Gwinnett County is resuming its efforts to implement a new trash collection plan for the County.
Currently, Gwinnett County homeowners have the option to choose from dozens of companies to collect their trash based on who offers the best price for them, and they are also able choose whether they even want to have trash collection services or take it to the dump themselves.
Earlier this year, Gwinnett County proposed a plan to takeover trash collection services by using private companies to collect. In that plan, the county would MANDATE that every Gwinnett homeowner have weekly garbage collection. It would have divided the county into 8 districts and would have only allowed one hauler per district, eliminating your freedom to choose a hauler. And, under the plan, the county would have begun billing for garbage collection on your property tax bill, which would have resulted in a $6 million dollar a year total property tax increase. This program would have been run by Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful. The Gwinnett Superior Court threw this plan out.
The county is now in the process of resuming work on a new plan. The new plan they are working towards is exactly the same as the last except Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful would not be running the program. They have had a series of public hearing to take suggestions on minor details of the plan, but the basics are the same as the last: FORCING YOU TO HAVE TRASH COLLECTION, ENDING PERSONAL CHOICE, LIMITING PRIVATE ENTERPRISE and ADDING A NEW TAX ON YOUR PROPERTY TAX BILL. That is just wrong.
There will be two public hearings on the issue:
Saturday, July 18
10:00am to 11:30am
Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center Auditorium
75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville
770.822.8000
Enter building at main entrance, make first right. Auditorium is on right.
Saturday, July 25
10:00am to 11:30am
George Pierce Community Center
55 Buford Highway, Suwanee
770.831.4173
Once you enter the park, the community building is located on left
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The (R) stands for regulation you know.
The tax payers of Gwinnett have spoken loud and clear that they prefer the current plan. Their voices were heard during the debate over the plan before the court threw out the Clean and Beautiful Plan.
Why is the Commission spending $132,000 on consultants to hold hearings to find out what they should already know?
When I talked to Commissioner Nasuti a year or two back, his story was essentially that commissioners are flooded with complaints from blue-haired old ladies about trash trucks driving through their neighborhood more than once per week. I imagine that commissioners regularly get a few bizarre complaints, but I don’t believe for a moment they’re on the scale Nasuti describes. Why aren’t old ladies clamoring for mail and UPS/FedEx to run once a week while they’re at it? I suspect that the real driver is money and favors to come from the large corporate providers who would get the contracts.
I’m not really opposed to the “mandated” part here. Trash dumping in Gwinnett is a problem, and the flipside of freedom is responsibility… you don’t have the “choice” to dump your household garbage on other people’s property rather than dealing with it responsibly.
However, the two thing that really have me hot are the obfuscation of price and the lack of provider selection. By burying the costs in your property tax bill, residents won’t easily see how much their trash service is costing them… which is a guarantee that it will end up costing more over time. Also, a couple years ago I had to drop Atlanta Waste Management (part of a national company)… because they provide “garbage service” on multiple levels! They were just terrible. I switched to Robertson Sanitation (a local outfit) that has offered much better service at lower prices. I imagine my current provider is exactly who will get screwed here, because the national chain is better positioned to make campaign contributions and/or made lowball bids before jacking rates up once the competition is driven out of business.
Really, how many people in Gwinnett take their own trash to the dump and what are the savings versus this plan? Of course, I don’t think trash collection in mandatory in Cobb. I typically take my yard debris to the county compost plant myself.
Not talking about yard waste… I’m just talking about houses with 14 illegals in them not having service for their HOUSEHOLD trash. They often leave it roadside, or dump it in commercial dumpsters which creates problems for those businesses. If people were actually bothering to haul it out to the county dump then there would be no issue.
Upson County mandated trash service many years ago in order to stop the illegal dumping. Trash costs went up. Those that were saving money by taking their debris to the landfill were not exempt from the mandated program and, of course, the dumping continued. Not to mention the fact that time and effort spent trying to collect from those who didn’t want the service cost the county something whether they acknowledge it or not. I no longer live in Upson County so I have the freedom to choose my own vendor. And I will fight it tooth and nail if this ugly program rears its head in Pike County. Competition is always better for those paying for a service.
I understand that the largest argument for a new plan where the county would mandate trash collection and eliminate our freedom to choose a hauler is the number of garbage trucks in a neighborhood. If a neighborhood has a problem with the amount of trucks, they can ban together and choose one hauler who offers the best price.
A new plan that would eliminate consumer choice and FORCE people to pay for trash collection service is unacceptable.
The scenario that was in the original post was on target, but in reality the origianl proposal (which the courts through out) was even worse than described. They gave the entire county trash removal business to two companies…both of them from out of state, putting at least 8 haulers, some of whom were long time Gwinnett business people, out of business. In addition, the GCB plan would have given a profit to both the county and itself in taking a percentage of the collected fees. That part of the deal alone would have given millions to both parties.
When the court threw this mess out, including the outrageous fines they were going to levy on us, the two chosen companies who thought they had a contract were left high and dry with a substantial investment in preparing to haul the county’s trash. They are suing for nearly 44 million. The original haulers who would have been fired, also brought about a suit that got the court to rule in their favor, leaving us with the mess we’re in right now.
