IF YOU GET INVOLVED, perhaps we can rid ourselves of council members who just don't seem to get it.....Zim Zimmerman, Sal Espino, Dennis Shingleton and Joel Burns.
OH...and send a nice note to Dave and tell him thanks for keeping all of us in the "Watchdog" loop of information!
Mac
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BY DAVE LIEBER
Posted Saturday, November 3, 2012
watchdog@star-telegram.com
Something remarkable happened recently at the Fort Worth City Council that should not go unnoticed. The city Water Department asked for a 3 percent increase for customers. That would have added almost a dollar a month to each water bill.
But the council said no, leaving a $1 million revenue gap that ended up being covered by reserve funds. We were spared a staff-recommended rate increase. That almost never happens.
Even more remarkable, the fight was led by the council's newest member, Kelly Allen Gray, who joined in July. She said later, "If the city is going to have these fee increases, we have to do a better job of making our citizens aware of what is happening in our city and why we need these increases -- as opposed to just voting on the increase without having a true discussion."
Amen.
In a 5-4 vote to deny the increase, Gray was joined by Mayor Betsy Price, Jungus Jordan, Frank Moss and Danny Scarth. Voting to save the increase: Zim Zimmerman, Sal Espino, Dennis Shingleton and Joel Burns.
The nickel-and-diming of Americans everywhere with small increases in fees, services and taxes year after year is the subject of a new book, The Fine Print, by David Cay Johnston. Johnston argues that the fees and increases are so small that most people don't notice them.
Yet they add up. Phone bills, cable TV bills, electricity bills, Internet bills. They go up, not down, although Americans were promised that competition would lower most of these rates. That never happened.
Why can't government actually work to lower rates we pay?
That's where Fort Worth comes in. Leaders face a once-in-a-decade decision. They get their first chance in 10 years to renegotiate the city's 40-year trash and recycling contracts with Waste Management. The contract is up for renewal March 30. It expires in 2043.
The city isn't sure whether to take bids or renegotiate, says Brandon Bennett, director of public health and code compliance.
He says no rate increase is planned.
How about this? Take the opportunity to actually lower residential trash bills; don't settle for a zero increase. This might not be as difficult as it sounds.
Fort Worth residents pay some of the highest trash rates in Tarrant County for the least curbside service. My monthly trash bill for a 96-gallon bin and a recycling cart along with once-a-week limited pickup is $24.63 with taxes. (Fort Worth also offers smaller bins for $12.75 and $17.75 before taxes.)
Johnston says of Fort Worth residents, "You pay double and only get half as much service. So you're really paying four times more."
Of course, there's a difference between trash collection for big and small cities.
Small cities accept franchise fees from selected trash haulers. Small cities also raise trash costs for businesses and use that money to lower the cost for residents. Fort Worth doesn't get to do that since it doesn't select a commercial vendor.
What Fort Worth does is pad the cost of a pickup by adding a few dollars to the monthly bill to pay for its trash enterprise fund. The fund pays for a customer call center, removal of illegal dumping and other trash-related costs including trash class, which residents must attend if they violate recycling rules. These extra dollars tacked on to the bill amount to a trash tax, but nobody calls it that except me.
Working out the bugs
When the city implemented its newfangled trash collection system half a dozen years ago, it was a catastrophe. Nothing worked at first. Since then, the bugs have been corrected and residents say they are happy with the service (according to a city survey expected to be released next month).
Now is the time to take advantage of the marketplace and shave a couple of dollars off each monthly trash bill. Tarrant County cities are already served by the two biggest players in the business, Waste Management and Republic Services. Together, they account for almost half the trash collection business in the nation, Johnson says.
Waste Management holds the city contract. But Republic Services Area President Nick Stefkovich told me last week that his company will bid for Fort Worth's contract if given the opportunity.
"It's a competitive environment, and that's good for business. We all get better at providing service," he said.
A third major player, Progressive Waste Solutions, also known as IESI, handles several cities in the area, too.
Let's summarize: there are three major players in our market. Fort Worth, the mother of all contracts, is up for renewal. And city leaders might not seek bids?
"We don't know," Bennett says. "Some decision has to be made one way or the other."
He adds, "I anticipate our contracts will come in equal to or lower than what they've been in the past 10 years." His plan is to pass any reduced costs on to customers by "not having to raise rates." Commendable, but surely we can do better.
Let's stop the nickel-and-diming of Americans by marching in reverse. Seeking bids on major contracts is a lot more work for city employees. But competition means better service and bigger savings. Please do what's best for us customers.
The Watchdog column appears Fridays and Sundays.
Dave Lieber, 817-390-7043
Twitter: @davelieber
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