to be wrangling monster toters during winter weather.
3. It requires residents to use monster garbage toters for at least 60 days.
After that, residents can ask for a smaller toter… “smaller” being a still-quite-large 64 gallon toter.
4. All garbage and recyclables must be placed in the toters, with 2 exceptions:
  a. A single garbage bag weighing less than 40 pounds can be placed at the curb.
  b. Once the monster toter is full, residents can place additional garbage in bags, their old garbage cans or other appropriate container. There is no limit on the amount of garbage thrown out..as long as the toter is full.

So much for “automated collection”.

This blog is lengthy.
I’ll post excerpts from last Tuesday's discussion in my next blog.

In the meantime, here’s a copy of some of the bid documents.

City-drafted contract addendum. It requires monster 96 gallon garbage carts

Bid prices: Kimble vs. Browning