The case for franchising Sisters' garbage service

The city's recent discussion of garbage service has inspired a lot of discussion around town and in The Nugget. It has even been suggested that our current garbage service is a good source of city revenue. Others are worried that we aren't really going to save money at all.

As a guy who has run a successful business in Sisters for 20 years, I am very familiar with making decisions to maximize revenue and save costs. But as Mayor, my job is to provide the best possible city services for the lowest possible price. Or put another way, providing the government services that are essential to the entire community both today and in the future in the most efficient manner possible.

Contracting with HCD will serve this goal.

If Sisters continues to provide our own garbage service, we will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace our outmoded garbage trucks. By contracting with HCD, we avoid that cost and get an up-front payment of $150,000 for our old equipment like the garbage cans, dumpsters and rolling stock.

If we keep our own service, we will have to hire an additional employee. Contracting with HCD avoids this cost altogether, while collecting $68,250 per year from HCD.

So we are really saving taxpayer money by contracting for the service, in the short run and in the long run.

And HCD will provide us with more services than we are getting now. In addition to providing our regular garbage and yard debris pickup, at no extra cost we will also get curbside recycling and twice a year large object pickup. This will save our citizens the cost of disposing of those items themselves. This contract will not necessitate higher rates for garbage, water, or sewer than we would have to charge under the current arrangement. On the other hand, when we forecast the cost of keeping the garbage service in house, we found that we'd have to raise rates considerably to keep our current level of service. So HCD will give us more for less, both the city government and the citizens.

Despite some people's fears, there are no hidden costs or down side to this contract. It will not change the operations of our recycling center, which will operate exactly as it does now. Nor will we have to lay off any city employees, because we have plenty of unmet needs that they can fill.

Once out of the garbage business, the city will be able to take care of a host of backlogged projects in the water, sewer, and street department, including increased pavement maintenance and improved irrigation in our parks. It's true that there will be a small negative impact on the general fund, but the $1,748 per year reduction is more than offset by HCD's up front payments, so the general fund will be in better shape for 85 years.

So there you have it - better service at a lower cost. The question then isn't why am I supporting this, the real question is why would anyone oppose it?

I encourage anyone who wants to see the detailed costs and benefits of this proposed contract to come see me at Eurosports, or to talk with Brad Grimm at City Hall. When you review the facts, I'm sure you will agree with me that contracting with HCD for garbage services will allow city government to serve you better while keeping costs down.