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City treasurer flags overtime and sanitation shortfalls; recommends rate adjustments
Summary
Helena-West Helena’s treasurer presented month-to-month overtime reductions but said the city still faces a $21,000 month-to-month savings gap and operating deficits in commercial sanitation, recommending phased rate increases and further review of sanitation routes.
The Helena-West Helena City treasurer reported Tuesday that citywide overtime dropped from about $62,000 in April to $40,000 in May — a roughly $21,000 reduction — but said the total remains above targeted levels and that structural problems in sanitation and landfill revenue persist.
The nut graf: The treasurer told the council that while overtime fell across nearly every department, the city is still running a deficit in sanitation operations and collecting below-cost fees for commercial waste customers; staff recommended raising landfill tonnage and sanitation pickup fees and revising commercial rates with advance notice to neighboring jurisdictions.
In a detailed presentation, the treasurer broke down overtime by department: administration, police, fire, landfill, legal, sanitation and streets all showed month-to-month decreases, with sanitation overtime falling roughly 75 percent month to month and the police department dropping approximately 22 percent. Even so, the aggregated reduction represented only about a 34 percent decline overall and the treasurer said more monitoring is required.
On sanitation, the treasurer said the current household sanitation fee structure provides only a modest per-pickup contribution (about $3.28 per weekly pickup under current rates) and that the city’s commercial container charges are markedly below regional competitors, producing operating losses on several container sizes. The treasurer presented a proposed schedule that would raise residential and commercial rates in stages — examples in the report showed possible monthly residential totals of $33 to $38 under revised scenarios — and recommended increasing landfill tonnage charges (the presentation used a $48/ton planning figure) that would take effect with notice to other communities.
The presentation included route-mapping work to rebalance three sanitation routes (Route 1–3) to even out workload and noted equipment constraints — the city currently operates a single grapple/knuckle-boom truck while a second unit is in for repairs — as a driver of overtime. The treasurer said planned changes aim to recover the per-pickup cost (the report estimated an all-in pick-up cost at roughly $17.25 under current assumptions) and to move the sanitation operation out of the red.
Council members asked for more detail on specific commercial accounts and asked staff to return with formulas and supporting spreadsheets so councilors could verify the recommendations. The treasurer said franchise authority allows the city to require in-city commercial waste customers to use the municipal service and that disparities in past administrations have produced inconsistent charges for similar-sized customers.
What’s next: Staff recommended a follow-up meeting to review the revenue simulations, proposed effective dates, and a timetable for notifying commercial customers and neighboring jurisdictions of landfill tonnage rate changes; councilors were advised that any new rates would need calendar lead time so external customers can plan budgets.
