This morning, being well rested and somewhat settled into our new home here on our little island, I feel like turning my attention back across the Torras Causeway to the mainland, taking a few shots at the government of the City of Brunswick, Georgia in the process.
Don't get me wrong here--I don't dislike the City's government as a whole.
In fact, I think that some parts of it are actually pretty effective. Take my friend Mayor Brian Thompson for instance.
Brian's a real capable, likeable, stand up kind of guy. Further, Brian's willing to stand up and take endless abuse and and allow total strangers to make infinite demands on his time and energy, all for the sum of about $13,000 per year in salary.
How he makes it all work I'll never know.
And, for those of you that are thinking that I'm overstating my relationship with Mayor Thompson, let me say that I've actually been to his house for a party last Christmas, I have his personal cellphone number in my phone, and his wife Heather and I have worked on a number of theatrical & art projects and shows together over the past couple of years beginning long before his election to his present office.
With that and $0.75, I can probably get a cup of coffee at the local Waffle House, but connections are "connections" and I'll take mine where I can get them.
But I digress...
The current problem I have with the City of Brunswick government is with the "Sanitation" Department. That would be the "Departmente de Lempio" for my Spanish speaking readers (if I remember things accurately from my Junior year of High School.)
Any way, when I bought a rental duplex and a couple of vacant lots in the "New Town" section of Brunswick back in 2004, I immediately realized that there was a "little littering" problem in that section of town.
Maybe instead of calling it a "little littering" problem, I should call it a "big littering" problem.
Thinking a bit further, maybe it would be more accurate to say that we have a DUMPING PROBLEM in much of downtown Brunswick, Georgia.
But wait...
The City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA forces everyone that has City water service to also pay for City supplied SANITATION SERVICE...for the ridiculously low price of about $8 per month.
Seems like a good deal to me.
But wait...
IF everyone has government mandated and government supplied "Sanitation Service," why is there litter strewn up and down the street and on every street corner?
Further, why is there wholesale dumping of giant piles of junk curbside, on a continuous basis, on my property and my neighbors' properties over the past 3-1/2 years?
Seriously, if you own property in downtown Brunswick and you don't police it on a monthly if not weekly (or even daily) basis, you will come back to find a giant pile of things like yard debris, sofas and other furniture, children's clothing, and virtually everything else imaginable laying on your
One time I even had most of an upright piano laying on the edge of the alley behind my duplex.
Right now I have no less that two sofas and another bunch of crap that has clearly been dumped by someone, but not by average citizens that the City of Brunswick has forced to pay for "Sanitation Services." It's not the kind of stuff that people generate from cleaning out their kitchen and bathroom trash cans.
Could people be driving over from Alabama or up from Florida to dispose of their refuse?
Possibly, but probably not.
What I have laying around on my property is stuff abandonded by tenants which have been evicted from or otherwise move out of local rental properties and that is either dumped by the landlord else hauled and illegally disposed of by the landlord's representative(s.)
What we have going on is not people emptying their cans full of paper napkins, chicken bones and watermellon rines onto my curb (although I have had a bunch of bananas and most of a watermellon dumped out there once).
What we have going on is people that should know better using the streets and alleys of Brunswick as a landfill, thereby avoiding paying the local dump fees or tipping fees for bulk items that won't fit in their curbside city supplied trashcan.
I'd like to ask the "Officials" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia, USA one question:
"Why not employ the current logic and just add a couple hundred dollars of dump fees onto everybodies' water bill or property tax bill and see if any better results can be attained--because your current program obviously isn't working?"
I'm waiting for an answer...
[que the sounds of crickets chirping here...]
Any way, you'd probably like to know what the "Sanitation Department" of the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia actually does have to say about all of these goings on?
Well, first of all, in mid-May they said that they would come out to look at my current pile of trash and quote me a fee to remove it. This after they've already cleaned up similar piles of junk and debris in the past for free and often without me having to pound my fist or even lift a finger to dial the telephone.
After several missed appointments and games of playing "phone tag", now that I'm interested in developing and selling the property, the city has started taking a coy, hardball attitude with me for some unknown reason.
I've already paid a private contractor $300 to have the vacant land cleaned up and the litter removed, but I refuse to pay the additional $700 that my contractor wants to charge me to remove TWO DUMP TRUCK LOADS of crap that is not mine and was not placed on my property with my consent.
Finally in late May I got the head of the "Sanitation Department" to meet me on the property and agree to remove the debris at no cost...BUT, I'd have to wait until the new fiscal year began in June so they could put in a work order and have the money in the City's budget.
Looking at the calendar, it's now August 10th and tomorrow I expect to go over and yet again view the lovely festering, 30' x 20' x 5' high pile of crap that continues to grow as I write (it was still there two Monday's ago.)
I've called the "sanitation department" office several times a day several days each week for the past three weeks and my voicemail messages have as yet gone unanswered. Apparently the "sanitation department" can't afford a secretary or administrative assistant either.
Regardless of the final outcome, I'd like to point out that this is a perfect example of government ineffectiveness and ineptitude. Further, in this case it is also an example of the government attempting to supply a necessary and increasingly expensive service at an artificially low price.
Ten years ago in Atlanta I paid over $30 a month for trash service that didn't include the removal of yard debris, and today the City of Brunswick is trying to provide mandatory trash service for $8.00 per month.
In this case, apparently the low cost of the "sanitation service" is intended to balm the wounds of those that feel put upon by the mandate that the "sanitation service fee" be included in the water bill.
Glynn County does a little better with their $200+ fee included in the annual tax bill, but again the level of customer service verges on abysmal because the real cost of the service is apparently greater than the fee being charged.
The difference is that the county passes the costs directly to the property owner, where the City charges the end user--the tenant or resident--directly. (Too bad that the county politicians don't realize that the end users still end up paying their fee because the landlord just raises the rent to offset the increase in the tax bill anyway.)
What both the City of By-God Brunswick, Georgia and the government of Glynn County officials don't realize is that by meddling in the free market--by forcing everyone to buy "sanitation services" from the government or a government anointed contractor, they are actually preventing the free market and associated competition from competently providing a needed service at a fair cost.
Notice that I didn't say low cost or cheep cost?
That's because everything can't be cheep, other than the quality of the service that you get when you attempt to get something for nothing.
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