Amador County – The Jackson City Council on Monday approved a request by ACES Waste Services to increase trash rates in Jackson by 2.55 percent, with the increase to take effect at the turn of the calendar year.

Jackson City Manager Mike Daly said a franchise agreement with the city requires ACES to get City Council approval for rate increases, but it does not require a “Proposition 218” notification, which would allow Jackson residents to protest the rate increase.

Daly said Martell resident Ken Berry brought up the question of whether the increase was subject to a Proposition 218 notification and protest. City Attorney Andrew Morris said that since it is an optional service for trash hauling in the city, and residents can “self-haul” their garbage if they want, then it does not require a Proposition 218 notice of a rate increase, and it is not subject to a Prop 218 protest.

Daly said people were able to come to the Council meeting last Monday (Sept. 26) to protest the increase. He said the Council did receive one letter of protest, from Shirley Dajnowski, of Rollingwood Estates, who requested that the increase approval be rejected or that the amount of increase be lowered.

Daly said the increase request by ACES was found to be consistent with the rate methodology that the city uses, which is similar to the methodology used by Amador County. He said it is based on five or six different indexes related to the services ACES provides, such as fuel, labor, and tipping fee charges at landfills. He said the indexes are added and averaged, and the increase is actually less than what would have been allowed if ACES was using the city’s former methodology index, which was based on the Consumer Price Index. He said the CPI is 2.9 percent, while the ACES increase will be 2.55 percent.

In a report to the council, Daly said ACES has had its franchise agreement with the city since 1998, when it began collecting trash and recycling. The current agreement runs through June 30, 2014. The city’s methodology was approved in November 2009.

The last increase in city waste services was a 9.15 percent increase that took effect Jan.1, 2010, based on a “21 percent increase in landfill dumping costs,” Daly said in a report for the council. No increase was sought in 2010.

ACES president Paul Molinelli Senior in an Aug. 16 letter to Daly said next year’s rate method to request rate changes in 2013 would be different from this year’s request. Next year’s method “requires an analysis of our revenues and expenses and utilizes the operating ratio method.”

The Council voted 5-0 to pass a resolution approving the rate increase of 2.55 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2012.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.