Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman spent a majority of Tuesday’s board meeting defending the city’s sanitation department and municipal court system as aldermen beat back Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn-led discussions scrutinizing the entities.
Wynn attempted to start a process that could have led to Starkville Sanitation and Environmental Service’s privatization, but aldermen voted 4-3 against initiating a request for proposals from private corporations.
Additionally, the board voted to close debate — a rarely used point of procedure requiring a two-thirds majority — on Starkville Municipal Court after Wynn admonished Court Administrator Tony Rook at length for perceived shortcomings in the department’s old fine collections.
Wynn offered no explanation at the table as to why she wanted to initiate a RFP process besides allowing aldermen to “explore their options.”
When pressed repeatedly for specifics by Ward 1 Ben Carver, she offered a no comment.
Her motion asked that responders to the RFP specifically take over the city’s garbage fleet and pay back any debt remaining from equipment purchases.
Wiseman was critical of Wynn’s proposal since the department’s commercial garbage collection service provides Starkville an annual surplus of $485,245, which in turn subsidizes the cost of residential services.
After polling cities that outsource sanitation services, Wiseman said he determined residents in those towns on average pay $13.46 per month for residential pick-up and rubbish services. Comparatively, Starkville residents pay $8.52 monthly for the same services. Additional fees to float recycling and other costs raise the monthly rate to more than $15.
Although those cities have privatized garbage collection, Wiseman said most maintain staff — and its associated costs — for large scale rubbish collections.
The mayor then scrutinized Wynn’s proposal because of how it could impact the morale of 45 employees within the department.
“I want you to make no mistake about it: It’s not no harm to issue an RFP. You’re going to start a process for the next six to eight weeks where those 45 workers are not going to know if they’re going have a job in the future. The uncertainty of not knowing whether your work life is about to be dramatically altered is an extremely disrupting experience in your life. To put a finer point on that, that’s roughly one in every six employees for the city of Starkville that’s going to have that experience,” Wiseman said. “If we were hemorrhaging funds or facing some severe operational deficiencies or crises, then we might be forced to issue such an RFP. The story to me is quite contrary. I believe we have something really to be proud of.”
After Wynn stonewalled Carver for answers on why she moved the proposal forward, the Ward 1 alderman said the city should not penalize workers for policy decisions — past rate increases — approved at the board table.
“I feel that the sanitation department is operating now better than ever, probably because of the rate increases we passed on to the residents in order for it to be efficient and effective. I’m not going to support this tonight, and I really don’t know why we’re starting this discussion. I don’t know what it is, I can’t understand what it is and I couldn’t get an answer,” Carver said. “We talk a lot about morale a lot with the police department and the fire department. I consider (sanitation employees) family, and I went to high school with a few of them.”
The uncertainty created by Wynn’s proposal could cause some employees to begin looking for new jobs, said Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn.
“When I saw this (on the agenda), my heart hurt. How do you think they feel? These people have families, just like me,” he said. “The first thing they’re going to start thinking is ‘I need to start looking for another job.’ We’re going to lose some good employees because we’re experimenting with their lives and families. I won’t be surprised if some of them are already looking.”
Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard supported Wynn’s motion as a way for the city to find out where it stands when compared to private competition, and Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins also voted in favor of the RFP process.
Maynard previously suggested the city execute a similar RFP last year before aldermen increased monthly residential and small business collection rates, and instituted a first ever charge for recycling pick-ups.
The board also increased the frequency of recycling collections, moving the service to once a week instead of once every other week, but the city’s policy of providing free garbage bags for residents survived.
Additional funds were needed then to shore up the sanitation’s departments revenues ahead of expected equipment replacements.
Rook: City owed $1.9M in delinquent fines
Wynn also spent about 30 minutes Tuesday grilling Rook over the city’s growing amount of uncollected fines and his department’s lack of using a contracted collection agency and its past use of two non-contracted agencies.
The first-term alderman took issue with the $1.9 million in outstanding fines owed to the city, but Wiseman said that amount represents fees that have been on the books for decades.
Rook also said many other cities across the nation are facing similar problems, as many late penalties are owed by people who are indigent, unemployed, living on a fixed income, living on disability or who are simply criminals who refuse to pay for their past transgressions or are in prison.
Even if the full amount is paid, Starkville would pass a portion of the amount to the state for its own assessments and fees.
The specific amount Starkville could receive in late fines — the total excluding what would be sent to the state — was unavailable Tuesday.
Starkville entered into an agreement in 2010 with the Texas-based American Municipal Services for delinquent court fine and assessment collection services. Under the agreement, the court system would refer uncollected fines and assessments to AMS, and the company would “use their best efforts” — tracking down defendants, mailing letters and placing phone calls — to secure the money.
In return, the defendant’s fine would increase by 25 percent, and that amount would go to AMS.
Wynn hammered the court administrator for the department’s failure to submit delinquent accounts to AMS, saying the last time it submitted files to the company was in 2011.
Instead, the department has more frequently used Court Programs and Court Care — two probationary groups that do not collect fines but instead monitor payments — which, Wynn said, syphon money away from the city.
Even though the practice of using the non-contracted companies began under former Municipal Judge William Eshee near the turn of the century and was continued by current Judge Rodney Faver, Wynn said even a person “selling Q-Tips on Main Street” would need a contract with the city.
“At a glance, she makes it sound like we’re doing nothing — like there’s $1.9 million there we can grab, but we haven’t decided to grab it. We’re constantly collecting on that amount. We estimate 50 percent of individuals (assessed court fines) don’t have the means or ability to pay. If you check with any criminal court … you’ll find this is very, very common. Every court struggles with this issue,” Rook said after Wynn told him to take a seat. “AMS over a year collected approximately $20,000 for us. To put that into perspective, this past year one probation company that monitors collections brought in 10 times that amount.”
Rook also said he personally evaluates cases before sending them to the collection agency. Adding an additional 25 percent to fines is unfair, he said, to those making a good faith attempt at paying their bills.
“(Faver) decided … the probation companies are not only more productive, but they’re also a more efficient use of manpower. We do everything we can to hold these individuals accountable,” Rook said. “Some have real problems. If we really believe they’re doing what they can to satisfy that debt to the city, do you want to tack on another 25 percent when they’re struggling?”
Wiseman again defended city staff members and challenged board members to find another group “that gets into the tedious details of running a court program with the tenacity they do.”
He also applauded the court’s usage of probation as a way to avoid immediately incarcerating defendants who cannot pay the full amount of fines at the moment of their convictions.
“The contract has very specific language (stating) the court may, at its discretion, use the collection agency. The judge himself was personally involved in drafting that contract as it is, and it was drafted to give the court broad discretion to utilize the collection agency as one of many tools to collect all fines,” he said.
The agenda item authorized by Wynn alluded to a discussions on an amended AMS contract, but no contract emerged after six aldermen voted to move to the next matter of business.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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