Solid Waste seeks one-time $3.1M transfer-station upgrades, proposes modest cart and environmental fee increases

Josephine Valencia, director of Solid Waste, briefed council on the department's FY27 proposal and recent storm-response operations. Valencia said crews working extended hours collected over 11,000,000 pounds of brush during an 11-day period and completed a first sweep of priority areas, with a second sweep underway. "So far in the past 11 days, we have picked up over 11,000,000 pounds of brush," she said.

Valencia proposed three initiatives for FY27: a customer growth initiative to add drivers and one truck (estimated $661,000 for 3,500 new customers), a one-time $3.1 million capital package of utilities, pavement and scales to open the transfer station to private (large) haulers, and rate changes including a $0.75 increase per cart and a $0.25 increase to the citywide environmental fee. She clarified the cart fee applies only to curbside single-family service billed on CPS accounts, while the environmental fee applies to all customers (businesses, apartments and residents) and funds citywide services like illegal-dumping response.

Valencia said the transfer station renovation would allow private waste haulers to use the facility and could be a revenue generator for the city by increasing throughput, but she noted the public opening would be oriented toward large private haulers rather than individual residents. Councilmembers pressed staff on comparative rates with other Texas cities, abandoned shopping-cart tracking, and the potential impact of increased waste-hauler permit fees; staff committed to follow-up data and comparative slides.