Thoughts on Trash

So, starting in July, Hendersonville will have a new trash company and everyone will have new trash cans. Service will go from twice a week to once a week and there is some discussion (though no final decision) about adding recycling to the mix. For now, the only guarantee is that citizens will get less service and may also enjoy a savings in the rate they pay for garbage pickup.

Alderman Scott Sprouse and former Alderman Matt Stamper offer some thoughts on this new development:

From Sprouse via his aldermanic Facebook page --

Last night, the board voted to change Hendersonville's twice a week, back door trash service to once a week, back door service. Also, we decided to award the contract to a new service provider. I cast the lone no vote.

No options on the table included recycling. I wish at least one did.

Once a week collection is not frequent enough, especially for people who live where HOA rules prohibit them from leaving trash cans outside. We'll realize this better once summer comes, once it's 95 degrees or higher day after day, once traveling on the day we're to put the trash out means we have to wait a second week for it to be collected.

Also, I have concerns about changing the service provider with such short notice. On July 1, our trash will start being collected by a company that today has no local facility, owns no equipment here, and employs no one to actually provide the service. They have thirty-two business days to acquire that facility; purchase the equipment; hire, screen and train the people who will be driving the trucks and hauling the trash; and establish and learn new routes. We were concerned about another provider having time to ramp-up new service when this was discussed two months ago. We were concerned when we first voted three weeks ago. I don't know what changed last night to make those concerns go away.

While I disagreed with the decision, I will do what I always do. I will respect the will of the board and work to implement the decision of the majority to the best of my ability.

In addition, the reduction of service means the cost of service will be reduced. I will stand by my pledge to vote to pass that reduced cost directly back to the homeowners who pay the garbage fee.

And, from Stamper:

Someone check my math. The old garbage fee (twice a week) was $4,690,907. You have to add tipping fee which comes from the general fund of 975,000 roughly. So $5,665,907. But the fee we pay is $293 on our property tax bill (see attached) for our trash fee. If it was all charged to the residents it would have been $354. Keep that number in mind.

The new contract is $2,553,107.88. If you add the tipping fee (which won't change) you are at $3,528,107.88. Now before we rejoice at a 45.573% decrease in the variable amount of this thing (37.73% overall decrease) and before you think those savings are going to be passed on to the residents keep one important thing in mind. Your service that you are paying for is being cut in half.

So not bad financially, a significant reduction in the cost for a 50% reduction in service. This ignores whether you like or don't like only getting your trash picked up once a week. But the part I'm not excited about (besides going to once a week) is that the push from some of our leaders is not to pass all of this savings on to the residents. Simple math would say the new garbage fee should be at the absolute most $220.37, let's round up since they use whole dollars and just have everyone chip in an extra 63 cents and you are $221. Keep an eye on the first reading of the budget and see if they move it to $221 or less. They really should in my opinion. If you go a dime over $221 you are subsidizing and paying for city services enjoyed by businesses and residents and making only the residents pay for them (not to mention a person with a home value of $150,000 pays the same fee as an $800,000 home). The trash fee is inherently regressive so abusing it would devastating to those with lower economic demographics.

Now this assumes a big change moving the tipping fee from the overall general fund and putting it on the homeowners. But assuming they do that the trash fee should not exceed $221. Any argument they give you that it should be higher than that is absolutely untrue and dishonest. It's a pass through and $221 would make it a straight pass through. If they decided to continue to pay for the tipping fees from the general fund the fee should be $159.47. Were I still on the board I would urge my colleagues to meet somewhere in the middle, perhaps $200. Notice the stormwater fee. In the past year you are looking at them pushing something everyone paid for onto the backs of residents through the trash fee, they've added a $72 stormwater fee to every resident and the reappraisals mean on the property tax itself (which is outside of these two fees) some folks are going to pay double what they paid last year.

Enough is enough on our residents. It's a triple whammy and it appears no one but me is standing up and saying something about it using simple math and facts. There is no denying the accuracy of anything I've said here. In the past two days I've been called about everything but a child of God for pointing out what is happening to us as a city. I'm not being dishonest, I've laid out plainly for all to see.

Stay tuned for what's next!

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Property Tax Assessment Appeals

Sumner County Assessor of Property John Isbell explains the property tax assessment appeals process after an assessment cycle many homeowners have found lacking in accurate information.

According to Isbell in the Hendersonville Standard:

Now that all assessment change notices have been mailed to citizens, the next step towards setting the certified property tax rate is the appeals process.

The appeals process allows anyone who disagrees with the new valuation of their property to have their situation re-evaluated.

Informal appeals can be filed until June 4 by calling the assessor’s office at 615-452-2412 or by filling out an e-form at wevaluesumner.com. The site also gives the date and time that members of the assessor’s office will be offsite to answer property valuation questions.

Isbell has faced questions in recent years regarding the way his office conducts assessments.

In 2016, delayed billing was noted as a problem:

Tennessee's Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury weighed-in recently and noted:


“We know of no other counties that have had this magnitude of a problem as it relates to the tax freeze and tax billing,” Mumpower (of the Comproller's Office) said. “And certainly not a reoccurring problem as you have seen here, which have included five consecutive years of delayed tax billing.”

