Council Approves Trash Collection Fee
Mayor Bill Cervenik, working with his staff and Council to close a $2.4 million budget deficit, proposed the fee to help close the fiscal gap. City Council approved the ordinance, 8 to 1.
Euclid, like many cities across northeast Ohio and the state, has felt the effects of the recession in the form of budget challenges. A $3 million drop in tax revenues over two years has been a major contributor to Euclid’s budget woes.
Cervenik continues to look for ways to balance the budget without cutting vital services. The Euclid police and fire departments agreed to concessions last year, avoiding cuts to safety personnel in the city. Thirty non-safety positions in the city have been eliminated over the last year with remaining city personnel picking up the majority of responsibilities previously shouldered by laid-off employees.
“The people in Euclid, especially, have come to expect a certain level of services – safety, fire and recreational,” Cervenik said. “I don’t want to devastate our great recreational programs. I want Euclid to be a city that people want to move to.”
The solid waste collection fee will be reduced to $7 per month for seniors 65 years of age or older and permanently disabled persons “provided those individuals make application to the Director of Public Service and demonstrate that their household income, inclusive of Social Security benefits, does not exceed $20,000.”
Bills for the calendar year 2010 will be sent by the city directly to the property or tax mailing address.
“Residents can expect an invoice from the city for $54 ($42 for seniors and disabled persons) covering the first half of 2010 around the end of May or the beginning of June,” Cervenik said, “with a bill for the second half of this year coming around the end of September.”
The solid waste collection fees for 2011 will appear on the property tax bill, or an adjustment will be made on mortgage escrow accounts.
Ward 4 Councilperson Mary Jo Minarik cast the lone dissenting vote on the ordinance. She says the city is balancing the budget on the backs of residents and the current system will not encourage recycling.
“Euclid pays its garbage based on tonnage,” she said. “This [garbage] tax does not encourage recycling or reuse. It would not surprise me if our tonnage actually increases along with our bill.”
The fee is to be collected through the calendar year 2011, unless cancelled by Council at the end of 2010. Cervenik was not optimistic that the city’s economic outlook would improve enough by the end of the year to cancel the fee for 2011.
“The fee will be revisited annually,” Cervenik said.