DeKalb seeks to raise residential trash rates

The county is seeking expedited approval. Commissioners have until July 9 to approve the increase if it is to be added to the tax rolls this year, leaving little time for public feedback.

The proposed rate increase comes two weeks after Chief Executive Michael Thurmond asked commissioners to approve a water and sewer rate increase to pay for improvements to the Scott Candler Water Treatment Plant. Those repairs are estimated at $250 million, but Thurmond has not said how much of a rate increase he will seek, despite telling commissioners they would have a complete plan by this week.

Stormwater rates went up last year, and water and sewer rates last increased in 2022. The county raised commercial sewer rates last year.

Commissioner Ted Terry, who represents the western half of the county, said he is frustrated that the proposal is only now coming to commissioners and the public.

“People are going to wake up in August to a tax bill and say, ‘Oh, my sanitation just went up, I have no idea why that happened or where it’s going to go,'” Terry said.

Fellow commissioners Mereda Davis Johnson and Robert Patrick said they also wanted the county to make sure residents were adequately informed about the proposal.

Terry said the lack of rate increases over the past two decades was another example of DeKalb County officials kicking the can on critical infrastructure improvements.

“At some point somebody should have said we’re spending more than we’re taking in,” he said.

Chief Operating Officer Zach Williams said ideally, there should have been incremental rate increases starting at least as early as 2013. But the county ran into resistance when it proposed an increase at that time.

Instead of raising fees or cutting services, the county found cost savings by combining recycling and yard waste collection into a single day. They also switched to trucks that use compressed natural gas instead of diesel fuel.

The county cut costs in 2015 by dropping from twice-weekly pickups to weekly pickups near the border.

Inflation has increased costs significantly from 20 years ago. Oil has more than doubled and trucks are almost twice as expensive. The county paid drivers $12 an hour in 2004 and now pay $20 or more. The county has also lost some revenue streams: Recycling used to make money, but now DeKalb has to pay a company to pick it up.

DeKalb County’s rates are among the lowest in metro Atlanta and would still be even if the rate increase is approved. At $530 a year, Atlanta’s rates are the highest. The city collects yard waste half as often as DeKalb, but offers bulk pickup once a month, which the county offers only by request.

DeKalb is proposing to increase fees by $50 per trash cart. Recycling is included in the fees, but residents must opt ​​out and a second bin will cost an additional $25.

Terry said he would like to see the county explore ways to raise revenue that could also reduce what ends up in the landfill, such as composting. It also prompted the department to explore solar energy as another way to generate revenue.

“If we’re asking for higher rates, there needs to be a very clear definition of what kind of services people are going to get for the new rate structure,” Terry said.

In recent years the county has struggled to provide consistent service. Staffing has been particularly challenging since the start of the pandemic, with sanitation crews getting COVID or being exposed at higher rates than other workers.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported how crews were mixing trash and recycling last fall, an error that county officials initially said was a one-off. But Thurmond has since acknowledged that the county made a “battlefield decision” to mix garbage and recycling because of staffing issues.

“A political decision was made,” he said. “The first thing you do is remove (debris) from the sidewalk. Recycling took priority.”

After the AJC report, the county changed the process and went back to separating trash and recycling collection, a change that tripled recycling collection.