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Most City employees have civil service protection, but John Whitmire keeps repeating that if they don’t move as fast as he says, many people will be looking for work. The chiefs or the people with the whips may be fired easily, but the workers will probably only find someone else holding the whip over their heads.
Whitmire is spending a lot of money and blaming his predecessor for all the problems. He says the City is broke. Maybe things work differently in Whitmire’s world, but in my world, most people would cut down on expenses, not spend more to solve an “I am going broke problem.”
Garbage Fee
I can always count on Bill King to give us the numbers. I don’t always trust his conclusion but normally his accounting is accurate.
For the umpteenth time a garbage fee is being floated for City of Houston residents to help address the City current financial exigency. However, it is unlikely that a garbage fee will make any meaningful difference in the City’s finances. Here’s why.
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he City currently collects a small percentage of refuse that Houstonians generate each day. This is because the City does not offer collection services to apartments or businesses, which must arrange for their own garbage collection and disposal. The City only collect garbage for single-family residences. According to a 2021 plan1 produced by the City’s Solid Waste Department, single-family residences only generate about 18% of the City’s refuse. (See p. 11)
The City claims to serve 390,000 homes. But according to the Census, Houston has about 470,000 homes. The difference appears to come from various neighborhoods, mostly affluent ones, that have opted to have their garbage collected by private contractors. The City subsidizes neighborhoods that contract with private contractors by reimbursing them $6 per month, per home. In 2016, former Mayor Turner said that about 48,000 homes were subsidized by the City.
The City currently is scheduled to collect regular garbage and yard waste once a week, recyclables every other week, and heavy trash and tree waste every other month. All pick-up is at the street curb. (See p. 10) The City estimates the cost of providing this service is $18.17 per month, per home. …
The 2021 plan recommended implementing a garbage pick-up fee of $20-25 per month and a “Clean City Fee” of $5.61 per month on all residences, apartments and businesses. The Clean City Fee would pay for operating the City’s hazard waste and electronic recycling drop-off sites, illegal dumping enforcement, and other miscellaneous waste- related expenses.3 (See p. iv) The report estimates these two fees would bring in about $120-$140 million in new revenue annually.
However, I think it is highly unlikely to do so because there will likely be a very significant movement by neighborhoods to private contractors. About 75- 80% of residents have been willing to put up with the City’s dreadful service because, well let’s face it, it is free. However, once residents must start paying for the service, why would they do so when they can contract for private collection that will almost certainly provide them with improved and more flexible service?
It will also likely be cheaper. The closest comparable service I could find in the area, to that offered by Houston, is The Woodlands. The Woodlands just renewed their contract with Waste Management for $17.41 per home, per month. The pick-up service is slightly more frequent than the City’s and there are some miscellaneous charges that add about another dollar. So, that is already below the $20-25 fee suggested by the 2021 plan.
If the City decides to charge a garbage fee, I may ask our neighborhood to use private collection.
Laughing at Whitmire’s joke about garbage collection.
Yesterday, I received a call from an officer of a super neighborhood regarding an upcoming meeting; the person was expressing their dissatisfaction with the garbage collection. It’s disheartening to hear that bagged grass had not been picked up for over a month and had just been left on the curb. I reminded her of Whitmire’s statement about the great garbage collection, but it’s clear that the reality doesn’t match the rhetoric. I could use some of the coffee that Whitmire drinks in the morning.
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The image is AI Generated