Story ideas, email me at mike.kirby1@gmail.com

Friday, November 12, 2010

Stealing at the Dump?


















DPW lacks a cash control system at the landfill





My friend Bobby and I made a couple trips to the dump last week in a borrowed van with the last of our wreckage from the move. Left over buckets, a smashed-up garbage can, cans upon cans of old latex solidified into odd works of pastel art with kitty-litter; unusable pieces of lumber, all the unmentionables that remain behind when the tag sale is over and the FREE signs don’t generate takers. At the shack we underwent the usual inspection, the attendant peering through the windows, asking nosy questions about the contents of all our mystery bags, telling us what went where.

“Ok” the attendant said, after some thought, “Twenty-two bucks.”

The attendant pulled quite a good-sized roll. Our change was counted out, and the attendant pasted a single sticker on one of our bags. Bobby, who doesn’t miss much, raised his eyebrows. Later on, when we were throwing stuff into the green dumpster, he commented what a great job the gate keepers at the dump had.

“Big money coming through here every day,” he said. “Whewee, what was that one sticker business all about?”

“It was a two dollar sticker.” I said,

“A two dollar sticker.” he said, and laughed. “What’s the system to this, anyway? “

Later on, when we came back with a second load, and the cash went into the attendants pocket and no sticker at all was pasted on our cargo, I wondered if there was a system in operation any more. In the old days, come in with a twenty dollar load and twenty stickers were torn up or marked up with a magic marker. There always has been scuttlebutt that there is stealing at the landfill, but I don’t think anyone has ever been led off in handcutffs.

Downtown at city hall you give someone two dollars, they have to make out a receipt for it. Out at our dump, commercial carters go on the scale, get weighed, and get a receipt. I’ve always felt that there is too much discretion given to gate-keepers at the dump, too much possibility of wheeling and dealing for friends. One figure for a buddy, another for someone you couldn’t stand. I talked to Debby at the Department of Public Works, and she said that the gate keeper has these “bulky cards” in $5.00 increments and she would tear four of them up for a $20.00 bulk load. I told her I never saw the attendant tear up anything, and she said, “Well, I’m sure that they were torn up after you left.” She said when things get really busy, they have to do that tearing up business later.

As I remember, it was a quiet afternoon.

No car behind me waiting. OK, chalk this up as an oversight
on the attendant's part.

Maybe the gate keeper did go back into the shack and tear up these tickets each time, and maybe they forgot about it. I plan to file a police report over the incident. The real problem is all that cash and all this discretion. My bet is that millions in cash come in this way every year. At the very least, there ought to be a book of numbered receipts for the attendants for larger loads, and the DPW should post a big sign on the shack out there just like they have at Dunkin Donuts.
CUSTOMERS SHOULD EXPECT TO GET EITHER A RECEIPT OR THE APPROPRIATE NUMBER OF STICKERS. IF THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN, CALL THE FOLLOWING NUMBER 555-5555

Or, better yet, we ought to do like Amherst does, send all large loads to the scale. Amherst, by doing this, has a computerized record that can be balanced against intake receipts.







38 comments:

  1. Hi Mike,

    Nice article but you are beating a dead horse. The DPW (solid waste coordinator Karen Bouquillin) has known about the problem for years and done nothing about it but complain that residents were "cheating" by not putting enough stickers on their bags.

    At the current sticker price of $2.00 per sticker, residents with a 30 pound trash bag are paying the equivalent of $133 per ton (twice the current tipping rate.) Most trash bags weigh less than 30 pounds since most people can't lift a 30 pound bag. Even at the old sticker price of $1.00 per bag they were collecting more than the commercial tipping rate. Granted there may be a higher "overhead" to run the drop off center on Locust street but there is also the income from recyclables that are collected there. (Curbside collected recyclables [Duseau and others] don't generate any income for the city.)

    The Northampton BPB was once presented with literature on currently available credit (and debit) readers which are portable and wireless. Lots of nodding heads but NO action. Also suggested were sticker vending machines (similar to parking "meter" stickers) but again NO action.

    Why do anything to fix or improve the system when the ultimate goal is to get rid of stickers and close the landfill. The only real interest the DPW/BPW has shown in their role as trash managers is how to spend money from the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund.

    With this track record it should be interesting to see what will happen to Northampton's trash when the landfill closes in 20 months. The newly created solid waste "Task Force" appears to be stacked with ward 6 (Marianne LeBarge cohorts) residents and others with a biased trash disposal agenda. Is this really an open minded group?

    When all is said and done, the current $2.00 bag sticker may look like a bargain.

    Keep digging,

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Stealing at the Dump?"as your headline would lead the reader to believe that the employees are untrustworthy thieves. In reality, the subject of your blog is really the system for cash accountability within the DPW. As a fourth generation tax paying resident of Northampton and small business owner in this city, I have found that if you follow the trail, it always leads to the mayor. So Mr. Kirby, why don't you approach our "great" mayor of this city who has no problem spending our tax dollars as she sees fit and ask her if she has a solution to this. Mayor Higgins did not have a problem spending the tax payers dollars to "buy" back a home at double the assessed value to appease homeowners who purchased a house near the dump and then began to complain of odors coming from that area. We all know how that turned out and with all the money spent on that one "situation", we as a city could have purchased a computer system for the DPW and continued to become more organized within the city departments. If you are looking for "accountability", start with the mayor's office and work down. Do not insinuate pilferage amongst city employees when all you had to do is simply ask for a receipt. And, I am sure that the employee would have gladly given you one with a smile.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ultimate responsibility might be the mayor's, but my impression over the years is that she lets most major departments run their show. Karen Bouquillin reports to the head of DPW, I think, and the DPW board does know about this situation, and chooses to do nothing. Yeah, I could have asked her for a receipt and probably got one, but there are no signs up there that lead you to feel that receipts are available. As far as casting aspersions, a good reading of the piece shows what the thrust of the article was. And I never filed a police report . The problem is in the system, the problem is the DPW board.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I went there yesterday and was charged $20 which I am not complaining about. It was a fair price. I paid by personal check and the gatekeeper seemed a little surprised and maybe a tad unhappy with it. Oh well, I know my money was turned in!

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