Last year, the residents of Anoka had the opportunity to vote for the City to enter into contract with a single trash hauler who would collect all of our trash.  That vote failed 4,329-4,686.

As someone who voted FOR the unified system, I was dismayed at the result, especially because I’m sure it was a result of the mountain of misinformation and outright lies spread through our mailboxes by the trash haulers association via their PAC, “Garbage Haulers for Citizen Choice.”  You can examine their contributions and expenses at https://projects.propublica.org/527-explorer/orgs/453533654.  

Those lies included the charge that our personal information would become public.  How could that be, since the City already had a unified hauling contract with ACE to pick up our recycling?  The City already handles billing for all of us for that bill, along with our power, water, and sewer.  They would have access to no more information than they already had, information that they were already keeping private.

The haulers said we weren’t voting for a proposed contract, but that was misinformation.  The City Council had passed a resolution tying adoption of the ACE contract they received to the result of the vote.  That meant that legally, our passage of the Ballot Question WAS very much voting for a proposed contract.

The haulers also said “once City Hall obtains this power, it will become almost impossible for the people to revoke it.”  Again, this was a lie.  The people passed a ballot question giving US the authority to approve or deny a unified contract.  Voting to actually approve one would not have changed that.

The haulers claimed that people wouldn’t be able to manage their pickups during times when they were away or if they had specific needs due to disability.  The City repeatedly assured us this was misinformation.

We can further see that the Garbage Haulers for Citizen Choice didn’t just rely on misinformation, they also left out key information that directly undermined their claims.

First, the proposed contract with ACE would have locked in a five-year fee (with a minimal annual increase) of approximately $17/month, saving Anoka residents as much as $2.5 million over the life of the contract.  At the time this question was on the ballot, I had already watched ACE raise my home’s rates many times.  At the end of 2022 I was paying $37.15 every two months.  In 2023 they raised it to $37.09 every two months and then to $47.02 every two months in June.  By the end of 2023 they raised my prices again to $59.64 every two months, and in August of this year they raised the rate again to $68.42 every two months.  That’s double what I would be paying under the unified contract; what would your billing look like?

Second, the haulers ignored the fact that Anoka already had a unified recycling contract with ACE that was keeping our monthly recycling fee under $5/month (it’s $5.15/monthly right now).  Did you have any complaints about the unified recycling program?  If not, that was the exact same thing the City was proposing for our trash.  ADDITIONALLY:  the haulers left out the fact that the failure of the Ballot Question would mean that we would eventually LOSE our unified recycling contract with ACE.

The argument made most often against the unified contract was that we would be giving up our choice to negotiate a better deal with a hauler of our choice.  That was misinformation!  Under the current system, individual residents have to call around to ACE, Curbside, Republic, and whoever else, hoping that one of them will undercut the others.  People said they wanted “free choice,” and the haulers echoed that.  But what was the ballot question if not OUR FREE CHOICE to enter into a five-year contract with ACE for $17/month?  At the end of that period, the City would again be able to put out a call for bids from the haulers.  Moreover, the contract included stipulations that would have triggered a new bid process if ACE had not lived up to its obligations.

The unified hauler contract would have been a win-win for the City and for all residents.

SIGN THIS PETITION if you’d like the City Council to revisit this issue and put the question before the voters once again.  Let’s all help each other out and try to save some money in this time when so many costs just keep rising!