By GENE COLEMAN

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — Adams County has more than $1 million in delinquent garbage collection fees outstanding from county residents who refuse to, or cannot pay, their bills, county officials said.

The monthly garbage pickup fee for Adams County residents is currently $15 per household per month and more than 20 residents owe $4,000 or more in delinquent payments, some dating back to the 1980s, said Adams County Administrator Joe Murray.

The problem has plagued the county for decades, Adams County Board of Supervisors Attorney Scott Slover said, ever since state law mandated that counties provide garbage collection services for residents.

Further complicating the garbage service provided by the county is that counties, unlike municipalities cannot easily tack the garbage collection fees on to water bills, Murray said.

“We have a number of different water associations,” Murray said. “The company could contract to collect, but they have no authority to cut off the water without agreement of the customer, and who is going to agree to that? It just doesn’t work.”

Remedy

Last month, the county agreed to direct Slover to proceed with filing legal cases against individuals who have not paid their garbage fees.

Slover said he believes the county’s collection process would be more efficient than a collection agency, which has not so far been effective, because it will not carry extra filing and processing fees.

Slover said the county was successful in collecting overdue property taxes in a similar manner in recent years.

“It was about $300,000 to $400,000 last year in personal property taxes, and we were able to recover it,” Slover said. “It took two or three weeks to get in contact (with overdue individuals) and some had to make a plan for payback.”

Slover said he has begun the legal process by calling and emailing people who are behind on their county garbage collection fees to let them know the county will take them to court if necessary to collect the fees.

Slover said he started the process by notifying people who owe the most in back fees first and is working his way through the list.

“There are people who know they owe this money and want to push our hand to make them pay it with a lawsuit,” Murray said. “We can’t do all of it at once, but we’re going to whittle it down one by one. We’re bringing them to court. Time’s up.”

Murray said people who owe more than $3,500 will be processed through county court and people who owe less than $3,500 will be processed through justice court.

Other methods

In 2016, Adams County Supervisors considered adding garbage collection fees to county property owners’ ad valorem taxes.

Supervisors, however, backed down after several owners of large properties in the county complained that such a levy would affect them more than smaller property owners and some of the owners of larger properties do not generate garbage since the land is vacant.

Therefore, instead of an enacting an ad valorem tax increase in 2016, supervisors opted to raise the garbage collection fees from $13 to $15 per month per household and the outstanding debt from customers remains a problem.

Murray said the county’s annual sanitation budget is $980,000, which mostly accounts for use of disposal sites and pursuing overdue fees, and the unpaid fees force the county to draw from other funds to cover the cost of garbage collection services, which state law requires the county to provide.

Tougher measures

Adams County Board of Supervisors President Calvin Butler said he likes the idea of adding the garbage collection fees to a tax rate, if it could be done without putting extra burden on large land owners.

“I think it has the potential to be good, but not if it penalized the people who were caught up in it (in 2016),” Butler said. “I would have to see how it was formulated and structured.”

District 1 Supervisor Mike Lazarus said while he believes the ad valorem increase considered in 2016 would not have been fair to owners of large plots of land, he said he believes a special assessment — a tax levy just for garbage collection — might be a good option for garbage collection fees in the county.

“We’re trying to figure out if a special assessment could be done to make it fair,” Lazarus said.

Meanwhile, Lazarus said he believes the county’s current collection process through the courts is a good idea.

“We’ve got to collect this money,” Lazarus said. “Some people will pay it, but they won’t pay it until they are made to.”

While the county can block people, who are not current on their garbage collection fees, from being able to renew their car tags, that has not been effective, Murray said, noting that many of the delinquent residents go out of county to purchase a tag.

Another option

State law 19-5-21 of the Mississippi Code restricts how counties may collect fees and supervisors say a change in wording could allow the county to put more teeth into the law by allowing them to put a lien on people’s property.

That, however, would take legislative action.

Sen. Bob Dearing, D-Natchez, said he is not aware of any current discussion in the Legislature regarding a change in counties’ garbage fee collection processes. Regardless, Dearing said, allowing liens related to garbage fee collections seems excessive and “wouldn’t be very popular.”

“If I were a county resident, and I was not paying my garbage fee, there’s got to be a reason other than dollars and cents, and they should probably meet with their supervisors to discuss it,” Dearing said.

Meanwhile, county officials say they will continue with the collection process that is currently underway.

Murray said partial payments would be accepted but that automobile tags would still be withheld and legal action would still be pursued until the bill is paid in full.

Slover said anyone who wants to pay back the amounts due could avoid court costs by contacting him at 601-442-0075 or by calling the Adams County Sanitation Department at 601-445-7903.