The Pay As You Throw Working Group is leaning toward high fees for Act 148 compliance, the Brattleboro Selectboard learned Tuesday evening. The “necessary fee” isn’t yet calculated, but is suggested to be calibrated to cover the costs of all tipping fees, program costs, and program materials, and no sliding scale for low income residents is planned.
The board also contemplated cuts to human service funding, and asked for citizen input on the question. The Police received a grant to improve their abilities to unlock and look at everything on your phone, tablet, or GPS device. (Your silly passwords are useless.)
Other grants were received and community members stepped up to serve on town committees and boards. All this and more, below.
Preliminaries
Three budets have been requested from town staff, said Chair David Gartenstein. A level services budget, a level funded budget, and a level spending budget. These will be used as starting points for FY16 budget discussions.
He noted that the retaining wall on Green Street is beginning to fail, and that will be an unanticipated expense. Gartenstein also mentioned new traffic speed signs on Western Avenue near the school, and that they appeared to be having a calming effect. He encouraged people to drive carefully, not impaired, and not angry.
Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland had no announcements.
For Selectboard comments and committee reports, John Allen reported on a “spirited solid waste district meeting. “It’s always spirited up there. It’s fun. I come out more confused than when I go in.” He said PAYT and solar panels were big topics of discussion.
Moreland added that he attended a recent meeting for a broader discussion of how expenses are apportioned to participating communities. Brattleboro’s share at $60,000 a year, he said, was significant. “Just trying to monitor expenses where we can.”
Public Participation
John Wilmerding, as representative to the Connecticut River Transit board, warned the town to know that CRT was planning a possible merger with a company serving the Deerfield Valley, and if so, may do away with community representation on their board. Wilmerding said this conflicts with the memo of understanding signed by the town when the Beeline merged with CRT years ago.
Nelson E. Withington Fund Advisory Committee Appointment
Corwin Elwell and Charles Cummings were appointed to three year seats on the Nelson E. Withington Fund Advisory Committee.
Elwell said the $1.5 million fund’s dividend are contributed to the town for use at Living Memorial park, at the common, for forested areas, and for care and planting of trees. The fund takes applications and disperses money to assist these purposes.
He said Withington was unusual, explaining that each Friday he’d arrive for lunch describing how he had taken ladies to get their hair done. “Very generous, too.”
Financial Report with John O’Connor
Finance Director John O’Connor gave the board the second financial update of FY15, with numbers through the month of August.
With just 16.7% of the year completed, General Fund expenditures are at 17.6% of the annual budget. This includes some semi-annual and annual insurance and human service payments.
The Utilities Fund stands at 17.6% and the Parking Fund at 14.5% of their respective budgets. The Police-Fire project has spent $650 in the new fiscal year.
Just over $4 million has been loaned out, and just under $400,000 is available for more loanin’. There are 37 active grants with 14 in the pipeline.
There were no questions.
Pay As You Throw Discussion
The Pay As You Throw Working Group, appointed in May, returned to present the Brattleboro Selectboard with a preliminary overview of their work to date. The group was given the task of helping the town comply with Act 148 by establishing a variable rate payment for trash disposal based on weight or volume.
Patrick Moreland said that Moss Kahler had developed a “fabulous spreadsheet” to assist with setting a fee for the program, designing it to input all program costs and assumptions to determine a fee to have everything break even. “It’s a very complex and useful tool.”
Kahler’s speadsheet allows for assumptions, including percentages of diverted trash, increases in recycling and composting, average weights of trash bags, and distribution of bag sizes being used. His input costs included cost of bags, costs of tipping and collection fees, and actual program costs.
Moreland said the group will use Kahler’s model to forecast a “necessary fee” for bags used. In the meeting, he mentioned prices per bag ranging from $2-4. “If too many costs are included in the program and a bag costs $15, there will not be acceptance of the program.” Some of the cost, then, will still be covered by property taxes.
The committee recommends that the town use special bags of two sizes, mostly for the convenience of the trash haulers and to exert peer pressure on residents to use the correct bag.
Program costs can include the district assessment, the collection contract, tipping fees, program materials, and management. The committee says their goal was compliance with the law, not “pricing the program into failure,” and maintaining pricing parity with surrounding communities.
The committee is therefore recommending that the price be set based on costs of program management, program materials, all tipping fees, and “as high a percentage of the collection costs as is possible.”
Peter Gaskill of Triple T said that Brattleboro residents are “under-recycling in town,” and we are not capturing as much as we can. More paper and paper packaging could be recycled, he said.
