CITIZENS SPEAK: Discounts in jeopardy as 1,500 residents sign petition to repeal trash ordinance

Working through 100-degree weather and daily downpours, Teresa Abraham says her team of volunteers trekked through Destin with petitions in hand, knocking on doors and asking for signatures — and it paid off.

“We now present you with not 970 signatures, but we are here to present you with 1,526 signatures,” Abraham told city leaders during Monday night’s city council meeting.

For the past month, Abraham has been working to collect the required number of signatures on a petition that would work toward repealing the city’s master service assessment ordinance passed in May that allows the city to collect resident’s trash bills as part of their property taxes.

For a play-by-play of the meeting, CLICK HERE.

Per the city’s charter, Abraham was required to have the petition signed by “qualified voters of the city, equal in number to at least 10 percent of the total number of qualified voters registered to vote at the last regular city election.”

Standing at the podium, addressing the council, Abraham told city leaders that the 1,500-plus signatures represent more than 15 percent of Destin’s registered voters and more than 12 percent of the city’s total population.

“I hope it’s finally clear that the people you work for have expressed their opinion of what they want to do on this issue,” she said. “Respectfully, we ask you to repeal it… cease and desist the city’s intent to place our garbage bill on our property tax bill.”

With the signatures now presented to interim City Manager Ken Gallander, the next step is for the names to be verified through the Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections office. The city has 20 days to have the signatures verified.

Once verified, the city can either choose to repeal the ordinance in question or they can take no action and subsequently let the citizen’s vote on the matter as a referendum. The ordinance in question will also be suspended from taking effect once the signatures are verified.

In anticipation of the verification, Councilman Dewey Destin, who has been against the city’s collection method from day one, motioned to have City Attorney Jerry Miller prepare the necessary documents to repeal the ordinance. Destin’s motion was passed unanimously.

Regardless whether the ordinance is repealed or voted down, the city remains on the hook for collecting garbage fees for Waste Management.

Councilman Jim Bagby motioned for the city to look into estimated costs for collecting resident’s trash. He suggested the city look at various companies to see what they would charge to run the collection program.

The motion passed 6-1, with Destin voting against it.

Destin said that it was unclear how the city would collect the payments. His recommendation was for the city to go back to Waste Management and ask them to collect the bills like they had previously done.

Regardless of who collects the money or how the collection is actually handled, one thing is clear; the cost of collection is going to increase.

“There are a lot of ramifications to this that people don’t think about,” Public Services Director Steve Schmidt told The Log. “A lot of the other provisions, such as the senior discount, will go away.”

If the ordinance does get repealed, Schmidt said the city would also have to face the same problems they had grappled with previously, such as residents refusing to pay their trash bills. He said instead of paying their bills, residents would just use city Dumpsters or other residents’ cans to dispose of their waste.

For now though, Schmidt said city leaders are still trying to work through the process of what happens next if the ordinance is repealed. He said more than likely they would have to go back and renegotiate with Waste Management, but the city would not be entitled to any of the discounts they would have had with the non-ad valorem special assessment collection method.