Proposal would move beautification crew, create supervisor to enforce litter laws

Mar. 10—Decatur is considering hiring a supervisor with law enforcement credentials in its ongoing fight against litter and illegal dumping.

City officials are proposing the creation of a Beautification Division supervisor position that would be filled with someone responsible for enforcing local litter and trash laws. They also want to move the recently formed Beautification Division to the Environmental Services Department as part of the proposal.

The new position would add roughly $55,000 in salary and benefits to the city budget if approved by the City Council, Human Resources Director Richelle Sandlin said.

There have been a number of expenditures in recent years as the city attempts to reduce litter and illegal dumping.

In April 2022, a split City Council approved a beautification crew, adding two full-time employees and three new 10-passenger vans to focus on litter removal. The cost of the vans and trailer was $126,000, with the new crew costing the city $60,376 per year.

The beautification crew began as part of the Parks and Recreation Department, but Sandlin said there have been discussions with Mayor Tab Bowling, Parks and Recreation Director Jason Lake and Environmental Services Director Daniel Boutwell over the last six months about whether it's in the right department.

She said they decided the city is better served if the litter crews, city beautification efforts and mowing of rights of ways all become functions of the Environmental Services Department. These duties were part of Environmental Services when the department was called Public Works. Public Works was reorganized in 2016. Environmental Services oversees the city's garbage pickup and garage.

Sandlin pointed out that Parks and Recreation is involved in roughly 30 new projects, including planning a new recreation center at Wilson Morgan Park and a ballfield complex on Modaus Road Southwest.

She said they decided "it makes more sense to align litter collection and beautification in the city with Environmental Services."

Sandlin and Boutwell both said Boutwell needs an additional supervisor to lead Beautification, but the supervisor would also have other duties.

"The supervisor won't be just to oversee Beautification and the litter patrol," Boutwell said. "It will also be a job that will enforce the ordinances we have on the books."

Boutwell said there are ordinances that the city isn't enforcing. For example, he said it's a violation of a city ordinance to leave a a trash bin by the road after it's been emptied.

"I don't have the manpower to go look at 20,000 accounts and tag everyone who is violating the ordinance," Boutwell said.

He pointed out the city has an unenforced ordinance on the books that garbage must be bagged when it's put in the trash cans.

Boutwell said the city has a problem with illegal dumping, so the new supervisor would also oversee efforts to stop this eyesore. He said the city's current solution seems to be picking up the illegal dumps but there's no attempt to catch the perpetrators.

"I want to find out who is doing this and I want to enforce our ordinances," Boutwell said. "If we're going to do beautification, let's do beautification right." — Illegal dumps

The Police Department set up surveillance cameras in 2018 to catch illegal dumpers. The officers used cameras loaned to the city by a Memphis company. Using the cameras led to the arrest of three men on misdemeanor charges for allegedly dumping trash off Moulton Heights Road.

Then-Police Chief Nate Allen said at the time that the cameras were an effective enforcement tool for littering and illegal dumping because their high-definition lenses provided clear photos of the suspects and their vehicles' license plate numbers.

Without the surveillance cameras, Allen said at the time, it's difficult to charge people who litter unless they commit the violation in front of a police officer. However, the City Council made no additional move toward purchasing cameras for the Police Department.

Police Chief Todd Pinion said his officers occasionally see illegal dumps while responding to a call. Police report the dumps but they don't have time to follow up in trying to catch the violators.

Boutwell said he thinks the new supervisor should be someone with enforcement experience like a police officer who is at the end of his career or has recently retired.

Sandlin said the position would have to be filled by someone with police officer certification "who can actually go out and write citations."

Personnel Board member Suzie Wiley said at a recent board meeting that she believes the city could put a stop to littering if it became public that it is serious in its enforcement of litter laws.

"You put two policemen out at the Alabama 67 and Sixth Avenue intersection and then they nab the people for throwing out cigarette butts," Wiley said. "You fine them $500 and, guess what, litter is done in Decatur. It will get around the state — don't mess with Decatur. You all laugh but that's the solution."

Councilman Kyle Pike said hiring a supervisor with enforcement duties makes him lean toward supporting the additional expense.

"We want to see the city continue to get cleaner but you've got to have somebody to enforce our ordinances," Pike said.

Councilman Carlton McMasters, who is council liaison to Parks and Recreation, said he supports the proposed move and hiring of a Beautification supervisor.

"I'm very discouraged with our enforcement so I am 100% for getting more staff to enforce the ordinances we have on the books," McMasters said. "There's got to be something along the line of being able to issue tickets, citations and even making arrests that we can do."

Boutwell said he also needs another supervisor in Environmental Services. His department has two supervisors plus one manager overseeing garbage collections throughout the city.

"We're pretty well spread thin when it comes to supervisors," Boutwell said.

In order to have the Beautification Division in his department, Boutwell said they need someone to manage the contracts and supervise the Beautification employees and the inmate labor. He said he increased the number of inmates from Limestone Correctional Facility this year that his department employs to help with trash pickup and alley cleanup.

The city hired four people last summer when it re-formed Beautification in Parks and Recreation. Lake said the four would transfer from his department to Environmental Services.

Lake said Jonathan Gruber, who handles contracts for his department, would stay in Parks and Recreation to manage its contracts. However, Gruber would help Environmental Services adjust to managing some of the city's mowing contracts with private contractors.

Council President Jacob Ladner said moving Beautification to the Environmental Services Department "makes sense to me. Daniel's group is kind of focused on cleanup, beautification and garbage. There's a lot that falls under Parks and Rec, so we can take some things off of them."

Ladner said he doesn't necessarily like adding to the budget with the hiring of a new supervisor, but he's OK with this hire if that's what Boutwell feels is needed.

Boutwell said they've spent over $150,000 in the last two years buying new plastic trash cans. Now the Sanitation crews are trying to help combat litter by immediately removing plastic trash cans they see are splitting.

"They just pick up the can and crush it," Boutwell. "They then call it in so a new one can be delivered."

Boutwell said they also plan to work with the Morgan County Health Department on making apartment complex owners keep the area around their trash bins clean.

The city has several ongoing projects aimed at reducing litter.

The city bought stormwater grates designed to capture litter for $100,000 in 2018. The city has an annual $65,200 contract with Osprey Initiative and owner Don Bates to install litter traps in waterways and do tactical cleanups that's in its third year, Chief Financial Officer Kyle Demeester said. The contract ends in September.

In 2021, the council approved Bowling's proposal to do more mowing and litter pickup as a test along Beltline Road and Sixth Avenue/U.S. 31 and renewed the plan in 2022 and 2023. The city hired L&L Outdoor Services to pick up trash as part of the mayor's plan. The company is using a three-man crew, with one driving a vehicle with a trailer behind two workers who pick up trash.

"I'm all in support of spending the money because I think it's necessary to have a clean city," Pike said. "I think it's unfortunate we have to spend that amount of money because people shouldn't be throwing their trash out car windows or in illegal dumps. People should be individually responsible enough to not litter."

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.