18% Hike in Trash Pickup Fees Will Begin in Summer : Services: The council approved the increase despite the city manager’s recommendation of a much smaller boost. The new monthly rate will be $12.69 for a single-family home.

City residents will pay 18% per month more to have their garbage picked up starting this summer, making their monthly bills among the highest in the Southeast region.

The increase, which was approved by the Lynwood City Council despite a recommendation by the city manager for a much smaller increase, will bring the residential cost to $12.69 per month, up from $10.75 for a single-family residence.

The trash hauler, Western Waste Industries, got a 12% hike in 1990, and City Manager Michael Heriot presented a strong argument against the fee hike. “An increase is justified, but not at the magnitude Western Waste Industries has requested,” he wrote in a report to the council. “The disposal rate has increased, but not at the substantial rate that Western has portrayed.”

In fact, Heriot said, the recession has lowered costs, so the rate should go down.

But Mayor Louis J. Heine, who voted with council members Paul Richards II and Evelyn Wells in favor of the fee hike, defended the increase.

“We have been putting off giving this raise to them for two years,” he said in a phone interview. “They aren’t getting anything more than what they deserve.”

Heine also seemed agitated by Heriot’s report, saying: “There is always this big fight about Western Waste getting all this extra money, and it’s not true.” He said the city is getting a deal on the refuse prices, “considering what the fees will be in the future for all cities” because nearby landfill sites are becoming scarcer.

A survey of 34 Los Angeles area cities attached to Heriot’s report showed Lynwood at the top of the rate scale, and Compton a close second with a monthly fee of $12.58. Heriot pointed out that Compton also has a curbside recycling program, which generally drives up the collection costs. Lynwood does not have a recycling program.

Cerritos, which also has no recycling, was at the bottom of the list with an $8.01 monthly fee.

Western Waste Industries’ contract with the city guarantees an annual review of its costs and allows a yearly adjustment based on the Consumer Price Index, which in previous years has averaged a 5% increase. It did not receive an adjustment last year.

In November, Western Waste requested an 18% fee increase, which was rejected when city staff reported that the company could not substantiate cost increases it was claiming and that the Consumer Price Index justified only a 4% increase in costs, compared to a 5.9% increase the year before.

When the refuse company approached the city earlier this month with a similar request, the hike was questioned again by staff members, who pointed to an even smaller Consumer Price Index increase for January, 1992.

Staff suggested a more modest 10.94% rate hike, which would include a 10.7% increase to cover dumping charges and a 0.24% increase to cover operation expenses and a fraction of the Consumer Price Index.

However, Western Waste officials told City Council members that the 18% request, which translates into an increase of $1.93 per month, is misleading, because only $1.55 would be passed along to the company after city fees are paid.

Unlike most other cities, Lynwood’s rate has always included franchise and administrative fees, which are passed on to residents. According to city officials, those revenues go back to the city’s General Fund, not to Western Waste.

Councilman Armando Rea, who with Councilman Louis Bird voted against the increase, is opposed to the city passing along administrative costs to residents. Rea suggested that the city absorb the franchise fee and reduce the administrative fee by consolidating monthly trash and water bills.

“We pay too much in fees and taxes here already,” he said. “This is just another way to stick it to the residents.”

But Heine maintains that the increases are a necessary part of running a city.

“We didn’t want to raise the rates if we didn’t have to,” he said.