May 28, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
Denied!
The budget committee last Thursday night, May 25 rejected County Mayor Matt Adcock’s request to restore $39,176 in funding to the line item for laborers at the convenience sites in the solid waste budget for 2023-24 which was cut in a cost-saving move by the committee on May 9.
According to County Mayor Adcock, the budget cut was unnecessary because more than enough revenues from tipping fees are being generated to support the salaries. With the cut (from $394,176 to $355,000), Adcock said there won’t be enough funds budgeted to pay the laborers to work six days per week and he will be forced to close the county’s convenience sites all day on Wednesdays, in addition to Sundays when they are already closed due to a policy decision he made last fall.
“I know those guys (laborers) are pretty upset that they are going to be the only county employees to get their pay cut,” said County Mayor Adcock Thursday night. “We can afford to pay them and I don’t see the need of having to close down (convenience sites) another day during the week”.
According to County Mayor Adcock, the budget for tipping fees (revenue) was audited last year at $375,000 but already the county has generated almost $500,000 in tipping fees for the 2022-23 year. “We have really been working on getting people to pay their bills and we have contacted industries, commercial businesses, and even the White County Mayor about coming to our county instead of taking their garbage to the place they are going. We are bringing in revenue all the time from different municipalities and corporations and that will be enough to offset the cost of laborers,” said Adcock.
While the budget committee Thursday night voted 5-0 to increase the budget for projected tripping fee revenues to $425,000 for 2023-24 as requested by County Mayor Adcock, it denied his petition to restore the $39,176 funding cut by a vote of 3-2. Committee members Beth Pafford, Larry Green, and Daniel Cripps voted against the request while committee chairman Jeff Barnes and member Sabrina Farler voted in favor. Members Greg Matthews and Susannah Cripps Daughtry were absent.
Clearly concerned by the vote, County Mayor Adcock asked the committee why?
“Can I ask why, even though I have brought in more revenue to make up for the (cut) in that salary line item, that it would still be cut?”
“As you (Adcock) have said, you don’t know yet what you might need next year such as compactors, trucks, and its about looking for the most efficient way to run the solid waste department. Its your (Adcock’s) choice to cut it Wednesdays. There are options for keeping the ones (convenience sites) most used open. I am sure there are sites used more than other sites,” said Pafford.
“There is a difference between a decision you can make and a decision you are forced to make and the fact that this is getting cut is not because of a budgetary problem”, replied County Mayor Adcock. “I fixed the budgetary problem but still because of this vote they (convenience site laborers) will be the only employees in the county to get a pay cut,” he said.
Pafford raised the issue during the May 9th meeting expressing concerns about the growing costs of labor at the convenience sites within the last two years and she inquired whether all the sites need to be open every day or whether the daily operation of some could be staggered.
“We have added (budgeted) a lot to our laborers, a significant amount and I’m just wondering if we need to have all of them (convenience sites) open Monday-Saturday for the extended period of time they are now open and knowing where our convenience sites are most trafficked, having those open more often and having some of the less trafficked sites open part of the time. They don’t all have to be open Monday-Saturday. The county could stagger days for some of them, to have some of the sites not open every day. As long as there is a place open you have somewhere to take your trash,” said Pafford.
“In 2022 (fiscal year) the audited number was $263,000 for laborers and this year it is estimated to be $352,000 and for 2024 it was (before the cut) $394,176,” said Pafford.
The county has nine manned convenience sites and three locations with open containers (green boxes) that are not fenced in or manned.
The manned sites are staffed by 24 part time employees Mondays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Each of the employees is scheduled to work 27 hours per week. Last year the county budgeted a $3.00 per hour pay raise for the part time laborers with their wages going from $9.00 to $12.00 per hour.
County Mayor Adcock at the May 9th meeting said he changed the daily operating schedule of the convenience sites last fall so that all laborers would work the same number of hours each week and so that residents would know the exact times when the convenience sites in their community would be open. Changing the schedule now, Adcock said would be a step backward and create more problems.
