Assembly members’ votes deny waiving landfill fees temporarily following earthquake

During an emergency meeting the Mat-Su Borough Assembly had a golden opportunity laid at their feet. The opportunity was to open the landfill for non-commercial Valley residents to dispose of their earthquake debris. There are residents, like myself, who have less than a kitchen trash bag worth, while others are dealing with truck loads. In the court of public opinion this was an easy decision, but not for two assembly members.

While the Anchorage municipality opened the Central Transfer Station in Midtown Anchorage and Anchorage Regional Landfill in Eagle River for free dump days through Dec. 8, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted down such a measure during the meeting.

The assembly would need all six members present to vote yes for the resolution put forward by assembly member Dan Mayfield for it to pass. Two members, Jesse Sumner and George McKee, voted it down.

Both are citing the cost of having a free dump days and misuse of the free days by some construction-based companies. I spoke with McKee at the Gov. Mike Dunleavy inauguration celebration at the Curtis Menard Center Tuesday evening after the emergency meeting.

“What a lot of people don’t understand is that’s an enterprise fund. It functions strictly on the fees that it charges. It gets no taxpayer support whatsoever. The idea is if you were going to open it for the next four days and that’s all. What really are you going to get? If they say we’re going to open it for two days two weeks from now for debris that comes from the earthquake. I would say that’s wonderful and I would have voted for it. But to open it and say everybody can take their garbage in right now… well for what purpose? If you run out of money and by the way there is nothing free in the landfill, salaries, contractors and so forth. We have a debt there and people don’t realize we have a multi-million dollar debt in the landfill,” McKee explained.

McKee is one who will never waiver on his decisions and emotions rarely weigh in for him.

“The resolution is a feel-good thing,” McKee said.

Would McKee have amended the resolution to reflect his idea of when the free dump day should occur?

“Yeah, I would have but I was looking at what was happening at the assembly meeting and that was futile. It was simply too late to do that,” McKee said.

The borough still has an opportunity to offer the free dump days. Would McKee be in support of a resolution?

“Look if they want to come back and say okay let’s take two days or whatever it is for debris then of course I’d vote for that. But not with the idea that I can bring in my household junk every day. For what purpose would I do that. Remember nothing’s free, everybody has to pay something now or later. We have a tendency to say, we’re going to get something for nothing, Is it really for nothing? It’s not true ever,” McKee said.

Was this a good opportunity to build public relations after the criticism of the borough for the lack of communication during the earthquake?

“I don’t think it would have…for a four-day period? If it had a substantial advance notice the PR would be worth it. You’re talking about today, tomorrow and until the Dec 8 and it’s done. You’re not getting any PR out of it for that and again I want to go back, nothing is free, PR costs you something. Everyone would like us to give everything for nothing in government. Government makes no money. Every bit of money we have comes from taxes,” McKee said.

While McKee doesn’t seem to let public opinion bother him when his vote is not popular with the people, at the governor’s event, Sumner looked like he lost his best friend. Threats from social media were weighing on him.

“They’re threatening to dump their trash in my yard,” Sumner said.

Sumner stopped by the Frontiersman office on Friday for a more in-depth discussion.

After Mayfield presented the resolution for free non-commercial dumping at the borough landfill and then amended it to extend through Dec 9, Sumner voted against the amendment. But the amendment actually passed because the emergency session rules didn’t apply to amendments. It only needed a majority where the actual resolution needed all six members present to vote yes before it would pass. Assembly member Matthew Beck was traveling and unable to attend or phone in. Assembly member Ted Leonard was not physically present, but did attend via teleconference.

We know that there are people who have an overwhelming amount of debris particularly in the Big Lake and Houston area. Why would Sumner be opposed to free dump days?

“Well I don’t oppose helping people who were affected by the earthquake. I understand that they have a lot of broken things and they would like to throw them away. What I’m opposed to was the resolution the way it was stated. It was just open dump,” Sumner said.

The resolution stated non-commercial but Sumner doesn’t believe that would have stopped professional contractors from dumping their work-related debris.

“For instance, I have a drywall contractor that is doing work for me. He hadn’t scrapped out the day before and the reason why is because he was waiting for the free dump day. I think you would have every shady contractor in the Valley running loads all day long. You would have two-hour lines and people’s time is valuable,” Sumner said.

On social media Sumner responded to those who lashed out about his vote including sharing a text message exchange between him and a contractor in which the contractor stated that if Sumner would have voted yes it would have saved the contractor thousands of dollars.

“The people who are actually dumping their earthquake related debris would be sitting in line for two hours while everyone else is dumping their stuff including contractors,” Sumner said.

Sumner echoed McKee’s thoughts that the landfill is an enterprise fund and operates on fees that it collects.

“I was no expert on the dump before this happened and I only had a day to prepare. The dump’s been operating in red.” Sumner explained

There is some confusion as to Mat-Su Borough Public Works Director Terry Dolan’s comments before the assembly that the landfill this year has a million dollars more in revenue than expenses. Some are misinterpreting those numbers as the landfill is running on a profit. Not so says Sumner.

“The money exists to pay for this. The dump would keep operating but the dump also has obligations it would have to meet. I was told that they have to make a $5 million debt services payment,” Sumner said.

Sumner presented paperwork to me that shows that the landfill has to pay a $5,445,000 debt services payment that has been delayed prior to the earthquake. Sumner contends that the payment has to come from the landfill.

The borough borrows money from Alaska Clean Water Fund, which is federal money passed through the state whenever a cell in the landfill is open or closed. The cost to open a cell is approximately $6 to $7 million dollars. It costs between $4 to $5 million dollars to close a cell. The $5.4 million dollar figure does not include the closing of cell number six, according to Dolan.

“It is correct that the dump wouldn’t be shut down because it would have four days that the dump wouldn’t have fees but the dump would be short on it’s obligations. So down the road when the borough resets it’s fees the fees are going to be a lot higher. To say people are going to be dumping their trash on the sides of the road because they can’t afford the dump fees. Down the road you’re going to have much higher dump fees and then the argument would be is that people can’t afford it.” Sumner said

The assembly sets the landfill fee.

“Now it’s always unpopular to set a high dump fee and that’s why we are in the situation we are in at the dump.” Sumner opined.

Dolan states that the landfill and transfer stations are prepared and have planned for such an event.

“We’ll execute whatever the assembly tells us to do.” Dolan stated.

Transfer stations do not allow commercial loads and the resolution was for non-commercial loads only.

I’m not naïve enough to believe that some commercial operators would not take advantage of the situation. In this case the good out weighs the bad. The burden on the enterprise fund is not going to be overwhelmed by allowing the free dump days. The borough is in the process of setting aside funds from the enterprise fund so they can pay for major expenses such as opening and closing cells without borrowing the money but that could take years. Right now, the assembly does have an obligation to its citizens to ease the burden from the earthquake.

There is also the public relations aspect of this situation. After taking a hit for the lack of communication immediately after the earthquake this is a golden opportunity to sway public opinion about the borough. Opening the landfill and transfer stations needs to happen sooner rather than later and at this point it doesn’t look possible until after the Dec. 18 assembly meeting. I understand McKee and Sumner’s position and can appreciate that they are looking at the financials. But the cost of the free dump days is relatively small in comparison to the overall financial picture of the landfill. Open up the landfill and transfer stations and give those who are sitting on the reminder of last Friday’s earthquake some immediate relief.