Sullivan adopts solid waste user fee

Budget passes, job losses reduced

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY - It appeared for a few moments that the user fee to pay for Sullivan County's solid waste system was going to be scuttled when lawmakers learned that owners of habitable buildings could opt out of the system. Lawmaker Leni Binder said that fact could undermine the entire program.

But county attorney Sam Yasgur said that to get out of paying the levied waste fee a building owner would have to prove that none of the garbage generated went to any part of the county system, including the recycling center. This might have to be documented over the course of a year or so, depending on the rules of the grievance system the lawmakers set up.

In a related development, the county may be facing a lawsuit over the hiring of a private hauler to take the county's solid waste out of the county. As a result of closing the landfill and hiring a private company to operate the transfer stations, several county workers will lose their jobs.

Todd Diorio, a manager of the union that represents the workers, said at a meeting at the government center on December 17 that their contracts prevent the county from privatizing any county functions if it results in job losses, and he believed the union could win a court fight.

Nevertheless, lawmakers voted six to three to adopt the user fee, with rates that were agreed upon a week earlier. Binder, David Sager and Alan Sorensen voted against the measure.

On the matter of the budget, lawmakers restored a number of positions that had been slated for elimination in the county manager's proposed budget that was presented in November.

Positions in the departments of public health services, community services and the district attorney's office were among those saved from the ax.

Instead of cutting 49 positions, the number is now about 32, including about 10 that will lose their jobs because of the closure of the landfill.

The county will pay for those positions by increasing the property tax from about 5.2 percent to 5.84 percent. The county also increased the amount of money it projected to be raised by sales tax by $90,000.

The restored jobs did not do much to soothe some angry county employees and others who spoke at the meeting and accused the county government of being top heavy with managers. Several speakers said low-level workers were being fired, while managers were being retained in a system where there were too many chiefs.

Legislator Kathy LaBuda agreed with that charge, saying she could not vote for a budget that sacrifices lower-wage workers, "to save the top of the pyramid." Frank Armstrong, Sager and Sorensen also voted against the 2010 budget.