After more than a year of wrangling, Sun Valley has adopted a flat fee for trash collection.
The issue, which some believe contributed to the defeat of Mayor Jon Thorson in the November city election, was back to haunt the City Council last week at its last meeting of the year and before the new council takes office on Jan. 7, 2008.
Thorson and the council spent more than an hour plowing over the old ground of a proposed waste disposal ordinance during a meeting on Thursday, Dec. 13.
Should the city adopt a variable fee of $21 per month for residents who choose to recycle waste and rent an additional disposal cart for $3? Or should the city adopt a flat fee of $23 per month?
The issue had been on council agendas for the past 18 months, a fact that clearly had become an embarrassment to some council members.
Councilman Brian Boand turned to two representatives of Clear Creek Disposal, which had asked for the new ordinance and had been working with city officials crafting tentative details.
"I apologize," Boand said, alluding to the delay in finalizing the ordinance. He called the council's inability to make a decision "deplorable."
Councilman Lud Renick, who will retire in January, said "we have egg on our face" for the delay.
A visibly irritated Clear Creek official, Dennis Lallman, the firm's accountant, acidly said that the continued indecision "is not fair" to the company, which he said had spent more than $70,000 working on the proposed ordinance. He also said a further delay would prevent the company from collecting fees for the first quarter of 2008 since it would not know which fee option the city would adopt.
However, resident Ross Jennings suggested that the matter be delayed until Mayor-elect Wayne Willich and council members-elect Joan Lamb and Dewayne Briscoe take office on Jan. 7.
City attorney Rand Peebles suggested that if the current council could adopt one of the fee options, he and Clear Creek officials in the meantime could flesh out a proposed ordinance for the new council to consider.
Mayor Thorson asked for a vote on a variable fee or a flat fee.
Three councilmen voted for the flat fee—Dave Chase, who was in Boise and attended the meeting via telephone hookup, Nils Ribi and Renick. Boand voted against it.
The council agreed informally that the city is obliged to provide some sort of special retroactive compensation to Clear Creek to cover new fees in the first quarter it's unable to collect because of the delayed action and to recover its costs.
