Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
A story in the Ottumwa Courier caught my eye today.
As Mason City’s City Hall pursues the privatization of its sanitation department, another similarly-sized city in Iowa that is partly there just got a bill from out of nowhere for over $30,00o.
(PHOTO: A Mason City sanitation worker empties a trash can on East State Street earlier this summer. City Hall is taking a hard look at eliminating the sanitation department.)
The headline for the story in the Courier states “2-year late bill slams city solid waste department.”
“Chamness Technologies, Inc., the Eddyville company that does compost hauling for the city, submitted a bill for two years worth of hauling and mobilization charges they had not previously billed, totaling $30,500,” the story says.
In Mason City, all the compost hauling is taken care of right now by our sanitation department. There are no surprise invoices, fees or bills that City Hall must watch for, as it is all handled in-house. We pay about $9 each for this.
Reading the details in the Courier’s story made me wonder… if the City goes private with its waste pick-up and disposal, who will oversee the operation from the City’s end and make sure there are no surprises? Many have expressed concern that through bidding, fees from a private company would start low, and then once the City’s ability to pick up waste is dismantled (selling off of garbage trucks and other equipment, termination of sanitation workers, etc) the price will start to go up.
In other words, the City may be at the mercy of its “partner” at some point.
One would hate to see this befall Mason City: “Chamness employees submitted bills for the grinding charges but not the hauling or mobilization charges and no one noticed the discrepancy. Now Chamness is requesting the Solid Waste Commission pay the unbilled charges.”
What is to stop a private company the City makes a deal with from billing for this or that, or faulty workmanship, or just plain bad service? One would hope an air-tight contract would solve this, but the City will not be able to control costs to the degree it can now.
Furthermore, current City Hall “leadership” should not be trusted to look out for you.
We have seen the City brush aside any possible responsibility private companies may have on other projects. The most recent example is the 12th Street NW overpass project, costing the City tens of thousands of dollars to fix concrete issues and approaches.
The City had an opportunity to hold Henkel Construction, the general contractor, and WHKS Engineers responsible and share in the cost of fixing the problem.
Instead, council members Scott Tornquist and Jean Marinos showed what poor leaders they are.
According to meeting minutes from an April 12th council work session, discussing the quandary the City faced with the bridge, Tornquist stated, with Marinos agreeing, “the problems were disappointing, but the City would spend a lot more money trying to assess blame.”
They didn’t even ask Henkel or WHKS to chip in; they just gave up and decided to pay the whole bill.
Do not trust this City Hall to fight anyone to save your tax dollars. They are looking for the easy way out.
The finance department makes recommendations on how much, if at all, the monthly sanitation pick-up fees should be raised each year during budget hearings. There are no surprises. There very well could be if the City goes private.
31 thoughts on “Beware: City Hall will rollover and play dead after sanitation department is privatized”
Another attempt by NIT to cause disention in MC. Another story where he doesn’t put in all the facts. If he put in all the details about costs, savings, etc., maybe some of you bloggers would see the whole truth.
You consistently blog that I “cause dissension” and “leave out facts.” You seem to know everything except your own name. Why don’t you enlighten us all and explain where I am wrong? I will be waiting to have this debate if you have it in you.
Yes,(another anonymous) please enlighten some of us bloggers so we can know the whole truth. I think that it’s called, put up or shut up…
“Anonymous”, I like your idea of dropping our garbage at City Hall but wouldn’t it have more impact if a huge pile started building up on Bookmeyer’s front yard? I suppose his security cameras could be a problem, however, so don’t forget your ski mask.
As long as American Realty makes money, Marinos does not care
It is time to start a petition drive getting the citizens of Mason City to protest this move to privatize our garbage pick up.
We the People Of Mason City do not want our Garbage Service Privatized.
The risks of the Higher Prices for garbage pickup is now worth the risk of privatization.
I don’t want my $9.00 per month fee for garbage pick up tampered with.
While a petition don’t have to be recognized by the City Council I believe they will listen to the citizens if we present enough signatures on the petition.
The petition should have said:
“We the People Of Mason City do not want our Garbage Service Privatized.
The risks of the Higher Prices for garbage pickup is not worth the risk of privatization.”
Question:” Should the City Council of Mason City continue to spend time and energy on the potential privatization of it’s garbage pick up, which most citizens find quite satisfactory?”
The below signed citizens of Mason City are concerned with the potential privatization of Sanitation Services, the resulting loss of jobs, and the inevitable increased costs of those services to residents as a result.
We therefore ask the entire City Council to vacate this unproductive action.
STOP THE INSANITY!!!
If the beerman didn’t marry money and actually had to work for a living he might have some respect for the working class. As for Turncoat and multiple jobs he finally found someone who could stand to work with him. Himself.
SO WITH ALL THE b*Ti**ING, GOING ON, AND “JUST AN ASSUMPTION”, DID YOU VOTE? ASK YOURSELF HOW THE HELL DID THE CURRENT WONDERFULL CITY COUNCIL GET VOTED IN. ALL OF THE BACK PATTING (PADDING) THAT GOES ON IN MC IS UNBELIEVEABLE. THERE IS NO REASON TO PURCHASE ANY EQUIPMENT TO COVER MEETINGS. IT’S FREE ON YOU TUBE. STATUES, SO WHEN A BODY PART FALLS OF MR. HUNK WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT TO BE REATTACHED. NOT VIAGRA. IT ONLY TAKES A BIT TO KEEP ON THE GATE KEEPERS THAT THIS CITY HAS FALLEN INTO THE SLUM STATIS FOR. NOTE TO SELF….
ASSUMPTION IS THE MOTHER OF ALL F***UPS.
