The Mounds View city council approved an ordinance this week that will require solid waste haulers to provide their pricing and fees schedule to the city before they can be licensed, with plans for prices to be posted online for residents.
The city currently has five licensed residential solid waste haulers and does not have a limit to how many haulers can be licensed in the city, according to city administrator Nyle Zikmund. Bill submissions by residents showed variations between how the haulers charged their services, even among residents using the same vendor, Zikmund said.
The ability to see a hauler’s pricing is like being able to see the prices at different restaurants, Zikmund said. The change allows residents to make informed choices as to which hauler they would like to use in the city, he said.
“It was just an effort to make sure the consumer is aware, these are what these (fees and surcharges) are, and some are legitimate, and others just enhance the bottom line of the hauler,” Zikmund said.
The requirement goes into effect Jan. 1.
Haulers are licensed for the calendar year. As part of their licensing application, they must provide a schedule of all proposed pricing and fees during the licensed period and charge at the rates shown on their application schedule. They also must give the city 90 days’ notice on rate increases and information to support the change.
“And the current standard is, they have to abide by our waste standards, which has the hours of operation they can collect, and be insured and all that. Now it has this additional condition that you need to transmit to the city your prices, and we will be creating a web page where people can just go look and shop there first if they want,” Zikmund said.
Voters rejected organized trash collection
Voters in Mounds View rejected a ballot question Nov. 5 on whether the city should have an organized residential solid waste collection system replace its current competitive market collection system.
Mounds View Mayor Zach Lindstrom told the Pioneer Press at the time that going forward, he wanted to to see more price transparency in the competitive market collection system.
In St. Paul, there are five haulers servicing residential accounts in the city as of June, but the city entered into negotiations for citywide garbage collection earlier this year. FCC Environmental Services is expected to service the majority of the city’s street and alley routes by April next year.
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