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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/11/2010 Public Hearing Transcript re: BILL#2367PUBLIC HEARING AUGUST 11, 2010 A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by Tim Bynum, Chair, Public Works/Elderly Affairs Committee, on Wednesday, August 11, 2010, at 1:50 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following: BILL NO. 2367 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 21-9.1, AND SECTION 21-9.3 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, RELATING TO INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT, which was approved on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on July 14, 2010, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on July 23, 2010. The following communication was received for the record: • Glenn Mickens testimony, dated August 10, 2010 The hearing proceeded as follows: GLENN MICKENS: Thank you Tim. I've read .this bill 2367. I have some questions and need clarification about the bill. I know this is a public hearing, but you know, maybe somebody will want to... Jay? Maybe one of you... Tim? will want to see if you can answer of my questions, but it's up to you. But let me read it for the record. I think a lot of members of the public probably have the same questions that I have and they may want to hear this. In the bill under b, it says residential refuse collection assessment. All properties in the county that are classified serviceable for refuse collection services provided by the department shall 1 receive a refuse collection assessment according to the schedule below. Manual curbside collection assessment for up to three receptacles six dollars. Question. If four receptacles are put out, does that mean that one won't be picked up, or will they charge another six dollars for the other receptacle, and who does the paperwork? I know it's going to involve a lot of work someplace along the line. Question. Who decides if the receptacle pick up is to be manual or automatic? If automatic, a 96 gallon receptacle is only six dollars like the manual container. Wouldn't it be cheaper to use it and not the manual one? Question. Many people, including my wife, recycle everything they can and only use one container for pickup. Where is the incentive for the person using one receptacle over those using three or the 96 gallon container if all are charged only six dollars? Question. If people take their trash to the transfer station, are they still charged a six dollar fee? Question. By some method (I'm not sure how.) residents are now paying for trash pickup, whether it's in your property tax bill or what, I don't know. Since this bill says that everyone will now be charged at least six dollars per month on their property tax bill, does this mean whatever previous tax we paid for pickup will be eliminated? Question. Some places on the mainland use the pay to throw method. This would seem to be a more efficient way to get people to recycle, as it incentivizes people to recycle as it will cost more to throw more. I don't see that bill 2367 does this as written. I thought that JoAnn introduced a resolution or some idea that she had about this; brought it up before, but I don't remember what ever happened to that. But I do think it's more efficient than what this bi112367 is. Question. When will the MRF be up and running, and shouldn't it be ready before we get into more and more recycling? And last question. Is the automated pickup working in the pilot stage, and are all the bugs taken care of to implement the project as noted in bill 2367. I haven't seen much about it in The Garden Island...in the paper, so I don't know how this project thing is working. So again, I know that this is a public hearing, but I didn't know whether anyone would try and answer these questions. Mr. Bynum: Okay. Thank you Mr. Mickens. Any questions for Glenn? If not, I'll just say that these are all good questions; they're some of the 2 same questions I asked, and this is the administration's bill, and it'll be .on committee next week, and it'd be really, I think, more appropriate for them to answer these questions, and we will pose them. Mr. Mickens: At the committee? Mr. Bynum: Yes. Mr. Mickens: Okay, thank you Tim. Mr. Bynum: Anne? ANNE PUNOHU: Aloha. Anne Punohu. I have a question to ask for the committee. Is that... When is it supposed to be? Mr. Bynum: This is public hearing for this bill. Ms. Punohu: Okay. I have a question that I would like to be answered. As a public housing resident where we all put...we're a multifamily unit and we all put out rubbish cans. You really don't know whose rubbish cans or who... some of us have spray painted on it, you know, our unit numbers. I have a question if we're going to have to pay as public housing residents and low income residents for... for it. Mr. Bynum: Don't take this to the bank, but many... much of our refuge collection is done by private companies. And usually in multifamily units, it's with Garden Island Disposal or someone like that, and so I don't think so. Ms. Punohu: Mahalo. Mr. Bynum: Anyone else want to testify on this bill? Mr. Rosa. JIM ROSA: Good afternoon members of the Council. For the record, Joe Rosa. Well, I'm one of those people that have this new refuse collection going on as of July the first. What I can say is I don't think it's working any faster. From what they say, they work faster. They used to become before 6:30 to pickup my trash. Today they came five minutes late. When they first started out, it was 9 o'clock...9:15. It doesn't seem to be going any faster. And those container bins that, being that they coming at this later time, the residents in my area are not able to put it away. They stay right on the edge of the highway there. It can cause,' you know, some kind of accident or some kind, and, who's to be responsible? I know in this pamphlet here it says that you put it out before 4:30 a.m. and remove it as soon as possible. But if the truck delivery come picks it up after 8 o'clock or so and a lot of the workers...homeowners go to work, who's going to put it away? You say it's 3 going to be faster, but it's slower so far. I haven't seen it done any faster. Another thing, I was down at the refuse collection station down here at Ahukini, and apparently you people ordered atruck-to me it's a lemon, because it can't