Danvers Residents Look To Challenge Trash Fee At Special Town Meeting

DANVERS, MA — The Danvers trash and recycling fee debate that has raged for nearly a year during public hearings and town committee meetings will get an audience at the special town meeting set for Feb. 5 after 365 residents signed a citizen's petition to eliminate the $200 annual fee recently imposed by the town manager with split majority support of the Select Board.

The proposal, which is one of 10 articles set for the upcoming town meeting came on behalf of residents who argue the fee "looks and feels like a tax" and that "this feels like another attempt to get around the proposition 2 1/2 override."

Danvers residents have never passed a general proposition 2 1/2 override in a townwide vote.

Town Manager Steve Bartha, who sought Select Board approval even though it was under his
authority to impose the fee, said the $200 would offset the $1.13 million increase in trash and recycling collection costs to the town under the new contract that began this summer.

The fee will be billed $50 quarterly as part of homeowner water bill cycles.

The Select Board voted 3-2 in November to support Bartha's decision with David Mills, Daniel Bennett and Gardner Trask endorsing the fee, while Maureen Bernard and Matthew Duggan voted in opposition.

The citizen's proposal similarly split the Board with Bernard and Duggan voting to forward it to the Finance Committee with a positive recommendation (to rescind the fee), Mills and Trask voting to forward it with a negative recommendation (to keep the fee), and Bennett electing to abstain after Bartha said town council said the language of the proposal may be at odds with state law and the town manager act.

He said the town council was in the process of forwarding the article to the state attorney general's office for further clarification.

At question is whether the will of town meeting voters, or Danvers residents in general, can or should supersede Bartha's authority to impose the fee for what he determines is the good of the town finances. He noted during Tuesday's Select Board meeting that the fee was endorsed by a Select Board Budget Conference Committee this fall and that he took the extra step of asking for the Select Board endorsement of the fee in November.

Bernard, however, said the will of the people should ultimately influence those types of financial decisions as an act of good faith regardless of what the law allows.

"I want to be respectful of the process," she said. "However, as mentioned here and many other meetings, I think it should be up to the residents and not just one person. Town meeting members represent the residents of this town.

"So please consider what the residents want."

Trask recommended the negative recommendation on the basis that the language of the proposal does infringe on an authority provided to that town manager, and because taking away the revenue from the fee — which has been said will help offset the increase in trash and recycling under the town's new contract and not be a net increase revenue for the town — would necessarily require the reduction of services or town personnel.

Other articles on the special town meeting warrant include three zoning changes — one of which would increase density minimums for new development downtown to keep in line with new state regulations encouraging multi-family housing — and a change that would help uniform town fees.

Bennett and Trask said that they support the state density requirements as a way to force communities to accept more housing development amid an affordable housing crisis, while Duggan argued that tying state funding to the housing requirement is a tactic to strong-arm local zoning decisions and should be opposed.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)