CCAgenda_04Apr14 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -10- March 24, 2004 Refuse Collection -Public Hearing on Resolution of Intent (continued) Thomas Lageson, 1740 North Pascal, said he is a 14 year resident of the City and is here to speak in opposition of the resolution of intent. He has come of his own free will. He is a little upset about this because he feels there is no common understanding of this plan. We all have different ideas. When the January 29, 20041etter from the City first came out it sounded somewhat reasonable to maybe just have one truck. It talked about organized collection and that a couple of neighborhoods are doing that. There was a letter to the editor that talked about organized collection, but that is not organized collection, it is just people getting together on a neighborhood block. Then there was a line from the City Council minutes dated February 25, 2004, where it talked about a single hauler. There isn't a common understanding of exactly what is being proposed here. He thought that the Solid Waste Commission, after meeting for a year, and he is sure they did a lot of good study, would have developed more of a plan, more of a common understanding of exactly what is being proposed before starting the resolution of intent. This formal hearing tonight is part of the process according to State statute. The letter made it sound like "Come out and talk about the ideas" but you might have been a little misled thinking you could just come and talk about things and see what we can come up with. Also, you might get the idea from the statistics that everyone is doing this. He spoke briefly about the resource recovery project of 2002 for Ramsey and Washington Counties, and said that in Ramsey County there are 51 local governments, of which 13 have organized collection and 38 do not. What are the implementation and maintenance costs? He received an e-mail from Mayor Gehrz that said staff is stretched so thin right now that we can't keep our web site up. Heather Worthington stopped by at 8:20 PM last night with a list of haulers. Yet this will be putting more pressure on staff to produce more stuff. A lot of resources will be required to implement this. Thomas Baldwin, 1716 Albert, said that Jeff made a good point earlier. There are several good reasons for the City to regulate any number of things within the City. The City is obligated to regulate all trade and commerce within the City and certainly garbage hauling is that. The City looked at this 14 years ago. His experience with City government tells him that the best regulation comes when the City sets pretty specific guidelines for why it should get into regulating any industry. Those who know him know that he is proud to be an unrestricted liberal. This is not coming from a talk show or talk radio fan. But government should have a compelling reason to get into regulation, and the way to prove that reason is to show us the goals and the options that are being considered, and then ensure that you have chosen the options that leave commerce in the best shape, meaning that it leaves as many decisions as possible in the hands of the vendor and the client, the customer, him. The only problem with this process, from what he has seen so far, is that it looks like we have passed over a lot of simpler options and jumped right on the mother of all regulatory functions here with organized collection. Every goal that he has heard tonight, with the exception of 1.5 can be reached through the licensing process. That is what the City did in 1990. By working with the haulers, and this is their livelihood, they know that if you have a compelling City reason to require something on a license, they have to comply or you will pull their license. They will work with you. !0