Sedgwick County reviews new solid-waste fee tiers after resident, city questions

Sedgwick County staff on Tuesday reviewed a redesigned solid-waste fee schedule that takes effect with tax bills this year and funds household hazardous-waste (HHW) services, e-waste and tire collection events, illegal-dump response and other programs. County staff and the commission’s solid-waste committee said the fee is assessed per parcel and was re-tiered to reflect current waste-generation patterns rather than classifications in place in 1999.

The briefing matters because the fee pays for services that are not property-tax supported and because the new per-parcel bills produced a noticeable number of inquiries after the county mailed tax notices. County staff said the committee created new tiers tied to estimated tons of waste generated and to program usage, and that the fee revenue is intended to make the solid-waste program revenue-neutral.

Susan, the committee presenter, said the county developed tiered base rates for nonresidential parcels and added new units for high-density residential properties such as apartments and hotels. "For the tiers ... tier 5 is over 1,500 tons of waste a year. Tier 4, 500 to 1,500. Tier 3, 101 to 500," she said, describing the thresholds that determine higher charges for larger waste generators. Susan and committee members told commissioners the county used a sampling study with haulers to estimate tons generated by different categories and that sample sites ranged from 12 tons a year to more than 1,800 tons a year for certain properties.

Staff reviewed the programs paid by the fee, including an expansion of the county’s HHW facility, transfer-station inspections, five remote HHW collection events per year, five electronic-waste events, tire-collection events, a bulky-waste coupon program and illegal-dump response. Susan said the county has collected millions of pounds of materials through those programs since they began: "In the years that the facility has been opened, we have collected over 24,000,000 pounds of household hazardous waste," she said, and staff also reported roughly 2,900,000 pounds of electronics collected across five events and about 300,000 tire equivalents from eight tire events. (Numbers presented at the briefing were stated by staff; the county did not provide a separate written table in the meeting packet.)

Commissioners pressed staff on several equity and implementation issues. Commissioner Meister and others noted that the fee is assessed per parcel, which can produce multiple bills for a single property owner whose development spans several parcels; Susan said combining parcels through a title company can reduce future bills. Ron, identified at the meeting as the chief deputy appraiser, said combining parcels would reduce the number of notices and that, "we would adjust the fees to adjust the budgetary needs for the department," meaning the fee schedule would be recalculated if the tax base changed.

Several commissioners asked why some city parks are classified in the same LBCS (Land-Based Classification Standard) code as large venues such as Intrust Bank Arena. Susan and staff said the LBCS codes group similar economic functions; one code can cover both small neighborhood parks and large recreational venues. Staff acknowledged the grouping is broad and said a more detailed reclassification across the county’s full set of 228 codes would be required to split specific park types into a different tier.

Commissioners also asked whether government-owned parcels could be waived. Staff pointed to language in the county’s June resolution establishing the schedule of fees that contains a provision allowing waivers for government-owned property, but said the resolution’s language is unclear on who decides and under what conditions. Staff cautioned that wholesale waivers for local government parcels would raise equity and administrative concerns.

County staff said the number of contacts about the mailed tax notices was small relative to the number of notices sent: staff reported 261,077 tax notices were mailed and that 37 property owners had contacted the county about the solid-waste fee. Staff urged expanded outreach (the tax bill included a QR link to the county’s solid-waste web page) and recommended the commission direct the committee to pursue any reclassification work well before the July 1 deadline for adopting the annual solid-waste plan.

No vote or formal action was taken at the staff meeting; staff asked for direction on priorities and said the solid-waste committee plans to reconvene before February to review how the new schedule is functioning and to prepare any changes for the commission to consider by the annual plan deadline.

Ending

Staff recommended increased public messaging explaining per-parcel billing, the process for combining parcels to reduce duplicate bills, and whether specific LBCS codes (notably parks) should be revisited. The commission did not adopt changes at the briefing; commissioners asked staff to return with additional analysis and communications materials.