So what does the county do? They basically go through the same show and tell (for the third time if you are counting) to lay the same program on us…no choice, on your tax bill.
Why in god’s name if the county leaders thought there was a problem, didn’t they call in the folks (the private haulers) that have been doing the job for 30 years and team up with THEM to come up with some solutions? For the majority of residents in this county, there IS NO problem. Attack the problems at their source. Don’t manufacture something that isn’t there.
Whew…all that steam blowing has tired me out…see y’all at the meeting tomorrow.
The county commission could use citations and site property owners that do not keep their trash picked up or make sure their tenants keep trash picked up. After three citations, then add garbage service to their property tax bill.. Don’t punish everyone for the irresponsibility of the few…
Many work during the day so the number of garbage trucks in their neighborhood would not bother them.
There are business owners that have dumpsters at work and they simply take their household trash to their dumpsters.
The scenario that was in the original post was on target, but in reality the origianl proposal (which the courts threw out) was even worse than described. They gave the entire county trash removal business to two companies…both of them from out of state, putting at least 8 haulers, some of whom were long time Gwinnett business people, out of business. In addition, the GCB plan would have given a profit to both the county and itself in taking a percentage of the collected fees. That part of the deal alone would have given millions to both parties.
When the court threw this mess out, including the outrageous fines they were going to levy on us, the two chosen companies who thought they had a contract were left high and dry with a substantial investment in preparing to haul the county’s trash. They are suing for nearly 44 million. The original haulers who would have been fired, also brought about a suit that got the court to rule in their favor, leaving us with the mess we’re in right now.
So what does the county do? They basically go through the same show and tell (for the third time if you are counting) to lay the same program on us…no choice, on your tax bill.
Why in god’s name if the county leaders thought there was a problem, didn’t they call in the folks (the private haulers) that have been doing the job for 30 years and team up with THEM to come up with some solutions? For the majority of residents in this county, there IS NO problem. Attack the problems at their source. Don’t manufacture something that isn’t there.
Whew…all that steam blowing has tired me out…see y’all at the meeting tomorrow.
So how did this morning’s meeting go?
The majority of the trash I see on the side of the roads are loose items. (a fast food wrapper, beer cans, water bottle , etc). The county’s mandate will not solve this issue.
The scary part about this mandate is the current commission is 100% Republican:
Commission Chairman
Charles Bannister (R)
Commission Dist. 1
Shirley Lassiter (R)
Commission Dist. 2
Bert Nasuti (R)
Commission Dist. 3
Mike Beaudreau (R)
Commission Dist. 4
Kevin Kenerly (R)
Our country is truly in trouble when a 100% Republican political body cannot solve a problem via free markets, individual choice, and economic freedom.
One wonders when the Gwinnett political class will start to show a little more sensitivity to vast majority of public opinion.
I just got a mailer from Don Balfour today… inviting me to join his mailing list so I can be kept in the loop on his “concerns” about tax hikes and the “garbage monopoly”. Strange to see the state legislators and the county commissioners butting heads (at least on the P.R. front).
I attended this morning’s meeting and I can report that it was identical to all the meetings that proceeded it. Same presentation, same public comments and the same stupid poster voting game, but the posters had a different arrangement. The audience was overwhelmingly senior citizens. Don’t people under 50 give a hoot? It still makes me wonder how many times this county government will respond to the tireless message from its citizens…they want choice and no additions to the property tax bill. To date, even by admission of our vaunted 100Kplus consultants, the current haulers haven’t even been called in to help with solutions. That alone make absolutely no sense to me. Who better to have a handle on issues and problems than these experienced business folks. It’s a kind of throw your hands up in the air and thump your forehead with the palm of your hand and scream DUH.
We have jobs. We stay pretty busy contributing to society, rather than sucking from its teat while babbling about other people’s “sense of entitlement”. When I’m retired, I’ll probably be at every commission meeting too (assuming that I WILL ever be able to retire).
The meeting was on a Saturday morning….or does your “contribution to society” include weekends. The “teat suckers” of the county have already made their contributions to society and continue to do so with volunteering and giving money to causes and candidates.
Err… yes, actually.
Number one, throwing time or money at politicians is not exactly a “contribution” to much. Mitt Romney figured this out when he compared his kids’ campaign work to military service, and found that most people don’t have such an exulted view of politics. Secondly, when the Baby Boomers were born there was very little national national debt. By the time that generation dies off, me and my kids will be left $15-20 trillion in the hole. If that’s a contribution, we would have preferred you not “helping”.
I’m perfectly happy with the garbage service here in My small Dekalb enclave. You might say it’s “Fab in Dekalb”. There’s only one service which, I believe the City negotiated the contract with. And there’s no “cheapos” who don’t pay for garbage service either. And I have no desire to recycle or interact with my garbage or “garbage provider” in any way. This isn’t to say that there was no competition for the contract.
As far as competition and monopoly, competition would probably be best served if the big guys weren’t continually buying out the little guys. Also, I do know of an owner of a small roll off container company who is effectively shut out of certain areas due to the nature of the “package deal” with some of the larger companies which provide both garbage and roll off service. Where’s the justice?
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