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To: Mayor Latimer From: Don Nygaard Re: Organized Collection Discussions in St. Paul Date: April 17,1989 Mayor, as you know, Saint Paul has always had an open hauling system, even during the period 1970 to 1980, when we provided trash hauling service in competition with private haulers. There have been several attempts to convert to an organized collection system, but none has been successful. Now, the issue has sprung up again, primarily due to the work of the Citizens Solid Waste Task Force as embodied in their Recent Final Report submitted to the City Council in March. Let me say first that I am not inclined to rush into another attempt at organized collection. There are, as you know, too many important issues involved, all of which are covered in the Task Force Report. In our Public Works response to the report we said that organized collection was first proposed in Saint Paul in 1972. In 1974, the City Council adopted an ordinance which would have created an organized system much like that in Minneapolis, using both private haulers and city employees. The ordinance was repealed under threat of referendum. In January,1979 Councilwoman Showalter chaired the citizen's Residential Refuse Collection Task Force, which recommended mandatory, organized collection in St. Paul. Under the proposal, weekly trash collection by a refuse hauler would be required for all residences of four units or less (mandatory collection). The City would be divided into districts, with one hauler serving each district, and residents would no longer choose their own refuse hauler (organized collection). Based on this recommendation, Mrs. Showalter and Public Works staff held a series of meetings in each planning district to explain the Proposed Collection Plan of April,1979. The main advantage of mandatory collection would be to reduce the amount of illegal and unsanitary storage and disposal of refuse in the City. Organizing collection would increase hauler efficiency, save energy, reduce wear and tear on streets and alleys, and make recycling easier. Residents clearly stated their preference in 1979 for an unrestricted free -enterprise system. At least eight planning districts officially opposed the plan, and a poll in the St. Paul Dispatch showed 60 percent of City residents opposed. Some residents said the City - 1 -