I have never been so disappointed in our city council. You can slam Max all you want but at least he had the citizens back. These guys are out for themselves and no one else I forgot except robin anderson they always have her best interest.
Isn’t that the famous work session meeting where marinos split early to drink martinis at the park inn?
Matt, your example of 12th Street NW is perfect in this instance.
With all the big fuss about wanting proposals and studies on a system of municipal run garbage collection that is not broken, you would think that with the damage done to 12th Street NW, there would be similar demands for studies.
Yet, we hear silence and excuses from our members of the Council. Why?
When you see a case such as the problems with 12th Street, the priority should always be to protect the interests and investments of the citizens. We are not seeing that are we? Who is being protected?
And if there is fault, it is not up to the citizens pay, it is up to those who installed, and those who designed. They have liability insurance for such instances (or should). Why are we footing the bill?
$40,000 here, $30,0000 there, pretty soon we are talking big money.
Observer is spot on here. Why are Marinos and Tornfest so eager to absolve others on the overpass? Do they have something to gain? Investigation?
Matt, you were spot on. I talked about this with my daughter and son in law. I said, “why didn’t they even ask Henkel to correct things? There will be more city business to be bid on the future. Wouldn’t you think that they would rather correct this than lose further business with the City? A bid can be cheap, but shoddy work can be expensive in the long run. Henkel and WHKS should be excluded from further bids if they are not stand up companies and stand behind their work.
i know this has nothing to do with the article, but did marinos just let a big fart? please, matt, look into this. i think the people have the right to know. thank you.
Our council will go and buy these dumb ass art pieces, and then want to cut our hardworking sanitation workers out of their jobs. I just cant figure out why we voted these idiots into office. I bet we are the laughing stock of Iowa. Get ready to take it up the rear as the cost of trash is going to be higher than shit.
I don’t live in MC and businesses have to pay horrendous fees for waste removal and recycling. Personally, I think $9.00 a month is way too cheap for the services the residents get. The City should raise the fee to $12/month, keep the sanitation service within the city, give those workers a raise, tell them how much they are appreciated, and keep any extra money for equipment replacement.
I agree! Why not pay a bit more to the sanitation department and keep the workforce the city currently has.
Something is way toooo fishy here.
Who’s related to who that will benefit from privatization? Who stands to win in this situation, certainly not the citizens of Mason City.
I think to prove a point let’s all just take our bags of garbage down to city hall, drop it on their doorstep. Then let’s see who they call to pick it up!
I agree! I would pay more for the same service from the city. Public employees answer to the public, whereas a private company with an exclusive contract answers to no one.
Privatization will not the city money; it will end up costing the citizens way more in the end.
I would rather pay a bit more to the city than to be privatized. I sent letters to Bookmeyer and all the council members via e-mail regarding this matter and explained what I paid for private garbage when I lived outside of city limits.
All I got back was a thank you for your concern comments from all of them except Alex Kuhn. He actually took the time to write me back a very nice informative letter instead of one single sentence. It showed me the other council members and the mayor doesn’t give a darn what the residents of the city think. Oh, and by the way, Trout didn’t respond back to me at all, go figure.
Privatizing the sanitation services would be a HUGE mistake on the part of our council….I just wish they would listen!!!!!
Like I have said before, there are no companies that pick up trash that can do it for $9.00 a month and make a profit. The mason city sanitation dept. is self funding, that means that the measly $9.00 we pay now, pays for all the costs that the dept incures. Thats trucks, fuel, repair parts maintenance, landfill fees, wages etc. I say measly because if a private hauler gets the bid, that fee will double, and you won’t get the service that you are getting now. Remember, the city is not out to save you money, it’s out to save money for itself, you know for cool things like statues and such. If you think about it, the sanitation fee hasn’t went up that much in the last 20 years. You can’t take your own garbage/yard waste/brush to the landfill for $9.00 a month, and don’t forget recycling.
TORNQUIST IS A JOKE!!!!!!!!
unionized workers are going to see more and more of this. The taxpayer can no longer afford the wage and benefit package that public sector employee enjoy. Sorry, the private sector is making less and less, the public cant make more and more. It will not work
So I guess everybody should make a wage they cannot live on – that’s the solution right – ya gotta love Iowa. How bout working on bringing income up in the private sector????
And you should get educated because the studies conducted showed that union workers actually make less than private sector employees with COMPARABLE education and experience.
Just what does this story have to do with union workers??? Sounds like your jealous your not one..
Yep, those darn Union Thugs have destroyed this country! I find it interesting that when there were two cement plants, IMI, Minnesota Rubber, Tonka Coolers, Libbey-Owens -Ford, ect., ect, ect. in this town nobody wanted those lowly “City” jobs. Now that all the jobs are gone and the City employees are making a living wage it’s time to PRIVATIZE and get rid of twelve MORE jobs that pay a decent wage!!! There is NO company that can give the quality of service to the citizens of this town for what they are currently paying, but let’s spend countless hours trying to disprove that just because a certain Council member has it out for City Employees. Guess which one!!
What it comes down to is Bookmeyer and his posse hate the working man especially people working for the city. I heard a certain 2nd ward councilman has it in for city workers.
I bet that when Brent Trout presents his thoughts on sanitation he will try to compare Mason City with a bunch of little towns like Manly or Rockwell and hopefully our city council can see that this would not be a true comparison. Mason City needs to compare itself with other similar size cities to get an honest idea if we are getting the best bang for our buck.
RUKidding, what ever deal they decide to do will be arranged in advance and the council will give it’s rubber stamp agreement to whatever the Beermiester wants just like with the statues. Common sense or what the taxpayers want won’t enter into it at all.