Speaking of Roseville trash bills, Roseville is one of the few cities that publishes official hauler rates on the city website -- the rates that the haulers themselves report when they apply for a license from the city.  You can see if you're paying what your hauler claims their rates to be.

In Maplewood, I found (here's my entire report) that on average, residents actually paid about 25% more than the official rates reported to the city.  I would not be surprised if the situation is similar in Roseville.  I did actually get a couple of examples of Walters bills in Roseville last year, and in both cases the customers were charged a higher base rate than the one reported to the city.

In any case it's a good idea to shop around (and to figure in any fuel or "environmental" surcharges that a hauler may or may not tack on to those base rates).  In Maplewood, the residents who paid the least tended to watch their bills closely and to call other haulers for rate comparisons frequently, and then either switch or use the rival offer as leverage to get a lower rate with their existing hauler.

Of course, with an organized system, the city does that bargaining for you. Here's a comparison of the 2012 official rates in Roseville:

2012 Monthly Garbage Hauler Rates Rates may or may not include taxes or other charges such as fuel surcharges.
Hauler	Phone	32 Gallon	64 Gallon	96 Gallon	Extra Bag
Ace Solid Waste	763-427-3110	$12.49	$12.99	$14.99	$3.00
Allied Waste	651-455-8634	$14.75	$15.00	$16.00	$5.00
Aspen*	612-884-8000	$17.84	$20.59	$23.35	$2.00
Garbageman	763-269-8182	$23.00	$25.00	$26.00	$2.00
Gene's Disposal*	651-426-1224	$17.00	$18.99	$21.00	$2.00
Veolia	651-459-3029	$12.25	$14.25	$16.25	$2.50
Walter's	763-780-8464	$17.25	$18.95	$19.95	Call
Waste Management	952-890-1100	$15.00	$16.00	$17.00	Call

In comparison, starting in October 2012, Maplewood residents will be paying the following rates through the city's contract, including all taxes and fees:

• $10.63 for 32 gallons, weekly pickup
• $11.93 for 65 gallons, weekly pickup
• $13.39 for 95 gallons, weekly pickup

In other words, when you add state and county taxes to the Roseville hauler reported rates above, you find that the largest container in Maplewood will cost less than the smallest container in Roseville -- and that's not even considering if those Roseville haulers tack on fuel surcharges or other special fees (which most probably do, based on what they do in other cities).

Given the money at stake, you can see why the "Garbage Haulers for Citizen Choice" are willing to spend a lot of money to stop Roseville from following Maplewood and saving their residents a lot of money, at the expense of those hauler' profits.

Labels: organized collection, Roseville

Posted by John Nephew on 8/30/2012 10:09:00 AM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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As a follow-up to the last post, you may wonder who exactly is behind "Garbage Haulers for Citizen Choice," the group pouring money into the Roseville City Council race with an eye to choking the grassroots interest there in organized collection.

According to campaign finance reports last year, the funding of this group in their Maplewood operation came from these haulers:

• ACE Solid Waste
• Dick's Sanitation
• Randy's Environmental
• Walter's Recycling & Refuse

It's possible of course that companies have joined or left the group, but given the spending they did last year in Maplewood (despite that fact that only Walters had a residential license in Maplewood), I would expect they're all committed this year as well.  If you live in Roseville and use one of these firms, you now know what some of your trash bill is going to fund.

(Thanks to the folks at Walters, by the way, for visiting my blog recently, and reminding me that I should write this post, since folks may not know who is behind the front group.)

Labels: organized collection, Roseville

Posted by John Nephew on 8/21/2012 10:09:00 AM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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Last year, as "Garbage Haulers for Citizen Choice" bought themselves two seats on the Maplewood City Council (Bob Cardinal and Marv Koppen), it was odd at first glance -- since most of that group were not even licensed in Maplewood, the one that was had very little business here.  What's more, the key votes were going to be made before any new councilmembers were seated, and there was a likely 3-member council majority to approve organized collection whose terms didn't end until 2014.  But all the election spending in Maplewood of course had less to do with Maplewood than with sending a message to other suburbs -- in particular, next door in Roseville, where the business interests behind this group have a lot more business at stake, and where there's been a notable groundswell of resident interest in and support of organized trash collection.  Given that we estimate Maplewood's plan will save our residents about $1.6 million per year, you can understand that these haulers are willing to spend a fair bit to protect their profits elsewhere.

Sure enough, the GHFCC has been spreading cash around again this year, trying to repeat their Maplewood success by buying a couple of seats on Roseville's city council.  Unlike Maplewood's race, when the spending was focused on mailings on the eve of the November general election, in Roseville they've started throwing their weight around ahead of the primary. From their mailings and candidate financial reports, one can see that the haulers have decided that their candidates are Lisa Laliberte and Bill Hoffman.  In a field of seven candidates for two seats in Tuesday's primary, with the top four advancing from the primary to November's general election, Laliberte came in #1 and Hoffman came in #4.  The top three candidates were fairly close, at 1282 to 1377 votes each, while #4 was a much more distant 860 votes.

I'll be interested to see how this plays out in the general election, and to learn how the candidates not anointed by the haulers' PAC respond and adapt their campaign strategies.

Labels: organized collection, Roseville

Posted by John Nephew on 8/16/2012 09:59:00 AM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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I came across an article in the Roseville Patch about their public works commission considering the topic of organized trash collection.

Testifying against it at the meeting were Randy's Environmental and ACE Solid Waste.  These firms, as you may recall, are not licensed to serve Maplewood residents, but both poured money into our election this fall to defeat me -- both in direct corporate spending (as "Garbage Haulers for Citizen Choice"), and in the contributions of owners and officers to Marv Koppen's campaign.  Two individuals who are officers or owners of Randy's -- James Wollschlager and Mark Stoltman -- gave Marv the legal maximum $300 contribution.  (His finance report listed their employer/occupation as "unknown," though it was easy to identify their association with the hauler with a google search.  In fact, all of his "unknown employer" contributors can be identified as being affiliated with haulers.)

As I said at the time, though not having business in Maplewood, these firms were interested in intimidating other city councils -- and I figured Roseville is a particular target, given the market share of these firms their and the interest that Roseville residents and commissioners have been showing in the topic in recent months.  Sure enough, the haulers used the example they made of me to not so subtly threaten the same treatment for Roseville officials who threaten their profits.

Labels: media, organized collection, Roseville

Posted by John Nephew on 1/10/2012 10:14:00 AM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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This evening, the Roseville Citizens League will be hosting a public forum to discuss organized trash hauling, and I will be one of the panelists for the discussion.  Our neighbors to the west have been keeping an eye on Maplewood's organized trash process, and some of them are asking whether it might be a good thing for their city.

The forum will be held at the Fairview Community Center at Fairview Ave and County Road B.  It begins at 7:00 p.m. and should adjourn by 9:00 p.m.  Roseville residents are invited to bring copies of their own trash bills, for reference.

You can read more about the event in the Roseville Review, the Star Tribune, the Pioneer Press, and Roseville Patch.

Labels: events, media, organized collection, Roseville

Posted by John Nephew on 9/15/2011 09:18:00 AM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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