Rockville trash vote overturned

City residents to get weekly pickup as new council reverses decision of former one after a month on the job

Twice-weekly advocates on the council and residents speaking during the Citizen’s Forum portion of the meeting objected to the rapid pace of the decision that will overturn Rockville’s long-standing frequency of service.

Councilwoman Anne M. Robbins said she was disappointed by the timing of the vote, coming around the holiday season when many residents are not paying close attention to the actions of City Hall.

‘‘I would have preferred that this issue, which is so divisive, would be brought up in January when we would have a real opportunity to inform our citizens,” said Robbins, who unsuccessfully called for a public hearing.

Councilman Piotr Gajewski disagreed with the argument that the council is rushing to action. The issue has been discussed and debated for two years, he said.

‘‘I don’t think we’re in a hurry at all,” Gajewski said. ‘‘We listened to the citizens.”

The vote, which was opposed by Robbins and Councilwoman Phyllis R. Marcuccio, means the city will now move forward with a phased rollout of weekly service. The first part of the city will go off the twice-weekly schedule in October 2008, according to city staff. Before then, the Hungerford neighborhood, which participated in a pilot program that tested weekly service, will shift — once again — to the weekly service.

The change to weekly service preserves the rest of the planned system alterations approved by the previous council. The city will still move to single-stream recycling, meaning residents will be able to use a single container for their recycling material.

Semi-automated curbside refuse collection will replace the manual system that allowed for side-yard and back-yard pickup currently in place.

Marcuccio, who participated in the pilot program, echoed other residents’ objections to weekly service. The trash in her weekly receptacle ‘‘stinks to high heaven” in the summertime, she said during the council meeting.

‘‘Just to go to once a week is not lowering the price,” she added. ‘‘I hope people understand that. It’s simply lowering the rate the price will rise.”

The change in frequency is projected by staff to save the city more than $600,000 in fiscal year 2009 and more than $850,000 the following budget cycle. Those savings reflect personnel and equipment efficiencies, but do not mean the $32.70 monthly rate is going to decline.

Under the new, weekly system, the rate is projected to remain flat until fiscal year 2012, when it is expected to increase by a nickel. According to a staff briefing that preceded the vote, the twice-weekly service would cost residents $40.70 a month by the same year, or about $100 more per year.

During the Monday discussion, Gajewski pointed to the November election results as proof residents support weekly collection frequency.

The defeat of Councilman Robert E. Dorsey, a biweekly supporter, and the election of two new weekly advocates, Gajewski and John B. Britton, has given new Mayor Susan R. Hoffmann the votes to reverse the previous council’s decision for twice-weekly collection.

In Rockville, Hoffmann has said in an interview, you only have to count to three.

During the Monday meeting, the new mayor promised the new refuse and recycling program would be rolled out carefully, with an emphasis on public education.

Since being elected mayor, Hoffmann has repeatedly promised to move the city beyond the refuse fight, which publicly divided and stalled the previous council upon which she served.

‘‘I don’t expect there will be blood in the streets over this,” she said before the vote was taken.

The city staff plans to switch the Hungerford neighborhood, which served as a pilot study area for weekly refuse collection, back to weekly service after a 30-day notification period.

The pilot residents had vocally opposed the recent shift from weekly to twice-weekly service.

Since then, few have been putting their trash out on the second day of the week. In three counts conducted this fall, no more than 9.3 percent of the Hungerford homes were using their second collection day, according to a staff report.

Included in the council vote is a clause directing staff to ensure no homes go without trash or recycling service during holiday weeks.

In related votes, the council also directed staff to return with language disbanding the refuse and recycling commission. The commission was criticized by some city politicians as having been created as political cover for the twice-weekly majority that served on the previous council.

No appointments had been made to the commission.

The council also directed staff to return with language to replace the commission with a temporary task force. The task force would assist in establishing the new weekly refuse program.

Like the debate itself, reactions to the end of twice-weekly refuse service were mixed after the meeting. Marcuccio and Robbins both expressed disappointment, but promised to uphold the will of the majority.

On the other side of the coin, Hoffmann, who went through the prolonged refuse debates as a councilwoman, was jubilant, dancing a jig in the lobby of City Hall as she left.