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03/03/2010: "Parcel Fee Funding For Solid Waste Out, May Close All But One Transfer Station"

Having first been led to believed a new tax on developed property could be imposed to subsidize the operations of the three transfer stations, the County Council was informed by the Prosecutor’s office on Tuesday that in fact, the law “does not Authorize” a parcel tax.

The County official statement was "In a briefing during the regular Council session, Gaylord said -in light of court cases -the option of assessing a flat solid waste utility fee on each parcel of land in the County should be “taken off the table.”

Prior to what one councilmember referred to as “this bombshell”, the council had been informed that in the same way they attach a bill to the property tax statements for stormwater, they could do a similar thing with solid waste to raise the money needed for “capital improvement” to the three transfer stations.


After an in-depth review of what the law really said, SJC Prosecutor Randy Gaylord informed the council that not only could they not raise money that way, they also needed to sit as the members of the SJC Utility District Board when talking about raising money for the District. Oops! Based on Gaylord’s opinion, the county council called themselves to order as the SJC Utility District to discuss the bad news

Public Works Director Jon Shannon described the utility’s financial status to the Council Tuesday saying, “The cash flow issue literally leaves me in a place where I’m not willing to authorize the expenditures. We’re $700,000 in the hole and we have contracted work where the bills are coming in.” He described the unexpected legal opinion as, “an atomic bomb.”

After months of discussion of how best to fund solid waste, the council was back to limited options. In short order they reviewed the options of raising the fees in some form to drop off trash, but were warned by Public Works Director Joh Shannon that the fees are already high, and to raise them more may very well result in the public finding cheaper ways of disposing of their garbage, and “the whole system will fail” due to lack of money.

“I believe that if we borrow the $2 million we need [to meet cash flow and capital requirements] and promise to pay it back with a $100 a ton higher tipping fee, the system will collapse,” he said.

After some back-and-forth, Councilman Gene Knapp suggested they take a hard look at using only one transfer station, haul from the other islands to it, then “long haul” from that station to the mainland.

Shannon said this would not solve all of the funding problems, but would allow them to run in the black for a number of years while they came up with sustainable funding mechanism. The Orcas transfer station would remain open, and the stations on San Juan and Lopez would stop receiving garbage, but would have some form of road-side pick-up.

For the immediate future, Shannon is putting together a short term survival plan to discuss with the Council at its March 9 meeting. He said the plan will likely include elimination or postponement of all expenditures that aren’t immediately required to keep the utility in operation. His presentation will also include recommendations for the utility’s tipping rates and other fees that the Council is scheduled to adopt on March 30.