Bob Spencer of the Windham Solid Waste Management District also encouraged more soiled paper, pizza boxes, and food packaging to be recycled. “We need more education and outreach.”
Spencer said that current compost is very clean, but he worried that when PAYT begins, “the nature of participation may change.”
The group has decided to recommend no changes to the solid waste ordinance governing commercial properties and apartments.
The question of landlords or tenants paying for bags will be left to be worked out between those landlords and tenants.
The committee recommends no sliding scale fees for low income households. Instead, charities should help, if they are so inclined.
David Gartenstein said that there would need to be an agressive education program. “I hope the committee will focus on enforcement.” He said they should anticipate that a portion of the population won’t be ready to make the transition.
Jane Southworth said that the police could not be asked to do the enforcement, “so we’ll have to think of how that will take place..” She said people would try to go around the new ordinance.
Others said the sheriff prosecutes illegal dumping.
The Selectboard had no objections or instructions other than to ask the committee to come back as soon as they could with exact costs of bags, and what program costs the bags will fund.
“We have to do it,” said Kate O’Connor. “Why wait?”
“The assumption is we wil start as soon as possible. It isn’t exact., ” said Moreland. “There is no reason to delay.”
The committee was appointed for their knowledge of the solid waste system in town.
Members are Peter Gaskill, Bob Spencer, Moss Kahler, Carl Hirth, and Jane Southworth. The Finance Director and Interim Town Manager also participate.
Human Services Funding
For last year’s budget., the Representative Town Meeting’s Human Services Review Committee was asked by the Selectboard to reduce their annual request to $120,000.
David Gartenstein said that this amounts to less than 1% of the total budget. Still, he wanted a public discussion of the process and amount given by the town. He also wanted to make any decisions about budget limitations prior to the committee making their request.
He said requests from human service organizations used to come directly to the Selectboard, but the process was changed to the committee approach years ago.
“The board needs to decide, and we want to gather information from the community,” he said, “if people want to continue to have a fixed amount in the annual budget. It adds to the tax rate.”
He said they could abolish the committee and not put any money in the budget for human services, or have organizations make direct application to the selectboard, or continue to put money in at a set dollar figure.
“It’s come up in budget discussions, so we are soliciting people’s input. This is the opening salvo.”
Donna Macomber wanted to keep the process simple, and not make any cuts to human services funding.
John Allen said he had mixed feelings. “I’d love it to be a million dollars, but every year we count pennies and pinch nickels. This is part of the process. What do we cut? Who deserves and who doesn’t deserve? It’s very hard.”
David Schoales liked the committee making recommendations and decisions, as did Kate O’Connor.
O’Connor, though, was split over whether there should be town support for human services. “I’m conflicted over whether we should be doing this or not,” she said. “Whether it is the town’s role to be involved in this.”
Gartenstein said he liked the committee approach, “but the amount of money is an open question.” He, too, questioned whether it was the town’s role to support human services in times of financial difficulty. “It is important to discuss.”
John Allen said people need to come forward if they have concerns. “ For or against, speak about it, come and talk about it. It’s the only way we’ll know. I hate to get it at the end. Say something.”
VLCT 2014 PACIF Equipment Grant
The Brattleboro Fire Department received a grant for $150 from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns which will be used to purchase seven and a half high-visibility, reflective vests. Another seven and a half will be paid for out of the General Fund budget for the department, for a total of 15 reflective vests coming our way.
RERP FY15 Grant
The Brattleboro Fire Department also received a grant for $35,391 from the Vermont Department of Public Safety. The money is a reimbursement for radiological emergency response activities, such as staff time for training and testing, and the purchase of supplies and equipment (plastic tables, chairs, traffic cones, and such) associated with our participation in the Vermont Radiological Emergency Response Plan.
2015 DUI Enforcement Grant
The Brattleboro Police Department was granted $7000 from the Vermont Department of Public safety to support staff overtime associated with DUI and impaired driving enforcement activities. Most of this work occurs late at night and in the early morning hours.
Bureau of Justice Assistance (JAG) 2014 Grant
The Brattleboro Police were granted $21,073 from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to support the purchase of equipment and software upgrades for their Cellebrite system.
Cellebrite is used by law enforcement to bypass your passwords and security to gain full access to and analysis of the contents of your phone, tablet, or GPS device.
2015 Occupant Protection Enforcement Grant
The Brattleboro Police received a grant of $5000 from the Vermont Department of Public safety to reimburse overtime expenses related to occupant protection and seatbelt enforcement.
