WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. September 29, 2009: The Common Council reached a consensus Tuesday evening to reinstate curbside leaf pickup of loose, free-standing piles of leaves on the edge of the owner’s property but not in the street, once every two weeks. The reinstated much-loved curbside pickup will begin October 13 and end December 1.
Mayor Joseph Delfino asking the Council for a consensus to reinstate curbside pickup.
Residents who choose to bag their leaves will have their bags of leaves picked up beginning October 13, and enjoy that pickup once or twice a week through December 10. The cost the council agreed to spend to bring back both services to the residents: $275,000.
Responding to over 200 phone calls to city hall today alone (according to the Mayor) and hundreds of e-mails and phonecalls on the issue, all seven of the council agreed they had made a mistake requiring residents to bag leaves as the only way leaves could be collected by the city.
Councilman Tom Roach exhibiting how The Town of North Castle (Chappaqua and Vicinity) announced its leaf-bagging policy via postcard. Roach and Councilperson Malmud called a prompt mailing to explain the new policy adopted Tuesday night to White Plains residents.
Common Councilpersons Tom Roach, Rita Malmud and Dennis Power all admitted the bagging leaves policy announced in August via the city’s annual garbage collection pickup calendar, was poorly communicated to the population of the city. Consequently, they would return to the traditional curbside pickup this fall, in addition to the leaf bag method. It was not indicated that a curbside pickup of leaves would be continued next year at this time.
A mix of residents and media made for a better-attended-than-usual work session.
After the council had agreed verbally to go with the Leaf Bagging/curbside pickup mix, the Mayor said that Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti could begin the process of hiring the 17 part-time workers needed (at $10.85 an hour, according to Nicoletti) to implement the double-barreled leaf policy.
Councilman Tom Roach explained to the CitizeNetReporter after the meeting that the leafing pickup could not be privatized unless all persons doing a particular task were fired, and since union personnel used for leaf pickup also execute other sanitation tasks other than leaf pickup, this was the reason why the leaf operation could not be immediately privatized.
With Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti at the podium answering the council questions, they learned that a sum of $275,000 would enable a mixture of curbside pickup and leaf bagging pickup to be executed using 17 part-time workers.
Edward Dunphy, the city Corporation Counsel said that the city was allowed by state law to hire part-time workers without having to include medical benefits, but that the city had to pay the required share of unemployment when the 17 were let go after leaf season.
Nicoletti announced that persons on file looking for full-time positions with the DPW were not interested in coming back for the part-time jobs. Nicoletti said he had some concerns about the quality of the part-time workers he was looking at hiring, saying “They’re not the same as having full-time city workers doing the work that we are accustomed to.” He was concerned about absenteeism and part-timers sometimes starting, but not returning to the job. He said he would be attempting to hire former DPW retirees back for the part-time positions. Persons interested in working to pick up leaves partime should contact the White Plains Personnel Office at 914-422-1257.
Asked if he would look at hiring incarcerated persons for the part-time work, Nicoletti said “no,” (though WPCNR would like to point out, the county uses prisoners in the county jail to cut medians on county highways, most notably on North Street outside White Plains High School, while school is in session.)
Asked if he was confident he could “staff up” in time for leaf pickup “opening day” on October 13, Nicoletti said, “We will give it our best shot.”
Nicoletti said the new part-time staff would have to be trained, and supervised by veteran DPW personnel on their “leaf runs.”
Nicoletti advised the council that bagged leaves (using biodegradable city leaf bags, available at the price of 10 for $5 at the city dump) would be collected at least once a week and possibly twice beginning October 13. Vacuuming of leaves would take place about four times (over the 8 weeks), since, Nicoletti said it takes two weeks for the entire city to be vacuumed by the traditional curbside pickup method.
Vacuuming would cease as of December 1, in order that trucks used for leaf pickup could be converted to handle the threat of early December snowstorms, while leaves in bags would be picked up through December 10.
The legislation approving the new leaf policy, including expenditure of $275,000 from some source, will be on the agenda October 5.
Councilman Glen Hockley pointing out he had been for keeping the curbside pickup and bagging service in place from the start, said the main issue here was where the money was going to come from.
Councilman Benjamin Boykin suggested to the Mayor that the $275,000 could come from the Reserve for Financing.
That will be written in to the legislation restoring the $275,000 to the budget to pay for the additional curbside service.
WPCNR notes that the cost of the previous full-time curb pickup service and bagging was $875,000 according to Mr. Nicoletti. The cost of the present reduced service using part-timers is $275,000. Had the city supplemented with part-time persons alone for the last 12 years the Delfino Administration has been in office, the city would have saved $7,200,000, or $600,000 a year, the equivalent of 1/4% in the sales tax.
