For years, old couches, broken shelves and other pieces of a household's past would be put out to pasture on Memphis' curbs. And there they would linger, additions to a Memphis landscape that already has its share of blight and vacant land.
City policy was to pick up that material within 21 days. That didn't happen all that often, city data shows.
In May, in the midst of his reelection campaign, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland changed how that trash got picked up. In addition to the once-a-week roll-cart pick-up for houses, Memphis sanitation trucks and city contractors would pick up outside-the-cart trash twice a month.
To provide this new level of service, the Memphis solid waste department hired around 100 new employees and rented 19 new trucks. Throughout the spring and summer, sidewalks across the city became cleaner. The old brown garbage trucks with the city seal became more present on the roads.
And, soon, the bill for the Memphis, and the average household, will be due. To pay for the new, expanded trash service, the Strickland administration used $15 million from the Memphis general fund, continuing a decades-long trend of using regular tax dollars to subsidize lower rates.
In early November, city staff once again told Memphis City Council something the dollars and cents clearly indicated: the new, improved way of picking up trash isn't sustainable without a rate hike.
The current rate structure can cover costs for another two months — until the start of February 2020.
41 percent rate hike proposed. Faces initial skepticism
At present, the average household in Memphis pays $22.80 a month for its trash pickup. That's on the lower end of Shelby County municipalities. According to a city's presentation, only Collierville has a lower monthly rate.
Under a November Strickland administration proposal, the average residential rate would jump $9.65, or by 41 percent, to help cover the costs of expanded service. That rate hike would be across the board for apartments, senior citizens and commercial users. For an average household, that would come to an extra $115.80 a year. Solid waste fees are typically paid through Memphis Light, Gas and Water bills.
The Memphis City Council, as it is prone to do, expressed some skepticism of the rate hike when City Chief Operating Officer Doug McGowen and Deputy COO Chandell Carr presented it to the city's legislative body.
Council questions, specifically those from Chairman Kemp Conrad, revealed that city solid waste workers work about five hours and 25 minutes a day — the department allows workers to go home after they finish their route and get paid for a full eight hours of work.
That five-plus hour figure is up from just under four hours in previous years, Solid Waste Division Director Al Lamar told the Council. Throughout 2019, the department has battled a 19 percent absentee rate, meaning only about four in five workers show up to work each day.
That drew the Council's ire.
"For me, I can't support going to Memphians and raising their rates by 40 percent when people have been working not even half days and they're barely over half now. That's the issue, not that we need more money. We may need more money, too," Conrad said.
On Nov. 5, Conrad asked council members who would support the city's proposal as is. One hand, which belonged to Councilman Martavius Jones, went up.
City proposal changes to 31 percent
The city administration plans on presenting an updated rate hike proposal to Council on Tuesday. That proposal would move the average household's monthly rate to $29.96, or a 31 percent hike.
That comes to about $85.92 a year for a single-family household.
If it doesn't pass, it's unlikely Memphis would be able to continue the current rate of outside the cart pickup, raising the question: What happens next?
For years, trash collection cost more than citizens paid for it
When the Strickland administration used $15 million from the general fund to subsidize the city's trash service this spring, it wasn't the first time Memphis had done so.
In the fiscal year 2018 — July 2017 to June 2018 — the city plugged $2 million into the solid waste fund, the first such infusion under Strickland.
Almost two decades ago, during Willie Herenton's time on the seventh floor of City Hall (the mayor's office), general fund dollars were used liberally to make up for the deficit in what ratepayers were paying.
Over six fiscal years, 2000 to 2006, the city plowed $133 million from the general fund on solid waste collection. The monthly residential rate was $7, according to a recent city presentation. Adjusted for inflation, that would mean a monthly rate of $10.46 — about half of what it is today.
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com.
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December 03, 2019 at 07:00PM
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This spring, the City of Memphis changed how it picks up your trash. Now, the bill is due - Commercial Appeal
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