Landlords say: Take out our trash The City Council looks at reinstating apartment house pickup By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle The Green Bay City Council heard a lot of trash talk Tuesday from landlords trying to get the city to reverse its budget decision to stop picking up their garbage. A parade of landlords asked the council to reverse its decision last November to stop picking up garbage from larger multi-unit apartment and condominium facilities. The city made the move in its budget cuts. The council had tied 6-6 in budget deliberations, with Mayor Jim Schmitt breaking the tie to impose the ban. The discussion was continuing at The News-Chronicle's deadline. Landlords said the cutting of the service meant they were paying taxes for a service they did not receive. They also mentioned safety issues with older facilities and aesthetic issues with the large dumpsters used by private waste haulers. About 50 percent of multifamily buildings had contracted with private firms before last year's decision. Ald. Chad Fradette moved to send a committee recommendation to reinstate pickup to the city's budget task force. Ald. Chris Wery agreed, saying he had voted for keeping pickup last fall but that paying park employees who were forced to take a week without pay, reinstating yard-waste pickup and reinstating community police were higher priorities. Ald. Guy Zima noted that reinstating the pickup later in the year would only cost the city $60,000 instead of the $191,000 the city cut from the budget last year. He suggested the city could make up the difference from leftover money in the 2003 budget that was not applied to the 2004 budget. Tom Schingen, president of the Apartment Association of Northeast Wisconsin, said the main services a city had to supply were police, fire and garbage pickup. He also cited dumpster safety with older buildings where the facilities were built for curb pickup. Bernie Skaletski, an owner, said it cost the city less to pick up garbage from one building than from the six or seven houses that might occupy the area. Other owners urged the city to cut what they felt were unnecessary positions from the Public Works Department. In addition, two condominium owners said they were paying individual property taxes as homeowners but weren't getting homeowner services. A resident, Sue Spurlock, said she felt the odor from the larger dumpsters was a health hazard. Speaking against adding money to resume pickup were two members of the Brown County Taxpayers Association, who urged the city not to tinker with the budget but didn't say much about garbage. "Table this and deal with it in the 2005 budget," said BCTA secretary David Nelson. Apartment owner Gary Wisneski suggested the city put a ban on new apartments for five years to allow owners to raise rents and afford new fees.