By Sadie Hunter
After nearly two hours of debate and public comment, the Noblesville Common Council at its Jan. 26 meeting passed the proposed trash fee, 6-3.
The fee will be charged on residents’ sewer bills beginning July 1 of this year, in the amount of $10.57 each month. City Attorney Mike Howard reiterated at the meeting that the monthly cost would increase 12.5 cents per month annually, as stated in the city’s trash collection contract.
As a new face on the 2016 council, Mary Sue Rowland vehemently spoke against the ordinance she said seemed rushed and not thought out.
Her comments received applause from the audience of which a majority opposed the ordinance. Wrapping up, Rowland drew comparisons between two hot-button issues in the city – parking and the trash fee – making a motion to table the ordinance and establish a task force to study city finances to further establish the need, if at all.
“That task force did the task (of finding solutions to parking issues.) They worked hard, and it’s absolutely what needs to be done,” Rowland said. “I can’t earnestly sit here and argue the right side yet. I think if we could find a way to think this all the way through, let (the public) see it. You know, they might even join in, who knows, if we can make the case, but I don’t think we’ve made the case. This issue will not go away, and it will cloud every decision that we make for the next four years, and I don’t want to be in that position. I want to be able to defend this.”
The motion died after only councilors Brian Ayer and Mark Boice chose to support it, keeping the final vote on the ordinance on the meeting’s agenda.
Thirteen Noblesville residents spoke during the public hearing – two for the fee, including former councilor Jeff Zeckel, and 11 against.
Council members were not given a chance to make statements or discuss the comments made from the public after Councilor Roy Johnson “called the question,” a parliamentary method occasionally used in government meetings to end debate and move on to voting on the issue at hand. Council President Greg O’Connor honored the call and began with the roll-call vote.
O’Connor and Johnson, along with councilors Wil Hampton, Chris Jensen, Rick Taylor and Megan Wiles voted in favor of the ordinance.
