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Monopoly on Garbage
Link: http://www.EnglewoodStory.com
From the first, Council woman Jill Wilson has decried the variety of garbage trucks crawling down Englewood's alleys each Wednesday. A Garbage monopoly the first subject out of Wilson's mouth after winning her seat on Council, but this attempt failed.
She's back at her favorite topic however, with this month's Englewood Survey. The survey is being mailed to a percentage of town residents to obtain feedback on a variety of issues, garbage trucks included.
Monopolies have always seemed innocuous to the one who is holding all the power. If they earned it, why not?
Follow up:
During March City Council meeting,2009, the Mayor discussed the kinds of questions the survey would ask, and specifically made a couple of suggestions regarding the garbage trucks.
Councilwoman Wilson pushed the envelope when she asked why the survey did not specifically ask people to vote on whether they preferred only one trash company in Englewood.
This kind of question seems innocuous because perhaps some people do feel that too many trucks are winding down their alleys on trash days.
Perhaps, this is the issue Jill had vowed to attempt to change for a friend for helping her onto council. And she is grasping the opportunity at hand.
I remember as a kid, the U.S. telephone monopoly "Ma Bell" being forced apart into 8 pieces by the Supreme Court. Many people wondered how the federal government had the right to interfere with business, but that is a key function of the feds.
The Uniform Commercial Code covers business across state boundaries, and because one company had the padlock on the industry, free trade was non-existent.
The theory implies that a monopoly has nothing to risk by raising prices or downsizing services if the customer has nowhere else to go.
Out of options, Englewood customers would have to deal with one trash company's terms, perhaps broken promises and sloppy service. Without competition, the winning trash service would have free reign to exploit their fees.
The upside of competition has the advantage of a competitive company using a price cut to win a customer. Competition represents free market, and ensures a person wanting your business will work harder or offer better service in order to get it.
Monopolies are unAmerican, Ms. Wilson. Let's throw out that trashy idea.
Click this link to the audio of the Council's discussion, (Jill makes her comments in the middle of the file): Citizen Survey Questions
Supposedly this feedback will provide direction to Council to enact more laws._________________________________________________________
2 comments
Having multiple haulers is really screwing the citizens of Englewood, because the haulers have no economic incentive to charge less or do a better job.
A good solution would be to divide the city into 4 districts, and bid out each
district. Allow the winner to pickup EVERY house in the district, and bill the service through the water bill. Having done this research, it is really clear that Englewood residents would see a big decrease in their trash pickup charge.
1) Require ALL citizens to pay the cost of trash haul. currently, some people claim they don't need it. What they actually do is put their trash in somebody else's pickup area, or haul it into denver and put it into somebody else's bin. In other words, they don't pay their costs, they expect somebody else to pay their costs, as everybody has trash. This is offensive to all of us.
Or, they fill their yard, truck, trailer with trash for a month or more at a time until they can take it to the dump. This is offensive to the neighborhood.
These people are trashy slobs and should not be allowed to do this.
2) Require all haulers to pick up large items; beds, dressers, and stuff.
Again, now what happens is Englewood residents haul it into denver and abandon it for SOMEBODY ELSE to pay for.
3) Require haulers to be responsible for damage, trash spills, etc which
occur in their district. Currently, when a hauler runs into something, or makes a mess, nobody knows who it is....because we have 3 or 4 driving through each
alley.
If you do a little research you will find that competitive district bidding
would bring the cost down to all Englewood residents, reduce the frequency of trucks through the alley, allow more services(i.e. large item pickup), and provide accountability for damage and problems.
And it would be good for the haulers because they would have all the properties in their district, and wouldn't have to drive all over the city picking up a few here and there. But they would have to get competitive and stop screwing Englewood citizens.
Of course this isn't going to happen, because City Council is afraid to tackle a real life tough problem, and doesn't want to offend their voters who want to continue to have others pay their trash haul costs.
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