Sedona City Council recently discussed a possible trash can ordinance that would mandate when cans are allowed be on the street and when they should be returned back to their property owners.
The debate ended without a vote as council members could not decide how to craft an ordinance that would take into account the various days when trash gets picked up, nor the added cost of code enforcement officers to circulate Sedona’s streets and cite potential violators, nor whether trash cans on the street constituted enough of a problem to warrant an ordinance to deal with it.
The day after our story was published, a Sedona resident sent us photos of an alleged vacation rental’s trash can that had been put out on the street early and opened, spilling trash on the street. While the photos depict a clear mess, no address nor street name was provided, and the resident merely wrote that he contacted police, “which immediately responded,” but did not state what the resolution was.
As council did not pass an ordinance and none currently exists, the only recourse would be to contact the owner of the alleged vacation rental, which we suggested and which the resident later said he did.
It’s also not clear how mandating when trash cans can be street side would prevent a torn trash bag or an adventurous javelina pack from occasionally dumping trash onto the street.
It’s surprising council members would re-address trash-related issues again without a major demand from the public at large for action, considering how the city’s suggestion of moving to a single-hauler program died after several weeks of very public debate three years ago. In 2016, the city suggested hiring a single hauler to handle all the trash cans in city limits. One Cottonwood-based company handles the lion’s share of the city’s trash, so selecting that firm seemed like a logical choice, should the city have opened up a bidding process.
Homeowners who used one of the two other companies — one based in Flagstaff and the other in Prescott Valley — were reluctant to switch to the city’s seemingly preferred choice. The Cottonwood company also feared that, given the size of its competitors, it could lose to bigger companies in the bidding process and thus be completely cut from the Sedona market, so it sent letters to its customers asking them to oppose the city’s plan.
A city survey and subsequent public comment revealed that only a minority of residents thought moving to a single-hauler system would be an overall benefit. In the end, Sedona City Council backed away from the plan.
At least two of the companies pick up Monday morning on my street, so, by Sunday night, most of the cans are out. Some get rolled back by Monday afternoon, others may wait a day or two.
My street also includes several vacation rentals. Most renters who stay the weekend generally leave the cans out with the rest of us — I assume the vacation rental owners leave this information for their renters — but sometimes roll them out a few days early if the renters aren’t staying through pick-up day.
Other times, the renters leave the cans out Monday morning, but, if they leave Sedona that day, obviously don’t roll them back because they’re no longer here, and they sit out until the property owners or managers come to clean the vacation rentals.
None of my neighbors have told me trash cans on the street are a problem and most of us have left the cans out a few days longer than normal once or twice.
We’ve also not gotten many letters to the editor about trash can issues over the years, so we’re uncertain why this rose to an ordinance-worthy issue council decided to debate.
If the city moves to a single-hauler trash company, then an ordinance might make sense, but as there are too many variables, council should focus on issues that actually affect residents on a daily basis. If council needs ideas about what to discuss, we suggest they read our letters to the editor section and see what problems residents really want solved in the city.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