even dump the loads over there. They have to dump it outside on the apron of the unloading station there, because it's a dump and it cannot go up in the building itself. So it's dumped out on the apron and they have to push it all the way to pay loaders...all the way to the back where it goes into the big trailer to haul it away. So much money was spent on a truck that is not being fully used. I told the guys down there, hey get a picture, turn it in to the union, because they should have something that can be used to its fullest, not come there and it's going to waste about five minutes just to unload the whole truck, which is about 30 plus feet. From my judgment, it's a long truck. But you know, moneys being spent, but yet, you know, this thing is not a complete... to me, a complete study wasn't made. And like Glenn mentioned, the fees for six dollars, why should we pay more? They do less. I don't know what happened to the helpers from the truck. Where they working? Job elimination, all this kind of stuff. And a lot of the people saying that it's too big for them. And all your dos and your don'ts. The rules in this circular that was sent out to the homeowners that are on this program. Mr. Bynum: That's three minutes, Mr. Rosa, and did you want to wrap up? Mr. Rosa: Okay, three minutes, three minutes. I know (inaudible) three minutes. Nobody else get no extra minutes. But as it is, please look into it. We don't need no fees being raised, because we in Lihu`e we pay for everything-sewers, fees for this here, it's kind of being unfair, and a lot of the people are retired in my area. So six dollars is six dollars, sewer fees is sewer fees, we all pay. So think about it. We never did have it... And sewer fees supposed to be in our property tax that we pay, so you utilize your property tax fees and stretch the dollars a little bit more. Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Thank you. Mr. Rosa, there's a question from Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to be able to give a real recap for Mr. Rosa. And Mr. Rosa, this is a public hearing, so not a lot of discussion. In a nutshell, solid waste runs us about twelve million dollars a year. That's the number right now we pay-12 million. From tipping fees and other collections fees and so forth, we offset about four million. So the general fund is covering about eight million dollars each year. The idea of curbside pickup and so forth is one where we had an investment. For example, even in the sample...this special program, we invested about $400,000 into the actual equipment that would be picked up and transported and so forth. And I'm not justifying anything; I just want to give a clean picture of how this thing is working. Now in return, we are to 4 save labor production rather than have the manpower to huki each container in the current trucks. But there is no staffing reduction as I know it, but there is an opportunity for us to reduce overtime cost, because now there are this automated procedure that would allow our manpower to cover more areas in a normal regular scheduled work period using the existing force and hopefully having some savings from overtime, and also taking the burden off of the property tax that this six dollars would also go against the cost of operating that. So hopefully it will be able to preserve the integrity of the property tax, and this extra revenue will help keep us in a position where, for solid waste, we can keep property taxes in check, although there is this other fee. Now, in States like California and so forth, you get a property tax bill, and then you might get an add on for the school district, which we don't here in Hawaii; you might get another add on of a fee for waste removal, and that's pretty much how this concept is being set up. So in a nutshell, we operate... our operating costs are about 12 million, our offset from tipping fees and so forth right now is about 4; it leaves us a balance of about 8, and the contributions made from the monthly collection fee will help offset that, hopefully not seeing us transfer as much money from the general fund. Now that wasn't a question Mr. Chair. I just wanted to give a real quick recap for Mr. Rosa. Mr. Bynum: Okay. Thank you Mr. Rosa. Mr. Rosa: Yeah, I have a question on what Jay had to say. You mentioned overtime, Jay. Previously... Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me, Mr. Rosa. I want to let you know, we're not supposed to get into this (inaudible) `till the bill, but I just wanted to say I don't have all the facts about preservation... Mr. Rosa: Yeah, well my question has to do with the overtime. Mr. Furfaro: Okay... But I do know how it's being proposed to us that there is no manpower reductions. The savings might be in the fact that rather than people working in three-man teams and so forth, they'll be working in smaller teams... Mr. Rosa: Just one. Mr. Furfaro: That's right. Mr. Rosa: One driver. Mr. Furfaro: That's right. Mr. Rosa: You had three before. 5 Mr. Furfaro: That's why it's called automation. But those other guys will service areas on a more timely basis. So your point is well taken about the time, but we're going to wait for public works to give Mr. Bynum a report on this pilot program. All I was .trying to share with you is that's how it's supposed to work. Mr. Rosa: Yeah, that's why, you know, people that's asking me about it, and I... That's why when you mentioned overtime, Jay, I know they used to work on the huki pau, especially they get it down .(inaudible). So where overtime comes in? That's the question I want to know. Mr. Bynum: Thank you Mr. Rosa, and we'll ask those questions. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Rosa, and I just wanted to respond to you. Good questions, and I just wanted to give you a quick overview, as you said there are many individuals that have questions about this. Mr. Rosa: Right, but people are asking me about it, so that's why I brought this question up. Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Good questions, good questions. Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Thank you. Anyone else here like to testify on this bill? Seeing none, this public hearing is closed. There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing adjourned at 2:06 p.m. Respectfully submitted, PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk /ao 6