01/27/2010: "Council Retreats On New Development Fees For Dumps"

Public Works Director Jon Shannon was unable to attend a special workshop meeting on January 19th when the County Council to action to address the so called “death spiral” of the SJC solid waste program that continues to run in the red.

At the next the County Council meeting on January 26th, the council took a second look at their actions on the 19th, and decided that a $1,000.00 Add On To “Development Permits” To Pay For Old & New Garbage, that is, making new development pick-up the slack in sufficient funding for the county solid waste programs might not have been such a good idea after all.

And a proposed fee schedule for a 56% Increase To Dump A Can Of Garbage was also not an advised move.

Concerns over the legally of the $1,000.00 additional fee -on top of the normal fees to build a house- were raised, and Director Shannon informed the council in a memo that while “this seems like a really good idea,” he pointed out it would fail to solve the problem, and he was “concerned that we do not have a legal way to impose this fee.”

Public Works Director Jon Shannon was unable to attend a special workshop meeting on January 19th when the County Council to action to address the so called “death spiral” of the SJC solid waste program that continues to run in the red.

At the next the County Council meeting on January 26th, the council took a second look at their actions on the 19th, and decided that a $1,000.00 Add On To “Development Permits” To Pay For Old & New Garbage, that is, making new development pick-up the slack in sufficient funding for the county solid waste programs might not have been such a good idea after all. And a 56% Increase To Dump A Can Of Garbagewas also not an advised move.

Concerns over the legally of the $1,000.00 additional fee -on top of the normal fees to build a house- were raised, and Director Shannon informed the council in a memo that while “this seems like a really good idea,” he pointed out it would fail to solve the problem, and he was “concerned that we do not have a legal way to impose this fee.”