LAWTON – The city intends to hire two new code enforcement officers (CEOs) who will identify non-compliant bulk waste “or junk and debris” piled in yards and at curbs throughout town.
To finance the new positions, the City Council approved an ordinance June 11 that alters the apportionment of landfill gate fees.
While looking for a revenue source “to help fund” two new CEOs, city staff “decided the best source was to utilize a por tion of the landfill gate fees,” Community Services Director Charlotte Brown told the council.
Three-fifths of the landfill gate fee will be placed into an account to help finance the two new hires. One-fifth of the fee will remain in each council member’s account “to use in their respective wards for improving infrastructure” or for collection of bulk solid waste at properties that “do not have active utility accounts.”
The remaining onefifth will underwrite litter abatement operations required by the state Department of Environmental Quality “on and adjacent to the landfill and along the primary routes” that are used to haul garbage and solid waste to the landfill south of town.
The new CEOs “will be primarily looking for non-compliant bulk waste or junk or debris at the curbs,” city records indicate. One CEO will “work the west side of town” and the other “will be on the east side,” City Manager John Ratliff told Southwest Ledger. Violations they find will be reported to the Public Works Department’s Solid Waste Division, for abatement, he said.
The city’s half-dozen other code enforcement officers are assigned to abatement of weeds, grass, and dilapidated structures, and will continue to ensure that “coverage continues across town,” Ms. Brown said.
Currently the City Code splits the proceeds from landfill gate fees by allocating three-quarters to litter abatement operations and one-quarter to the “ward funds” for each of the city eight City Council members.
The landfill gate fee is $3.45 per load.
Thus, the current revenue division is $2.30 to litter abatement and $1.15 to the ward funds. The new split will be $2.07 to the landfill gate fee account for the new code enforcement officers, 69 cents for ward funds and 69 cents for litter abatement.
The City of Lawton receives approximately $150,000 per year from landfill fees, City Manager John Ratliff said.
So, approximately $112,500 is allocated for litter abatement and the remaining $37,500 is divided among the eight council members ($4,687.50 apiece) for infrastructure improvements or for collection of non-compliant bulk solid waste and debris in their wards.
Under the new allocation, approximately $90,000 will pay for the two new code enforcement officers, $30,000 will be earmarked for litter abatement around the city dump and on routes to the landfill, and the $30,000 balance will be split among the eight wards ($3,750 each) for beautification and junk/ debris abatement.
Ward 5 Councilman Allan Hampton voted against the landfill gate fee revision. “We’re tearing down a lot of dilapidated properties in my ward,” he noted. But many times, after those buildings are razed and the lots are cleared, “people are dumping trash on them,” Hampton said. “We need to f ind a remedy to this problem.”