Compton : Trash Rate Hike Put Off; Intent of Waiver Debated

A decision on whether to raise the rates for residential garbage collection has been postponed for three weeks by the Compton City Council.

The city’s garbage contractor, Murcole Inc., wants to raise rates from $10.42 to $12.20 per month, a 17% jump. The city staff is recommending that the rate be raised to only $11.01 per month, a 5.7% increase.

However, there is still the problem of a retroactive payment. Murcole agreed 18 months ago to waive any request for a rate hike in exchange for a six-month contract extension. Now the city and Murcole disagree on what exactly was waived.

Murcole says it waived just the revenue from a rate hike for six months but that it always planned to make up the money in a larger rate hike later. The city staff says it thought the agreement was to waive both the revenue and the rate hike. Now the staff is recommending a one-time, retroactive payment of $5.31 per household in order to make up the money to Murcole.