Trash talk continues

In a sometimes-heated meeting, City Council questions mayor's proposed $425 fee

For those of you who don’t like the idea of a $425 trash fee — hello everyone — it looks like there’s hope.

The City Council on Monday night talked about the possibility of reducing the $425 fee that has been proposed by the mayor down to $300 or maybe $200. One city councilor even said it should go down to zero.

The bottom line is the council put off taking an actual vote on the fee until next Tuesday. But their long discussion, more than two hours, put a sharp focus on the financial difficulties facing the city, and sparked some rare rancor among the usually collegial council.

As you probably know by now, Mayor Mike Cahill has proposed increasing the annual trash fee from $100 to $425. There would also be an option to pay $280 if you opt for a smaller trash cart. He said the increase is needed to cover the cost of a new contract the city has signed with trash hauler Casella, which goes into effect July 1 and includes automated pickup.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a graphic from Cahill’s presentation last week showing the proposed increases:

The increase must be approved by the City Council, and they were not eager to do that last night. The biggest pushback came from Ward 6 City Councilor Matt St. Hilaire. He called Cahill’s proposal to quadruple the trash fee “outrageous” and “tone deaf” and blasted him for what he called a lack of transparency and a “lack of respect” for the City Council and residents. St. Hilaire said he didn’t learn about the $425 proposal until he read it in The Beverly Beat.

“Affordability is the No. 1 issue in our community,” St. Hilaire said. “We’ve got rising costs all over the place, whether it be gas, utilities, child care, health care, groceries, housing. People are struggling to make ends meet and this is a big increase.”

St. Hilaire went so far as to say the city should cancel the upcoming $30 million City Hall renovation project and have no trash fee at all.

“How can you say that that was a good decision?,” he said of the City Hall project. “There’s needs here, but $30 million, that’s outrageous in these times.”

Ward 5 City Councilor Kathleen Feldman, sitting right next to St. Hilaire, reacted to his remarks by saying, “I’d love to get up here and say things that are popular, like we can just take the $30 million from City Hall and use it to plug the deficit.”

“It’s not realistic to say we won’t do City Hall and then all of a sudden, poof, all of our problems are solved. That’s not how it works,” added Feldman, pointing to St. Hilaire, “and you know it and we all know it, and the public should know it.”

St. Hilaire responded by saying, “I resent the fact that she stated that she thinks I am trying to say what is popular. I’ve stood up here and opposed budgets for the last three years. I’ve recommended dozens of budget cuts. You all have gone along and made those expenditures, and here we are with a $3.9 million deficit. I’ve taken the lone vote many, many times. I don’t say what’s popular. I say what’s common sense and what the residents that I represent expect me to say.”

The exchange prompted Ward 4 Councilor Scott Houseman to say that any comments by councilors, whether they’re heated or calm, should not be considered personal.

“They are position comments about policy,” he said. “This council has a long culture of operating in that regard. Not all cities and towns have that, and I want to just restate that this is part of the DNA of this council and it’s important for us to keep that.”

As for going with the lower trash fees proposed by Rotondo, Cahill said that would bring in approximately $1.4 million less in revenue than the fees that he proposed, and would result in even further cuts to the upcoming budget.

Oh yes, the budget. Many of the councilors were upset with the fact that they were being asked to decide on a trash fee before they even know what the budget looks like for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1. Cahill said the council will have his proposed budget by June 1, as usual.

The mayor said there will be layoffs even with the higher trash fee, and there would be more if the council sets a lower fee. It could also reduce the amount of money the city spends on roads and sidewalks and cut into the school budget, he said.

“If the $1.4 million is removed from the equation, then maybe we should make all the $1.4 come out of the operating budget,” Cahill said. “That would put us in a place where I’m not confident we’d be delivering the services that we’re supposed to.”

St. Hilaire said Cahill should cut the budget by, among other things, eliminating positions in the mayor’s office, travel to conferences, and salary increases for management.

“We do not need to increase the trash fee,” St. Hilaire said.

Cahill also pushed back against the idea of abandoning the City Hall renovation, which is scheduled to begin in September. He said the renovations to the historic building are “desperately needed.”

Rotondo asked Cahill to take a closer look at switching to every-other-week recycling pickup, which would save about $500,000 per year. Cahill said the city is trying to encourage people to recycle more, but said he would look at it.

Ward 3 Councilor Steve Crowley asked Cahill to come back with numbers on what the budget would look like if the trash fee was $200.

The City Council scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday, May 26, at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall to pick up the discussion on the trash fee and take a vote. Council President Julie Flowers said the public will have a chance to speak at that meeting. The council will need to take a second vote at a later meeting to officially change the ordinance.