In a message dated 8/26/2004 3:46:40 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> I think John's suggestions are viable. However, it isn't happening > because people don't care. its something the Community Councils > could do, if there was interest. > > Having worked for the City Council during the last time there was a serious effort to organize collection in Saint Paul, I'll tell you what always makes it difficult to do and why the District Council would find this next to impossible to handle. The problem is in the contracting itself. In order to get some kind of a deal from a hauler you would need some guaranteed contract. So, p eople need to be locked in. When you lock people in (city assigning routes) then they lose the option of hiring their own hauler (which some people like) and contracts for service are transferable and the fear that the contract may be sold becomes an issue. If the City assigned routes, most people in the industry believed that the two international garbage companies would buy up all of the routes and our free market system would become a monopoly. This was a potential that most felt would be a lose/lose for the city. Having the District Councils attempting to organize individual blocks would be a monumental task that would have few up sides and huge down sides for the District Council. Let's say the District Council organized your block to a hauler and the hauler was late, who would you call to complain to? Dumped garbage on your lawn? Banged the cans together at 5:30 AM? That crappy District council gave me this lame hauler what a bunch of stupid jerks! The District Council's are currently operating the stump removal program for the City. The City hasn't removed stumps from boulevards for years and instead will pay half of the cost of removal if the District Council operates a program where the homeowner pays the other half. First it has been almost impossible to find a contractor who will set a price to remove a stump site unseen, so that you can advertise a price to the homeowners and second when the contractor screws up its the District Council that the homeowner blames - like we are in the tree business! Of course most of the Districts have been willing to offer the program, despite the hassle, so that neighbors don't get hit with huge bills to have stumps removed from their boulevards... but right now, someone will pick up your garbage. So, please, don't think that the District Councils will look at this as a great opportunity to organize the community. What it would be is an opportunity to get into a lot of fights with homeowners about garbage collection. Just My Opinion Not Those Of My Employers Past Present Or Future Chuck Repke _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