Isbell also faced complaints about his use of a publicly-funded website for political purposes:

Log on to the Sumner County web page for Assessor of Property John Isbell and you'll find a link for more information about the recent property tax reappraisal.
That page is attracting criticism from Sumner County residents like Dan Wright who feel its content amounts to a political attack on the public's dime.
"Absolutely it's political yeah. From what I see it's political defense," said Wright.
The part Wright believes is political involves direct attacks towards County Executive Anthony Holt calling him a "Pro-Tax Increase Bureaucrat."
The page also accuses Holt of holding "secret meetings" and "wasting taxpayer dollars" and towards the end of the page accuses him of conduct that's akin to "the worst kind of public servant."

In the face of concerns over Isbell's inability to accurately conduct assessments, residents are encouraged to appeal in order to receive a fair assessment.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Sumner's Garrett Won't Call for Casada Resignation

45th district state representative Johnny Garrett, who serves Hendersonville, Goodlettsville, and White House in the Tennessee General Assembly, is refusing to call on embattled Speaker Glen Casada to resign. Casada has not denied that he and his former top staffer engaged in racist texts and also exchanged lewd, sexually explicit texts including one in which Speaker Casada inquired if a certain female was "legal."

While Garret calls the behavior "disturbing" he suggests he needs more information before making a decision and indicates he supports the investigation called by Casada into Casada's own behavior.

Here's Garrett's full statement:

I am disappointed and disturbed by the recent news reports from our Speaker’s office. Racism and vulgar text messages between our Speaker and his former chief of staff are regrettable and beneath the office of any public official. In fact, this is behavior should not be tolerated in any setting.

Public officials are held to a higher standard and we should, in every case, treat everyone with respect and dignity as we represent Tennesseans.

I am proud of the legislative achievements the House accomplished. The lawyer in me wants to make sure that we do not make a snap decision before all facts are known. The Speaker has called for an independent investigation into his actions and I fully support the investigation. I believe these actions are a necessary first step by the Speaker to retain order in the House.

This task will be difficult however; it is my hope that the Speaker and all parties will cooperate fully with the investigation so that the public’s trust will be restored and the caucus will decide how to proceed going forward.

Thanks district 45 for your confidence and, as always, it's an honor to serve you!

For more on news related to Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Budget Games

Alderman Scott Sprouse reports on the budget situation as the Board of Mayor and Aldermen begin the budgeting process through workshops. Here's what he posted on his Aldermanic Facebook page:

We had our first budget workshop Tuesday night. Traditionally, this is when aldermen and the public get first look at a mayor’s proposed budget. This year, this mayor did not prepare a full budget. He gave us one page summaries for each department. He did not provide the usual details. Some sections were left out completely. The mayor provided absolutely no revenue estimates. We don’t know what tax rate he is proposing. We don’t know what garbage fee he is proposing. (But we do know he is yet again wanting to jack it up unfairly on the backs of homeowners.) We don’t know how much would be left in the general fund. This situation is completely unacceptable.


For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Sumner's Haile Votes for Destructive Voucher Scheme

Despite a resolution from the Sumner County School Board unanimously opposing Gov. Bill Lee's school voucher scheme, Senator Ferrell Haile voted for the plan in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.

Haile supported an expanded version of the plan, one with a projected cost at full implementation of $219 million a year.

That's money that won't be available for the state to distribute to local school districts like Sumner County Schools.

In fact, this year alone, the state's funding formula loses around $25 million in funds that would typically go to salary increases for teachers.

Haile has consistently supported voucher plans and has received more than $20,000 in funding from pro-voucher groups from outside Tennessee.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

A Dangerous Man

Reliable community watchdogs at the Sumner County Republican Assembly have identified a Hendersonville resident of concern. According to the SCRA, this man is incredibly dangerous and poses a serious threat to our way of life.

The man, identified as Andy Spears, lives in Hendersonville and has for the past 19 years. He's a homeowner who is married (19 years), has a child in Sumner County Schools, and is fond of talking about his two cats.

As evidence of Spears' danger to Hendersonville and Sumner County, the SCRA shared an article (see screenshot below) which Spears has also featured on his own personal Facebook page.

The article claims that Spears is employed (true) and also has helped lead a non-profit advocacy group dedicated to improving schools in Sumner County (also true).

The investigative journalist who wrote the piece exposing Spears uncovered evidence of his nefarious conduct including the tweets found on his publicly accessible Twitter feed.

While not included in the SCRA's warning, it has been noted that Spears sometimes shops at both Kroger and Wal-Mart in Hendersonville and is known to enjoy cheeseburgers at Culver's.

Residents should be on the lookout for this man, dressed in typical middle class Hendersonville attire, who seeks to provide excellent schools and access to healthcare for all his neighbors through improved public policy.

It is suspected he mows his yard on Saturdays and sometimes enjoys a Mt. Dew or Ale81 following the exertion.

It's very possible your child attends school with his or that you have shopped at Kroger or had a margarita at Dos Margaritas while he was there.

Here's a screenshot of the dire warning from a group that can only be described as the core of the Sumner County Republican Party:

Meme the Mayor

Hendersonville's Facebook Mayor likes to get in social media spats and then block those who disagree with him. Some of the "blocked" have taken to making memes to highlight their displeasure.

So, since today is April Fool's Day, let's #MemeTheMayor -- show us your meme and we'll post/tweet it!

email here: newshendersonville@gmail.com

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews