Pensacola proposing 14.6% garbage collection fee increase for city residents
Pensacola is considering a 14.6% increase in its garbage collection fee for the next year and implementing smaller increases for the next four years.
City residents currently pay $29.27 a month for garbage collection fees, and Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson’s administration is recommending an increase to $33.56 a month.
The monthly fee is made up of two parts, a $26.15 trash collection fee and a $3.12 sanitation equipment surcharge fee. The proposed increase would raise the fees to $28.44 and $5.12 respectively.
The city hired a Geosyntec Consultants Inc. in January to conduct a rate study of the city’s Sanitation Department, which did a deep dive into how the department collects revenue and projected the future cost of operating the department.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city struggled to keep up with yard waste collections as it faced a driver shortage and last year increased its collection rates by 4%.
Robinson told the City Council on Monday that the city is struggling to keep competitive wages for drivers.
“Last year, I know many of y'all found out,” Robinson said. “We had people calling you very upset because we couldn't get there. We had their garbage picked up, but we weren't getting their yard waste. And that was mainly because we were low on drivers.”
The new proposal calls for increasing the rate to $33.56 a month in the fiscal year 2023, which begins on Oct. 1 of this year. Additional rate increases would come each following year with an increase to $34.67 in 2024, then to $35.82 in 2025, then to $36.59 in 2026 and finally to $37.38 in 2027.
Additionally, the city would implement other fee increases such as a $5 increase for new accounts and a $10 increase for bulk waste pick up.
The proposal also calls for the creation of new fees such as a $15 “go-back fee” for customers who miss the normal collection and call to have their garbage picked up, with one “go-back” waived for each customer every three months.
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Another proposed fee is a $10 “overfull can fee” for garbage cans so overloaded that the lid will not fit securely on the container, or the container is over 200 pounds.
Another fee is a $25 “recycle contamination fee” if anything other than approved recyclable items are put in the customer's recycle container.
The new fees would generate $1 million for the city’s Sanitation Department to help pay for increased wages, replace aging equipment and rebuild the department’s depleted reserves, according to the Geosyntec’s rate study.
During a Monday agenda conference, Council President Ann Hill and Councilwoman Jennifer Brahier both suggested the city reevaluate its bulk waste policies, noting that county Emerald Coast Utilities Authority customers got bulk waste pickup without having to pay an extra fee.
“City residents should feel like they're getting some benefits for being city residents, not always being charged more, and that is one of my concerns,” Brahier said. “When they see our prices go up, and yet they don't get that bulk pickup like ECUA customers do.”
The council will take the first of two required votes on the rate increases at its meeting on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola garbage collection fee could see 14.6% increase