Committee Appointments
The Brattleboro Selectboard appointed Paige Martin to the Planning Commission, Ann Wright-Parsons to the Tree Advisory Committee, and David Potter to the Arts Committee.
For the new Regional Economic Hub Study Group, Jane Southworth, Spoon Agave, Paige Martin, Paula Schwartz, and Michael Bosworth applied.
VLCT Annual Business Meeting Delegate
Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland was appointed to be Brattleboro’s delegate to the annual business meeting of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.
Noted
DPW says the State Bid for salt prices is up 41% this year, which will impact the budget.
PAYT
“The committee recommends no sliding scale fees for low income households. Instead, charities should help, if they are so inclined.”
So, landlords and tenants have to figure out who is going to absorb the costs of this program AND low income tenants and the elderly have to rely on the already over burdened coffers of local charities to help with the cost of bags?(if they are so inclined) This seems like a lose/lose situation for renters -especially low income renters. I’m not sure that many landlords are going to be willing to take on this cost without raising rents and with no sliding scale it’s going to be extremely difficult for people on fixed incomes to participate in this mandatory program. Once again, the town seems to be looking out only for their budget and not it’s neediest citizens.
The shocking news
“The Pay As You Throw Working Group is leaning toward high fees … and no sliding scale for low income residents”
Huh! No shit?
Crystal balls
No one could have predicted….
Rent or Not We All Generate Waste
Remember the premise behind PAYT is that EVERYONE will be responsible for what they generate for trash. It’s made to put the burden on everyone to reduce their waste. Having said that I believe landlord’s could have their tenants utilize dumpsters and bypass the PAYT altogether could they not? The cost to the tenants maybe be less than the bags if there’s enough tenants to cover the cost of a dumpster.
Now, from the real “Mr.mike”. How can any progressive on here be complaining about this? This is a mandate from your beloved legislature in Montpelier. I would think everyone who loves Vermont for what it is would embrace this law. After all, isn’t this for the common good?
The Bigger Picture
I am not saying that I don’t think this is a good idea (I do) nor that renters don’t generate waste. But a town should not – if it has the well being of it’s residents in mind – put into place a program without the necessary provisions to accommodate renter/landlord agreements over who pays for what and to offer a sliding scale fee for low income and elderly residents who are living on a fixed income. To just announce that tenants and landlords should “decide” who is paying for this and to put the burden of helping needy people pay for the program on the backs of already over stretched charities is unconcionable. I’m sure our esteemed SB members will have no problem paying for the specific bags required for this program. Unfortunately that’s not the case with a large percentage of the town’s citizens. It would be so wonderful to have a town government that actually looked at the whole issue and how their decisions affect everyone else. We can dream.
A fundamental misunderstanding of terms
Even mr.mike can’t possibly claim with a straight face that a flat-fee individual payment for collective services is “progressive.” He must think the Heritage Foundation-authored Obamacare is also “progressive!” PAYT – particularly the way it appears to be envisioned in Brattleboro – couldn’t be more regressive if it had been designed by Ayn Rand herself.
a fundamental misunderstanding of dames
I know it’s off topic..I always figured Ayn Rand was really a man. Could one be more patriarchal? When I hear her name, my mind translates it to ‘Iron Ram’.
Burning plastic waste is common practice, and creates dioxin
Some folks will simply burn more of their trash. We will need an education program on the dangers of burning trash in wood stoves.
This is an older article, but I have seen people throw trash directly into their wood fires. It’s a New England tradition to burn trash in woodstoves and in barrels. The resultant ash and smoke can be laden with a potent dose of dioxins and heavy metals. Enforcement is almost impossible, so, people will be drawn to this relatively easy way to save money. Thus the need for a serious education program.
“Many householders in Vermont regularly burn their household trash in backyard burn barrels. It seems like a simple way to dispose of trash. In fact, it is so common that you might even think it is legal.”
http://www.ourherald.com/news/2000-11-30/Letters/l01.html
Was anything mentioned
at the board meeting regarding the savings from PAYT and how much that may be?
I would expect its going to reduce the towns expenses by a hefty amount and would hope that the savings would go towards reducing our taxes rather than having it spent elsewhere. Is this an incorrect expectation on my part?
Transfer
They didn’t really say anything about savings from PAYT.
The goal, they said, is to cover most costs with fees for bags. This will transfer the cost out of property taxes a bit and into your regular weekly expenses.
But, there are new potential costs to running the program to be included, such as education, coordination, and enforcement. So cost of bags will also cover new expenses we didn’t previously have.
