Shep Garner offers City Government help in cutting cost

Chester GOP Chairman Questions City’s Decision to Eliminate Twice a Week Trash Pickup 

Chester, PA − Shep Garner, Chairman of the Chester Republican Party released the following Letter to the Editor regarding the City of Chester’s recent decision to eliminate twice a week trash pickup for the 2013 summer season:

The City of Chester Council recently confirmed that they have eliminated the decades-long practice of picking up residential garbage twice a week during summer months.  When questioned as to why Council made the decision to cut back on such an essential public service that Chester residents have relied upon for so long, Council conveniently crafted a rather misleading response that suggested the decision was somehow out of their hands.  Councilwoman Portia West, who heads the Department of Streets & Highways, publicly stated that she also preferred twice a week pickup, but it proved to be too costly because of the city’s status as an Act 47 distressed community.   I’m sure the Councilwoman fully understands that Chester has been an Act 47 community since 1996 and during this entire time, for the last 17 years, we have always had twice a week pickup in the City.  Since the City has had twice a week pickup for as long as I can remember, the Councilwoman is misleading Chester residents to suggest that all of a sudden “the city is keeping in line with the law” and somehow was forced to reduce to once a week pickup by the mysterious forces of Act 47.

When I was on Council as the Director of Accounts and Finance, I can tell you I became quite familiar with Act 47 and I can tell you what it does, and does not, require.  Act 47 may make recommendations as to how the City can reduce costs but it is ultimately up to the Mayor and Council as to how they do that.  Act 47 does not have veto power over City Council’s decisions.  It was City Council’s decision at the end of 2012 when they put together the garbage bid specifications and asked vendors to bid on once a week pickup.  It was Council’s subsequent decision to then award a three year contract to a vendor which contractually only required once a week pickup.  At that time, Councilwoman West publicly stated how much money the City was saving in awarding this contract while conveniently failing to mention that Chester residents were going to see a significant reduction in service with the elimination of a second weekly trash pickup during the summer.  Council then made the conscious decision to adopt the 2013 budget knowing full well that they had already decided to go to once a week trash pickup.   I should note that Council also made the decision to conveniently keep the $130 garbage fee that homeowner’s pay at the same rate for 2013 while knowing they were going to reduce this service all along.  It was Council’s decision, once the public caught wind of their efforts to reduce this critical service, to then scramble to put out for bid a second weekly pickup only to then decide that they couldn’t afford to do so because of Act 47. 

Councilwoman West and the rest of City Council should just admit to Chester residents that they made a serious mistake in their decision to go to once a week pick up instead of blaming Act 47.  Council should have looked at cutting costs in a number of other areas prior to adopting the 2013 City budget before deciding to cut such an essential public service as trash pickup.  I’d be happy to make a number of recommendations and suggestions in cutting costs if Council and their allegedly transparent government would simply provide a copy of their financial expenditure reports over the last year.  However, a recently filed Right To Know request asking for a report comparing last year’s expenditures to the 2012 budget was denied because it somehow doesn’t even exist.  I find it hard to believe that such a basic financial report doesn’t exist, so the City administration is either inept or they have something to hide and are not really interested in being transparent at all. 

It seems to me that the all-Democratic City Council has developed quite the track record over their first year and a half in office.  Unfortunately, this track record seems to be one of a series of missteps, mistakes, blunders, lawsuits, bickering, bad decisions, and a lack of any true visible progress.  City Council’s decision making is obviously questionable; in fact, I could say it outright stinks – just like the stench that will surely hang over the City during the long hot summer with once a week trash pickup.

Didn't I almost say the same thing about Act 47?

Click HERE for that post