Fresno delays protest hearing on higher trash bills after finding mailing list error
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A hearing on a proposed increase in residential trash collection rates in Fresno is being delayed by seven weeks because not everyone affected received a notice legally required under state law.
The Fresno City Council was originally scheduled to field protests on May 2 by residents over the plan by the city’s Public Utilities Department for a five-year series of rate hikes that will represent an increase of more than 78% for most customers. The increases would affect owners or renters of single-family homes within the city.
Apartment complexes would not be affected because they are served by private companies that contract with the city to provide commercial trash collection services to businesses throughout Fresno.
The new hearing date is June 20, just days before the July 1 start of the 2024-25 fiscal year when the city had hoped to start charging the higher rates.
Unless a majority of homeowners in the city lodge a protest against the increase, the rate sequence put forth by Mayor Jerry Dyer, City Manager Georgeanne White and Public Utilities Director Brock Buche for homeowners that now have three 96-gallon containers — one for trash, one for recyclable materials and one for green waste — would be up for approval by the City Council.
Those rates would be:
July 1, 2024: Bills would increase from the current rate of $25.37 per month to $30.87 per month, an increase of 21.7%.
July 1, 2025: Bills would increase to $35.50 per month, a 15% increase.
July 1, 2026: Bills would increase to $38.70 per month, a 9% increase.
July 1, 2027: Bills would increase to $41.99 per month, an 8.5% increase.
July 1, 2028: Bills would increase to $45.24 per month, a 7.7% increase.
The cumulative increase over five years would amount to $19.87 over current rates — an increase of 78.3%.
The monthly bills for homes that have a smaller 64-gallon cart for their trash would be a few dollars lower.
Earlier this year, the city sent out notices by mail for a May 2 protest hearing; people could either fill out and return the included protest card, or appear in person at the hearing.
But city officials reported Friday that, “following the mailing of the notice, the city became aware of a technical error in the mailing list that inadvertently omitted some owners and/or customers of record.”
Proposition 218, a state law governing how cities and counties may enact rate increases, requires that affected residents or property owners receive at least 45 days notice.. To comply with the law, the city put together an updated mailing list and is sending a new notice.
Some residents or property owners will receive two notices, but only one protest per residential household will be counted.
Buche said earlier this year that the increased rates are necessary because the department’s costs to provide trash services to homes have grown, including labor, fuel, landfill fees and processing of organic, green and recyclable materials.
The last time the city raised its trash rates was 2009. But in recent years, the solid-waste division has relied on accumulated reserves to fill the gap between revenues and expenses. This year, that gap will be about $9.5 million.
If customers reject the rate increases, Buche said, the result would likely be cutbacks in services to keep costs in line with the existing revenues. Among the possibilities would be potentially moving from the current once-a-week trash collection schedule to every other week.
