A Sunshine Meeting has been called by Vice Mayor Vince Lago on Monday June 29th at 3:00 PM.
At the June 9th meeting, the city commission was briefed on the exponentially growing costs for the city for solid waste (residential). Interestingly enough, the city decades ago privatized solid waste collection for commercial and commercial multi-family enjoying a 22% franchise fee and experiencing high satisfaction from customers.
Currently the city subsidizes nearly 30% of your solid waste bill, which if you take advantage of the 15% early discount fee is already at $766 per year. It really costs approximately just over $1,000 a year for solid waste pickup. Industry experts tell Gables Insider residents can get better service at a lower rate then $766 eliminating subsidy costs.
FALSE RUMORS ALREADY BEING SPREAD:
Elimination of Trash Pits – Some love their trash pits, some hate them. This will NOT be discussed or eliminated in any way. It is a rumor that having this conversation will lead to forcing residents to give up their coveted trash pits. Not true. However, if you prefer not to have one, contact the city and they’ll cover it up and re-sod it for free!
Curbside Pickup – This is not on the table. Curbside pick-up is not on anyone’s radar in the city. Leadership against having the privatization conversation use this to scare residents to think services will change a-la-county. Not happening.
Enrique I completely agree with your commentary. It just doesn’t make any sense. This morning at 6am those trash pits looked like mini swimming pools filled with the likes of soaked cardboard, plastic bags filled with dog feces and just plain junk. Oh and the occasional clippings. As a side bar. The trash collection as it currently stands, requires the pick up from the back of ones home. It is against city ordinance to put ones trash receptacle in front of your home. If your trash is not picked up, kindly download the Coral Gables app to report the skipped service and they will come out and pick it up. This is exactly the problem. Waste Management CANNOT tell residents paying almost 800.00 a year to put their trash receptacle out in front of their home because otherwise it will not be picked up. Kindly report all such matters to Al Zamora. Until we outsource and come into the 21st century, ALL trash receptacles should be picked up from the back of ones home. I’ve been here since 1967 in case anyone’s wondering.
I have lived in CG since 2012 and have tried to learn about the workings of this city that stands out as a jewel in the midst of the disorder of most of the metropolitan area. I have volunteered wherever I could and overall I admire the way the city is managed. But I am shocked at the irresponsible manner in which we are not addressing the pension benefits blackhole we have created and not addressed in a written policy document for the benefit of the taxpayers. Furthermore, the power of the labor union, most visible police and firefighters with unending demands for special treatment at increased unfunded cost, are shocking. For that reason I recommend outsourcing waste disposal to avoid more unfunded pension liability.
Regarding trash pits, it seems so backwards to let all the trash that the landscapers produce and let lie to produce mosquitoes when the landscapers should take it away as they produce it. What is the source of local pride that keeps us proliferating mosquitoes and running a ridiculous rube goldberg two truck monstrosity operating throughout the city operated by city employees increasing our unfunded pension liability. I look forward to attending the end of June meeting.
With regards to residential solid waste management, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
Thank you for your comment. The city is not proposing any lugging of any garbage bins, that’s not even on the table as made clear by all commissioners.
Yes I would like it if you postpone raising the collection garbage fees until next year
Each year, $29 MILLION of our taxpayer dollars goes to the pension fund, which then pays out $50 million each year to the retired CG employees. We are still losing ground. It makes sense to outsource whatever we can to private companies.
Those who are suggesting changing our present city run system for Waste Management or another private company, should take a hard look at the ugliness and unhappiness of many in Miami using private companies. If we were to outsource our garbage collecting system, we will loose our ability to communicate with our city staff to have any garbage related problem taken care of right away.
Additionally there are many senior residents, including me, who will have a hard time lugging the large and not pretty looking garbage containers provided by Waste Management. It is beyond comprehension that a city that spent a Million plus dollars in an unsightly so called Art structure on Biltmore Way and in Coral Way, cannot find ways to keep our own waste disposal system under the City’s control.
Please do your due diligence before pulling the trigger on our Waste disposal System. The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, until you jumped it, and then find out differently. I have lived in Coral Gables for 40 years, and trust that we can all continue to keep our City Beautiful, Looking Beautiful!.
Luis Palacio
The elimination of the early payment discount adds insult to injury. It is like experiecing a double hike.
Let’s be cost effective. Out source waste management and save us some money. Government is never good at operating a business.
Get out of the trash business! Outsource it and save money. The crazy expensive wages, free health care for life, and pensions worth almost as much as salaries are bankrupting the city. The big question is, why wasn’t this done many years ago? While you are at it, look for other expensive departments that can be done better and cheaper with outsourcing to experts- IT for example. We pay huge amounts of money for something that can be done more efficiently and cheaper by outsiders, because private companies do not pay the free health care for life and rich pensions the city pays with our tax dollars. They can also fire non-performers. The amount of waste, inflated payroll, benefits far in excess of what private sector workers get makes this a NO BRAINER. And by the way, the garbage workers told all the people on Lugo Ave that if their garbage is not at the curb, it will not be picked up. And that is exactly how it works- garbage sits for weeks if someone is not home.
Residents are not doing ANYTHING with cardboard boxes. Pits are discustingly filled every day with uncovered trash of all kinds. The ordinance regarding disposal of cardboard has been challanged. The city has been mute and has totally ignored the problem. What’s wrong with pick up a-la county? What are other beautiful cities doing?
In this stage does it make sense to raise fees especially with the COVID 19 virus and people out of work the 15% discount was helpful in paying the garbage fees. Can you postpone raising the fees till
Same time next year when people are back to work and thriving. My opinion not anyone else’s please think about it.
The city should look at ways to save money. If they can save money and remove headaches from managing the solid waste by contracting it out to companies such as Waste Management, then they should look at it. These companies are in the solid waste business and are able to optimize their resources. The city, by trying to run a business, may not be able to take advantage of efficiencies of scale.
Perhaps the city is unwilling to consider as they feel they will lose control and be force to eliminate jobs, which no one wants to.
Does the city really want to be in the Solid Waste Business? If so, look for efficiencies and learn from the pro’s