$1M Budget Line Item
I don’t know exactly how much they’re considering covering, but the current (FY15) Brattleboro budget has $1,006,645 for “Recycling” (including collection, tipping fees, and the WSWMD assessment). That’s “only” 6% of the town expenses, but if the PAYT fees cover most of that it could make a small but significant difference in the tax rate and/or providing services without increasing the (municipal) tax rate.
Human Services Funding
What do people think about cuts to human services funding? It was an issue the board actually asked for community input on.
For me, tough times require additional services, not fewer.
How organizations get funding is an issue. Perhaps the town could instead find a way to help these agencies year round with grants, or Chapman’s Donations could be put to use here. Maybe assistance in getting funding would be more valuable than a small handout.
Cuts to social services
***O’Connor, though, was split over whether there should be town support for human services. “I’m conflicted over whether we should be doing this or not,” she said. “Whether it is the town’s role to be involved in this.”***
Every town votes to support social services at Town Meeting. Now, if you had a real Vermont Town Meeting, the people who pay the bills could do the deciding. And maybe one of the voters would stand up and express shock and disgust at the thought of five of the town’s more financially secure citizens musing about whether it’s the “town’s role” to continue the tradition of supporting the services that some of the town’s citizens depend on. Maybe another voter will pipe up to ask what might happen to these services if every town dropped their annual support.
***Gartenstein said he liked the committee approach, “but the amount of money is an open question.” He, too, questioned whether it was the town’s role to support human services in times of financial difficulty. “It is important to discuss.”***
Yes, committees always have the best ideas. But, as Chris says, in times of financial difficulty, and when another committee is recommending that you shift more burden onto those with lower incomes through a regressive PAYT fee plan, snatching the social services right out from under the same people could be viewed as excessively petty.
***John Allen said people need to come forward if they have concerns. “ For or against, speak about it, come and talk about it. It’s the only way we’ll know. I hate to get it at the end. Say something.”***
Yes, say something now! Just like you did when you rejected PAYT two, three times.
Say Something
It’s incredibly frustrating to read quotes like John Allen’s:
“People need to come forward if they have concerns. For or against,speak out about it, come and talk about it. It’s the only way we’ll know. I hate to get it at the end. Say something”
This is a board of supposedly knowledgeable people; entrusted with the job of looking out for the best interests of the residents of the town. Why wouldn’t any of them already know that having low income and elderly residents incur yet another expense by having to buy special bags-might be a problem? Do they not have a clue that -to many households having to spend an extra $15 or $20 each month means that something else will not be paid? Maybe a utility; maybe the last few days of groceries before Social Security checks or pay checks arrive. Why should the responsibility of knowing the PAYT program will be a burden financially on many people lie with the people most affected? Time after time people express their feelings; their needs; their concerns to the SelectBoard and just as many times that input (which they ask for) is ignored. And then to be contemplating whether or not the most basic human services should continue to be supported by the town is unconscionable. Do these people live in some sort of middle class bubble where they aren’t able to see or comprehend that Brattleboro residents -for the most part-don’t have expendable income.This is a town with a large population of lower income and elderly residents to whom every dollar in their budgets are already accounted for. Everything is not black and white in a town like this. There’s a huge grey area where many people live and their needs are seldom taken into account.
The Bubble Bunch
***Do these people live in some sort of middle class bubble***
It certainly appears so.
After watching how the Bratt selectboard operates over the past decade or so, generally speaking, I think a plea for people to “speak up now!” is the board’s way of asking people to make their arguments now, so that the board can dream up a plausible counter-argument before they do what they planned to do all along. Public opinion has rarely, perhaps never, swayed the board from pursuing their own agenda. It always takes something drastic like a public referendum or some other kind of insurrection after the fact that forces them to do what the public wishes. And even then… after rejecting PAYT over and over again, here you are one more time, facing a plan to implement the most regressive PAYT fee system they could dream up.
Until the voters wrestle control of the town back to themselves, I think it will always remain the same. When voters control the purse strings, elected and appointed officials listen.
Financial impact of PAYT
Glenn, Thanks for the info. I guess it is a hefty part of the budget!
Since we are going to have to purchase bags (I believe at $2 – $4 each) I’d think the (bag) money could provide for education, coordination, enforcement etc that are needed by PAYT.
The purchase of these bags are going to place another burden on the shoulders of the tax payers/renters of Brattleboro thus the money saved in the budget (from PAYT), in my opinion, should be used for property tax reduction to help offset the cost of purchasing bags.