County Commissioner John Meeks defends county policy of allowing haulers to dump residential garbage free at landfill.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
When Levy County Commissioners tentatively adopted their $116 residential landfill assessment Tuesday they were criticized for the two-year-old tax and for allowing commercial haulers to dump residential garbage free.
“This was a real bone of contention by slapping us with the $116 assessment and then you slapped us in the face by allowing haulers to pay no tipping fees (for residential garbage),” Linda Cooper said.
Cooper, founder of Spotlight, pointed out that commercial haulers continue to charge the same rates for residential pickup in cities and rural areas as they did before the $116 landfill assessment was adopted.
Yet they continue to dump residential garbage free at the landfill.
County Coordinator Wilbur Dean said when the county eliminated all tipping fees at the landfill for residential garbage it meant commercial haulers also could dump residential garbage at no charge.
“None of your haulers went down on the fees they were charging their customers to collect. That’s on them,” Dean said. “There’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t control it. All I can tell you is the competition between haulers; residents need to get out there and research what is the best hauler to use.”
Cooper said it doesn’t make good business sense for the county to allow commercial haulers to dump residential garbage free. Commissioner John Meeks didn’t agree.
“The citizens have already paid to have that (residential garbage) disposed of for $116. Charging someone again is double taxation,” Meeks said.
Meeks said the only way the county could recover more money from commercial haulers is through a franchise fee, but he said he wasn’t advocating franchising.
“A franchise fee, that’s where this is going, a franchise fee,” Cooper responded. “I know where this is going, but we still didn’t want it (the $116 assessment). We told you we didn’t’ want it. We told you we wanted people to pay for what they were dumping.”
“I want to live for free, but we’ve got to pay for services,” Meeks responded. “It’s why we talk about the EMS assessment, which I don’t want to raise, but if we don’t do something we’re going to be broke. That’s not the reality of life, but it’s a reality.”
“The reality of life is the people lost their jobs in the private sector; not one government worker has lost their job,” Cooper fired back. “We have a real problem here with taxes. Have you made any budget cuts? Maybe you have, but I have not heard of them.”
Commissioners are in the process of building a new budget for the year beginning Oct. 1.
County Attorney Anne Bast Brown said if the county was to start charging commercial haulers tipping fees for dumping residential garbage at the landfill, “you would have to impose a tipping fee on individuals.”
Individual residents currently dump their residential garbage at the landfill free of tipping fees.
“What individuals are paying haulers is to pick it up and take it to the landfill,” Brown said. “There have been issues with enforcement at the landfill. It’s being looked at. We are getting information from the haulers. There will be an enforcement mechanism we will bring to the board.”
Commission Chairman Matt Brooks said it his understanding mixed loads and out of county loads are two of the primary issues at the landfill. Brooks said he has spoken to Landfill Administrative Manager Rod Hastings who has been spot-checking haulers. Brooks said haulers have responded positively.
Meeks took issue with Cooper at one point after she returned to her seat and was shaking her head.
He leaned forward and stared at her, “head shaking,”.
Commissioner Mike Joyner, seated at a table beneath the rest of the board due to a medical issue, teamed up with Meeks to respond to Cooper.
“Nobody is slapping you in the face,” Joyner said.
Joyner said the board was challenged to establish satellite stations and it responded by creating three of them.
He said the county has to keep purchasing new equipment to stay abreast of the demands.
Meeks wasn’t as testy with the media before he qualified for public office in June. He seemed downright friendly.
Meeks didn’t draw opposition and neither did Brooks or Joyner. They were re-elected without opposition and will serve another four years in office.
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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting July 7, 2020; Posted July 8, 2020
