Marthasville aldermen, who say they were unaware that a trash hauling contract they approved in April gives each of them personally an extra trash cart that they don’t have to pay for, are now looking to revise the agreement.
Alderman Chris DeVore brought the matter up after initially noting that Grace Hauling, the city’s new trash hauler, delivered incorrect numbers of trash bins to some Marthasville customers. DeVore suggested including a note with residents’ next bill to contact the city if they’ve received the wrong number of carts.
Mayor David Lange noted that residents are charged $5 per month per extra cart they request. DeVore suggested the city might want to keep track of how many carts each home receives, to ensure the amounts are correct and the city isn’t being overcharged.
DeVore then said he had heard a comment “that at some time in the past, that the board of aldermen and mayor and the employees were receiving some sort of special discounted rate on trash service.”
If the Board of Aldermen ever “discussed and voted on any sort of special rate that the employees and the city council gets, that is the exact definition of corruption, and that is one of the main purposes why I’m here, is to make sure that stuff like that does not happen,” he said.
“Why that was told to the citizens, that we get some sort of special treatment or some sort of special rate, I don’t know why, but I want to make sure that is not the case. And if anybody else hears it, that is not the case, and I was not involved in anything like that,” DeVore added.
“Well, sorry, but that is the case, and you did vote on the contract,” Mayor Lange told DeVore.
In 2023, the city approved a contract with Meridian Hauling, Lange said, which includes trash pickup for residents, a dollar discount for senior citizens, a 40-yard rolloff dumpster any time the city requests it, as well as the extra free trash bin for each alderman and the mayor.
“They’ve got to supply an extra cart — no discount on the service, they’ve just to supply an extra cart — to each alderman and the mayor, not to the employees. I don't know where you heard employees get that,” he said.
The contract with Grace Hauling that aldermen approved in April is “the exact same” three-year contract as the city had with Meridian, Lange said, although according to previous Record reporting, Meridian’s unsuccessful bid for a renewed contract include a monthly rate of $4 for each extra trash can, rather than $5.
Meridian’s proposed base monthly fees, however, were $16.88 for the first year, $17.54 for the second year and $18.26 per month for the third year, compared to Grace’s $15.50 for the first year, $16.50 for the second year and $17.50 for the third year.
“So Grace has to supply us with a 40-yard dumpster, and they’ve got to supply the aldermen with an extra cart, and there’s no $5 a month fee. That was all part of the negotiations for them to get the contract; that’s what they bid on,” Lange said.
“If they didn’t want to supply that or do that, then they shouldn’t have bid on the contract. But that’s the contract that both companies bid on, that’s the one we voted on, passed, and signed, and it’s still the same as it was three years ago. I don’t know if you want to call that corruption.”
DeVore said the language providing a free extra cart to aldermen “was hidden in the contract and was not made aware to us clearly,” and “must be in small print that was nowhere near remotely told to us whatsoever.” He said he never would have voted in favor of the contract if he had known.
“For us to agree to get some sort of special treatment for ourselves is not right. That is morally wrong. For us to say that we should get an extra cart that we don’t have to pay for, and everybody else in town has to pay that $5 for that extra cart, is absolutely wrong.”
Lange said the Grace contract also allows the city to request any number of trash carts at city facilities at no extra charge. DeVore said he understands why the city would negotiate a special trash pickup arrangement, not available to individual residents, for city facilities. “But for the individuals that are on the board to vote in something that they get something individually themselves, that is morally wrong,” he said.
The other three aldermen said they agreed with DeVore.
“I wasn’t aware that that was in there, but if I would have been aware, I certainly would have been opposed, because I agree with Chris, this board of aldermen shouldn’t get any kind of special treatment,” said Alderman Leo Meyer.
Alderman Nick Lange asked City Attorney Mark Piontek to review the Grace contract and look into revising it to remove the section on free extra trash bins for aldermen.
“If that is in there, I’d like to get rid of it, because I don’t want somebody blaming me for voting on something special for me or any one of my family members, or anybody else that works for the city, that they get some sort of special rate,” DeVore said.
“We should never allow that to happen. There’s plenty of that happening all over this country, and it should never happen in Marthasville. We should never vote for anything in this room for anything special on this board. We should not be voting for things for us to be free. That’s not fair to the rest of the taxpayers in town.”
