Public hearing held on grant allocations

By Karolyn Gephart
A Public Hearing  was held prior to the regularly scheduled City Council meeting October 12, 2020  on the first of two public hearings and opening of the public comment period on Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocations from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding the FY 2021 Annual CDBG Allocation – $428,160; FY 2021 CDBG-CV1 – $251,873 (COVID-19 04/02/2020 Stimulus); and FY 2021 CDBG-CV3 Part A – $443,583 (COVID-19 09/11/2020 Stimulus).
In Council action, a resolution failed with all Council members voting against the request from Waste Management to increase the residential customer base rate to $17.75 for solid waste collection services, effective November 1, 2020.
The company whose contract allows them to ask for increases if the workload increases reported that during the pandemic there has been additional amounts of trash pickup as well as recycling.
Council felt it was not a good time to give a business more money due to the pandemic causing them to have increased work.
Councilmember Tony Carbone asked the other Council members, “How do you look a citizen in the eyes if you vote for this?”  The resolution failed.
In other new business the Council gave input and discussed selecting a solid waste collection option, establishing solid waste franchise fee amounts and reviewing  recommended vendor based on the results of the Solid Waste RFP with Council.
Frontier Waste Solutions was discussed and representatives from the company were at the online meeting to answer questions. The company serves over 125,000 residential customers in Texas. Council asked the representatives questions about their experience with starting service and operating in cities as large or larger than Pearland.
In other business, all resolutions and ordinances on the New Business agenda other than the Resolution No. R2020-177 regarding Waste Management increase were approved by Council.