Fresno homeowners can say yes or no to higher trash fees. Bills could go up 78% by 2028

Fresno homeowners will be asked to approve increases to the rates the city charges for residential trash collection services in a five-year sequence that would boost most customers’ bills by more than 78%

The Fresno City Council voted early Thursday evening to authorize the city’s Public Utilities Department to begin a public process in which owners or renters of single-family homes will be able to lodge a protest ballot against the increases. City officials said the higher rates are needed because revenue has failed to keep up with the increased costs to provide trash services since 2009 – the last time the city raised its rates.

Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Luis Chavez voted against authorizing the start of the process. But they were outvoted by the other five members: Garry Bredefeld, Nelson Esparza, Mike Karbassi, Tyler Maxwell and Annalisa Perea.

Unless a majority of homeowners in the city lodge a protest before a May public hearing, 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 come before the City Council for approval next May. 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, as the City Council began considering Fresno’s 2023-24 budget, Dyer sought to brace council members for the possible increases.

“The last solid waste increase we experienced in the city of Fresno was in 2009, 14 years ago,” Dyer said in May. “Over that time, fuel has increased, PG&E costs have increased, salaries have increased. We’ve had inflation (and) equipment costs have increased as well as vehicles.”

“We’ve kicked this can down the road for a long time,” Dyer told The Fresno Bee at that time.

A consultant’s report stated that more than 119,000 homes are served under the residential trash collection program – a figure that Buche said has grown by about 16,000 since 2009. During that time, the department’s solid waste division has seen its costs grow for labor, fuel, landfill fees, processing of organic and green waste, and processing recyclable materials.

In recent years, Buche said Thursday, the division has relied on reserves to make up the gap between revenues and expenses – a gap that this year amounts to about $9.5 million. But, he added, the city’s consultants estimate that those reserves – which amounted to about $13 million five years ago – will be completely depleted by next summer.

The solid waste division is an “enterprise” fund of the city, which means that it is supposed to be self-sustaining with no support from Fresno’s general fund – the pot of money from which many of the city’s day-to-day expenses are paid. In that sense, it is like other divisions in the Public Utilities Department providing water and sewer services, reliant on rates paid by customers without subsidies from the general fund.

Arias said he would not support rate increases unless customers would also be receiving increased services. “I’m not going to impose a higher rate for status quo service,” he said.

Buche said one feature of the proposed rates is to add a service in which a homeowner could, once each year, call to request pickup of large, bulky items. That would be in addition to the annual Operation Cleanup collections that now take place across the city and allow people to place large or unwieldy items at the curbside for pickup.

That service, however, likely would not begin until 2026 because of the lead time it takes to order and acquire a new truck, Buche added.

But 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.

Maxwell, the council president, noted that the last rate increase in 2009 was when he was still in high school.

“I don’t want to delay or impede this … when we’re struggling just to keep this at a baseline” level of service, Maxwell said. “The alternative is far worse. We need to make sacrifices somewhere.”

The process of soliciting protests from homeowners is a requirement of Proposition 218, which sets a strict process that local government agencies must follow before raising rates for services. The required notices of the proposed rate increase must be mailed notices to owners of single-family homes, and additionally notices must be sent to residential tenants who pay their own trash and utility bills. Protest cards will accompany those notices for owners or tenants to return if they object to the increase.

“If a majority of (property owners or tenants) receiving residential solid waste services submit valid written protests … Prop. 218 prohibits the city from implementing the proposed rate updates,” according to a staff report presented to the City Council.

Under the schedule outlined Thursday, the Prop. 218 notices would be mailed out to property owners and tenants no later than March 18, 2024. That would trigger a public notice period of at least 45 days, concluding with a public hearing on May 2, 2024. At that time, the protest cards would be counted and, if a majority of owners or tenants do not object, the city could move forward with the rate increases.

In the meantime, White and Buche said the city would undertake a campaign to educate residents about the need for the rate increases to keep up with costs, including community outreach meetings throughout Fresno.

The rate proposal only involves single-family homes. It does not apply to apartment complexes, which are served by private companies that contract with the city to provide commercial trash collection services to businesses throughout Fresno.