City of Sisters trash franchise a bad idea

I'm writing one more time regarding the possible acceptance of HCD as an outside source for our refuse pickup.

I was disappointed to see such a small crowd at the presentation last week. However, many of the folks I had contacted in advance, and several I spoke to at the meeting, all felt the city council had already made its decision. That is sad, but there are several points I would still like to make.

First, I'd like to say I truly appreciate city councilman Lon Kellstrom's valiant fight during all this, and am also encouraged by the commitment to protect public resources, such as this, mentioned by two of the folks who have filed to run for city council seats in this coming election.

The city refuse department budget currently pays a portion of 12 of the city employee's salaries. This is because they each spend some portion of their time each month working with the city's refuse account. This salary total, including social security, medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, unemployment, Medicare, etc., is forecasted to be $193,768 annually.

There are no city plans to lay anyone off should we switch to HCD, and no one will be asked to accept a reduction in salary. Therefore, other departments must absorb this amount.

In addition to the $193,768 labor charges, the city must also absorb another $41,864, which is Refuse's portion of the Indirect Materials and Services the city uses. The city is crediting back $61,000 against these amounts since they say they will not have to fill the Utility Worker III position, though the original budget only charged the Refuse department with about one quarter of that cost, with the rest charging to, and presumably needed by, other departments.

None the less, the Refuse department has also generated around $17,000 per year in profit for the city, which has been transferred and used by other departments. Therefore, the other departments' budgets will have to be increased to absorb this net amount of $191,632 per year.

The city would receive back from HCD approximately $68,250 a year for a land lease and Franchise fee arrangement. We will lose the $17,000 profit each year Refuse now generates, the $193,768, and the $41,864, less the $61,000 of course.

Therefore, per their proposal, HCD would give the City of Sisters gross revenue totaling $627,750 over the seven years of the contract. This amount includes the one-time payment of $150,000 they will pay to buy all our trucks and containers. The expenditures the City must now spread over other funds, during that same seven years, is $1,341,424, or a total net cash loss to the city of $713,674.

This is not the city council's money, or the Mayor's money, it is our money.

This all seems to have been started by the city's desire to purchase a newer and safer truck for our men, which costs $240,000. I'd like to suggest we just spend the $240,000 out of one of the city's contingency funds to buy the new truck. This would negate the need for the city to raise our rates to pay for it, and we all will keep more control over our great little city.

Once we sell our trucks and containers at a reduced price to HCD, there will be no going back, because the cost of the city starting up again would be prohibitive.

Virginia Lindsey is a citizen of Sisters.