Attempt to squash Portsmouth’s single-hauler ordinance fails

3-3-1 vote means Mega will be town’s exclusive curbside collector

By Jim McGaw
Posted 2/3/25

PORTSMOUTH — After more that two years of debating a town-wide curbside collection program, it’s finally official: MTG Disposal, LLC (Mega) will be the exclusive hauler when the …

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Attempt to squash Portsmouth’s single-hauler ordinance fails

3-3-1 vote means Mega will be town’s exclusive curbside collector

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — After more that two years of debating a town-wide curbside collection program, it’s finally official: MTG Disposal, LLC (Mega) will be the exclusive hauler when the municipal program — Portsmouth’s first — begins on July 1.

A motion by Council Vice President David Gleason to repeal the ordinance failed in a 3-3-1 vote during a specially scheduled meeting at Town Hall Monday night. Gleason and council members Sharlene Patton and David Reise voted for repealing the ordinance, while Council President Keith Hamilton and members Juan Carlos Payero and Sondra Blank dissented. Council member Mary McDowell abstained.

The public vote came after the council spent more than 90 minutes in executive session with its legal counsel to discuss the town’s trash ordinance. “It was a very good and productive discussion, I think. I think most all questions were answered,” Hamilton said when the council reconvened in public session, which lasted less than 15 minutes before the meeting was adjourned.

Assuming Monday’s vote was finally the end of the curbside drama, the decision capped a long and arduous process that first started back in October 2022. That’s when a previous council voted unanimously to develop a request for proposals (RFP) for a hybrid program that would provide curbside collection for the entire town, with the transfer station used for bulky waste and diversion items. Later on, the council would decide to keep the transfer station operation as is for those residents who use it, with curbside as a separate program. 

The plan became controversial, however, when the previous council voted during its last meeting in November 2024 to adopt an exclusive single-hauler ordinance. That meant that MTG Disposal, LLC (Mega), which the council had awarded an exclusive curbside contract six months earlier, was the only hauler that could provide residents curbside collection. 

Some residents and council members argue citizens should have the right to select their own curbside collector. Others believe an exclusive hauler is the only viable option to attract sufficient residents to sign up, thereby ensuring the affordability of the sticker fee. 

The council on Jan. 13 set the annual sticker fee for curbside collection at $460, which is based on a projected 4,000 households signing up for the program. The curbside program would be run under an enterprise fund similar to the Hedly Street transfer staton. The transfer station is currently used by about 2,100 households, and the new sticker fee is $290 while retaining the use of pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) bags.

‘Never been in support’

On Monday, Gleason said he has “never been in support of the curbside ordinance” which forces curbside customers to use a town-chosen hauler. 

“I did subject this council to some unnecessary abuse, if you want to call it that, by allowing them the opportunity to opine on this subject by voting in the affirmative on Nov. 12 with the last council,” he said. Gleason has previously said he voted in favor of the ordinance at that time only so he would be allowed to bring it back for discussion at a later date.

Gleason did just that on Dec. 9, when was part of a majority on the new council that voted to schedule a public hearing Jan. 13 to consider rescinding the ordinance in its entirety. During the January hearing, however, Gleason again voted for the ordinance, saying it appeared the town had a binding contract with Mega. 

He changed his mind again when he brought the matter back before the council on Jan. 27 “for reconsideration for the possibility of changing my vote.” The council took no action on the ordinance but ultimately voted to schedule Monday’s meeting. Gleason made the motion to repeal the ordinance following the executive session.

Reise supported Gleason’s motion, saying Mega could still be the municipal program’s collector without being forced on all curbside customers.

“I think people should have the freedom of choice and I don’t feel like I as an individual have the right to take away my neighbor’s freedom of choice. The ordinance attempts to control the behavior of thousands of individual taxpayers to change a monetary value. This is wrong,” Reise said, adding the pact should have been negotiated better. “The majority of people who contact me don’t want the ordinance, but want the Mega contract. If the cost is as stated, you will easily get 4,000 people.”

McDowell said the vote was the “hardest” she’s ever faced. “I am, in this very moment, still in a quandary. I will do everything in my power to ensure — and I think this whole council would — that there will be 4,000 people who will sign up for this,” she said.

McDowell then added, “This has been a crazy, crazy journey and I hope in the remaining term we don’t get faced with such craziness again.”

‘Truly sick and tired’

Payero was against repealing the ordinance, saying any deviation of the contract would be costly to taxpayers. Mega’s attorney, Mark Freel, had already notified the town that if the ordinance were appealed, the company would treat any such action as a breach of contract and the town would be liable for the “full extent of the damages resulting from their breach, including costs already incurred and potential lost profits.” The damages would be in the millions, some officials have said.

“We’re going to be held liable for whatever the damages are,” Payero said, noting the town’s insurer, Interlocal Trust, “will not cover us for this expense.” That means the town would have to ask voters to approve a bond to cover the damages, he said.

“I’m afraid we’re really looking down the barrel of a gun, and the only people that are going to pull the trigger are ourselves,” Payero said. “I’m truly sick and tired of us playing this game over and over and over again, when we fail to recognize that the people that we’re jeopardizing are the people of this town. If we’re going to keep playing these games, these games have consequences.”

If the trash issue isn’t put to rest, he said, "we’re going to be dealing with the consequences of this action tonight for the next 30 years. I don’t feel that we’ve all grasped that yet.”

Hamilton urged council members not to rescind the ordinance, reminding them that “part of our fiduciary responsibility is trying to help our residents save money, and the contract and the ordinance, the way it is stated, would save the majority of the people in this town money.”

The council should affirm the ordinance, Hamilton said, “and then this Town Council can develop a plan to start rolling this into the tax base so that people aren’t sending a check for $460.”

Due to the motion failing, the only other matter of business on Monday’s agenda — a request to retract the curbside collection award, and to cancel the RFP — was unanimously tabled.

Future meetings

The council will meet at 7 p.m. on the following Mondays at Town Hall: Feb. 10, Feb. 24, and March 10.

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