City pushes back effective date of garbage ordinance as they work out details

The effective date of the city of Selma’s new garbage ordinance has been pushed back a month while city officials work out some details.

The council voted March 8 to make the ordinance, which was to take effect in the middle of March, effective in mid-April. According to Public Works Committee Chairman Clay Carmichael, the extra month will give the committee time to meet with Mayor James Perkins Jr. and other officials to iron out some concerns that have come up since the ordinance was presented to the public.

The ordinance states that the property owner is responsible for ensuring that each dwelling or business has garbage service. But officials want to place in the ordinance that if a tenant in a rental property is paying for garbage service, the garbage bill isn’t required to shift to the property owner.

Carmichael said that the city also wants to ensure that residents on Social Security or disability who are exempted by the city from paying the garbage fee aren’t charged for garbage service by the property owner. The council also wants to make sure that there is a grace period for property owners who have a contract with another garbage vendor to transition to LDI, the city’s garbage vendor. “We’ve made it clear we don’t want the city to be responsible for anyone breaking a contract,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael if the council and city officials can work out these details quickly, the council could vote to make the garbage ordinance effective sooner than mid-April.

In other business, the city council approved an ordinance that will allow Dallas County to collect property taxes on the city’s behalf, as is standard practice in Alabama. The city had been collecting its own property taxes. The county will keep 1% of the collected taxes as compensation.