Last year, Sanitary Service (SSC) dramatically raised our costs for garbage, recycling, and compost waste - and imposed a third bulky tote bin into our homes in Bellingham. SSC has a city-granted monopoly in Bellingham, and every home and every apartment is charged monthly for collections. Every resident I have discussed this with has complained about the high fees. Many have difficulty with the increase from two totes to three. We used to have three modest plastic baskets for all this in our back hallways or outside our back doors. Now we have 64 to 96 gallon totes that are hard to maneuver and store. You cannot opt-out of this “service.”

This last winter, Bellingham resident Don Hoth, had concerns and took them to SSC. He lives in an apartment and has no yard waste, and felt the fees were unfair to those living in apartments. SSC gave him the brush-off. So he went to city hall - and they told him they do not do oversight on SSC. From there, he went to the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), but they said they have no jurisdiction. Is this the way our systems work in this country? In Washington state? In Bellingham? Maybe.

Hoth filed a petition in Whatcom County Superior Court last February asking the court to find that the UTC does have jurisdiction, and should hear and process his complaint. Yes, he took the UTC to court. The UTC replied that the case was without merit and asked Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Lee Grochmal to dismiss Hoth’s petition. Grochmal quickly did so - with prejudice, meaning Hoth could not bring it up again.

Hoth has now filed with the Washington Court of Appeals. He is representing himself, at his own expense, but is not bringing his original complaint. He is asking the court to identify a place to bring his complaint. He cannot bring the city to court because there are no city or state laws requiring the city to regulate SSC or receive complaints. The UTC says that although state law requires them to regulate and hear complaints, they traditionally leave all that with each city. Hoth summarized: “SSC ignored me. The city gives them a pass.”

In the American system, this is how we citizens, residents, and tax payers get fleeced. The corporate news media - locally the Herald and Cascadia Daily - do not report many abuses of power, which enables the fleecing to continue. This is primarily because news media are constricted by the need to earn revenue (ads) and keep expenses down; it is nothing new and has nothing to do with the Internet. I first worked for a newspaper over 60 years ago; it was the same then as it is now.

This entire issue should have been reported and investigated in both the Herald and Cascadia Daily: the large fee increases, additional totes, the mandatory system, and more. Basically, SSC raised our costs and at the same time transferred much of the work they had been doing onto residents. And we have no evidence that they are actually recycling or composting all of our sorted totes. How do we know it isn’t going to landfills with the garbage?

We need a system that allows us to make SSC accountable to Bellingham residents, because at this point, we are their “captive customers” held prisoner by mandatory city law. This could get worse, but it can certainly be made better. Right now, the money is easy and the public is being held at the gates, so it’s let the good times roll for SSC.

Lets see if the local "independent" media pick up this issue. Not just the legal appeal but the cozy relationship between SSC and the Bellingham Public Works Department. 

I will continue to follow Don Hoth's appeal.