Chairman Randy Sullivan: "I think we're just in the stage of everybody calm down a little bit. ... If there's things we need to change, we will."
Refunding trash customers for the months that yard waste has been burned like regular garbage seems unwarranted because they always received the service they paid for, the chairman of the city's trash board said Wednesday.
"City crews are still picking up green waste that's put on the curb and they're hauling it off," Chairman Randy Sullivan said. "Everyone says, 'Well, don't you owe the ratepayers a refund?' Well, we have provided the service."
The trash board, formally known as the Tulsa Authority for the Recovery of Energy, began debating the future of its yard waste collection system Tuesday amid reports of underwhelming revenue and the revelation that crews have diverted yard waste to the Covanta Energy trash-to-energy plant since at least January because equipment at the city's mulching plant cannot remove the plastic bags in which residents are asked to place the material.
Sullivan said the board will discuss green waste charges in subsequent meetings, including a suggestion by city councilors that the board refund customers.
But for now, no decisions have been made, he said.
"I think we're just in the stage of everybody calm down a little bit," he said. "We'll address this issue, and if there's things we need to change, we will."
Yard waste crews have resumed regular weekly service after several weeks helping other crews clear large storm debris from last month's windstorm.
For now, residents are not required to use the 50-cent green waste stickers or clear bags for curbside yard waste pickup. Any kind of bag without a sticker will do for small yard material such as grass clippings that cannot fit in regular trash carts, city spokeswoman Liz Hunt said.
But an average $1.09 a month in each customer's bill still goes toward yard waste service. The future of that practice, along with the green waste sticker, remains to be determined.
Councilor Karen Gilbert said Wednesday that she still supports the idea of issuing refunds because customers "were being charged for a service that was not being provided."
Mayor Dewey Bartlett, who says refunds would be entirely up to the trash board, said he generally understands its position on the issue.
"I sort of do. I sort of don't," he said Wednesday. "But at the end of the day, the service has been provided."
Former Mayor Kathy Taylor has also chimed in, asking the trash board to suspend the green waste and recycling fees in light of an apparent "failure of transparency."
Trash officials say such demands ignore the fact that the city uses its own crews for yard waste collection.
The trash authority contracts with NeWSolutions for curbside garbage and recycling pickup but could not bid out for yard waste service because it had little basis to calculate how much of the material Tulsans would discard.
The green waste stickers and monthly fee were intended to recoup the cost of using city crews - a $1,427,681 expense between Oct. 1 and June 30.
The city has sold $82,250 worth of green waste stickers since January, the first month the stickers were required.
Because the monthly "fee" is not a line item on a customer's bill, it is unclear how much money that has generated.
The $1.09 figure is merely a "best guess" of how much of a customer's trash bill goes toward yard waste, Hunt said. It is based on the average customer with a 96-gallon trash cart, although the actual amount varies based on cart size and service frequency.
That would mean that about $1.27 million in regular trash payments has gone toward green waste, counting the city's 116,500 trash customers.
Storm debris cleanup is progressing
The curbside pickup of large tree limbs downed during last month's windstorm continues even as green waste crews have resumed picking up bags or bundles of small yard waste.
The city has picked up 28,604 cubic yards of storm debris since the cleanup effort began July 29.
Since then, Tulsans have dropped off another 11,641 cubic yards of debris at the city's green waste plant at 10401 E. 56th St. North, which still takes yard waste for mulching from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Storm debris crews are making one pass through each neighborhood, working from the perimeters of the city toward midtown.
They have covered most areas north of Pine Street, west of the Arkansas River, east of 129th East Avenue and south of 81st Street.
Green waste crews are separately picking up small yard waste on customers' regular collection days. Clear bags and stickers are not required.
What customers pay for green waste
Per bag/bundle: 50 cents*
On bill: $1.09 for average customer with 96-gallon trash cart
*Green waste stickers come in $2.50 sheets. Sticker requirement suspended at present.
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Trash exec rebuffs refund
Local
Her biological father from Oklahoma and her adoptive parents from South Carolina spent several hours Monday and Tuesday on the sixth floor of the state's Kerr office building, where the Court of Civil Appeals meets in Tulsa.
A cause of the fire is under investigation.
