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delta that we need to offset somehow, somewhere. So that’s why prior staff were told to cut services, because they don’t have the funds, so the only way they could do it is to say, let’s cut down recycling, let’s do this and that. So as we move forward withthe budget coming up, we need you (EMC) being involved in telling us, advising us what to do when it comes to recycling, diverting, so we could have the right amount of dollar figure included in the budget, so people understand the cost of business. That way at least, we could reflect what the people want, so they have the costs. In the meantime, we do need to figure out based on the actual costs that my accounting section had created. It was based on transporting, and the current business, which is double, triple handling the waste, transporting it to the WHSL, et cetera. So that we need to figure out, if that model continues, we need to reflect the actual cost to deliver that. Things are going up in cost. So I look forward to continue working with you on the Commission, on finding ways of setting up different models. This was the assignment I sent to my former SWD Chief, but unfortunately it was not complete, so we need to pick up on those options. There were five options identified, so we need to tackle these options and get an idea as we take it back to the Committee. Maybe at least they have some ideas about different business models. We’ll put it out for them and have them come to conclusions about what they would like to do. Because we are sending confusing messages out there. We want zero waste but everybody went ballistic when we cut down the transfer station hours due to COVID-19 related issues. What is it, do we need to control waste and reduce it or do we need to open transfer stations to seven days a week, 24 hours a day, just because waste is getting more and more? We cannot have it both, so we have to find a happy medium that could be a win-win. We need to create an incentive. Currently at the transfer stations, everybody can come in. You could come in with 10 pounds of waste, someone else could bring 100 pounds. No scales, no restrictions, no limitations. So it’s an open-ended facility. There’s no control, no accountability. We need to figure it out. He looks forward to Commissioners’ advice for each of their districts. It takes political will to move forward, and if we don’t have any will, it’s never going to go. He is glad that we have a representative from each district within our Commission. You need to send a message to each Council Member about what we have been talking about. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Create incentive, hold people accountable for the waste they generate. And everybody has this misconception about, we pay taxes. That’s true, you pay taxes, but if you really want to pay into what you produce, currently we charge $114 per ton. EPA estimates each household generates 4.5 tons of waste per household per year. That is more than $500 per year. How is that paying the taxes to the service that everybody wants? We cannot deliver the Rolls-Royce of the service when we are collecting the price of a motorcycle. So that is where the public education comes in. We need start educating the public about the cost of our business and how much we are getting from our so-called taxes. We need to set a fee. He heard about proposals for Pay As You Throw (PAYT), that’s a good program. At least we need to recoup some of the costs to pay for the services that the constituents would like to see. And our legal obligation, that was the last item that was in the presentation about what is tying our hand is the current legal contracts we got. We cannot exit them. We got married to these contracts and we just need to navigate through them, and swallow some sour pills, and move forward with a different strategy. 12