“The point of my changing the schedule last fall was to be more consistent across the board so that no matter what end of the county you still know that the dumpsters are open from 9-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Also, some of the laborers made more money than others before but now they all work an equal number of hours,” said County Mayor Adcock.
“If you close down some of the sites (during the week) then the other ones will have more traffic which means we will be going back to having more of the overfilling problem we just saw by changing the hours,” Adcock said.
In response, Pafford said “Or they would know what days they would have to take their trash. Right now, people know they can’t take their trash before 9 am. Before, a lot of people took trash before 9 a.m. but they have had to readjust their schedules. The same thing with Sunday. You have to readjust your schedule to take the trash,” she said.
The proposed new 2023-24 budget for the solid waste department projects revenues at almost $2.2 million with expenditures nearly $2.7 million meaning that if all funds are spent as budgeted the department would have to dip into its cash (reserves) by just under $500,000 ($495,786) to balance the budget. However, those numbers can be deceiving according to County Mayor Adcock because the solid waste fund typically does not spend more than it takes in during the year and in most cases has money left over each year.
“We have never dipped into cash on this. We have always returned more money in than what we spent. In 2021 we brought in (revenue) almost half a million dollars at $428,000 (over budget) and in 2022 we brought in $310,000. We are budgeting to go into cash at $431,000 (this year) but won’t so we are not really having a problem here in salaries, or maintenance costs or anything,” said County Mayor Adcock.
The proposed budget cut by the committee will be included as part of the overall solid waste budget to be presented to the full county commission for final approval this summer.
Although the county commission controls the purse strings, it apparently can’t dictate the daily operation of the solid waste department. County Mayor Adcock said if he doesn’t have sufficient funds to staff laborers at the convenience sites six days a week, his plan will most likely be to close them weekly on Wednesdays, along with Sundays. If the convenience sites were to be closed on Wednesdays, County Mayor Adcock said the transfer station would remain open on Wednesdays. The transfer station is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.
Other portions of the solid waste budget were approved by the budget committee on May 9th.
Solid Waste Director James Goff said increased costs are projected with the renewal of a contract between the county and the Capital Waste Company which hauls to a landfill in Dayton all the county’s garbage collected at the transfer station. Goff said the increase in volume of the county’s garbage has resulted in an increase in the haul bill.
“We entered into conversations with getting that contract renewed. We have had no price increase since the 2017 contract. The average cost per ton had come back (bid) at $64.50 per ton and we are running at $55 per ton right now so we are increasing that line in the budget (contracted services) to $1.5 million. That should give me the ability to process about 23,500 tons. Last year we were at 19,600 tons,” said Goff.
The budget for tipping fees (audited at $375,000 last year) will be budgeted next year at $425,000.
The amount the county charges for tipping fees is expected to increase to help cover higher costs for contracted services. “Right now, we are charging $70 per ton, and we are talking about going to $75 or $80 dollars per ton to make up for the expense,” said County Mayor Adcock.
The county is also anticipating more revenue from recycled materials such as scrap metal and tires.
“We budget $15,000 annually (revenue) for recycled materials and we can increase that projection to $25,000 next year. Our audited number (revenue for recycled material) was $27,000 in 2022,” said County Mayor Adcock.
“We are also bringing in $10,000 for waste tire disposal and have been budgeting only $7,000 so we can raise the projection on that. As for our residential waste collection charges, in 2021 we brought in $18,000 and $19,000 in 2022 so I think we can make that projection next year at $20,000. We have only been budgeting revenue from that category at $12,000”, said County Mayor Adcock.
DeKalb County’s Solid Waste Department receives no local property tax dollars. The entire department is funded from a variety of other taxes including the county’s share of the state beer tax, wholesale beer tax, bank excise tax, state revenue sharing-TVA funds, a portion of the county’s local option sales tax, payments-in-lieu of taxes, and alcoholic beverage tax.