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Resident urges higher county tipping fees and another urges city-run sidewalk maintenance
Summary
In public comment to the council committee, Carrie Davis urged passage of a resolution to raise county tipping fees—saying Cincinnati may miss roughly $2.5 million annually—and alleged two county committee members received campaign contributions from Rumpke; Ben Longgartner asked the city to treat sidewalks as public infrastructure with an assessment model.
Two public commenters raised separate but policy-relevant items during the committee's public comment period.
Carrie Davis spoke by Zoom and asked the committee to support raising tipping fees charged to out-of-county haulers, saying the city is missing about $2,500,000 annually that could be used for litter patrols, illegal-dumping response, code enforcement and pollution controls. Davis said the city sits on the county committee that sets those fees and alleged two committee members blocking increases had accepted campaign contributions from Rumpke, the local waste-hauling company. She asked this committee to pass a resolution supporting higher tipping fees, reestablish a siding committee and restore a rules committee to oversee the matter. The committee thanked Davis and noted the issue is handled at the county level.
Separately, Ben Longgartner urged the council to change how sidewalk maintenance is handled. He said current practice places primary financial responsibility on adjacent landowners, which he called inequitable and a contributor to worse sidewalks in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Longgartner proposed a model similar to Cincinnati's street tree program: assess property owners by frontage, collect funds, and have the city manage installation and maintenance so sidewalks are treated as public infrastructure rather than a strictly private responsibility.
The committee did not take formal action on either request at this meeting; staff acknowledged the county-level jurisdiction for tipping fees and thanked the speakers for their input.
