Wednesday’s problem: What should the city do about residents who leave their rollout garbage bins on the curb too long after collection?

Task force members spent roughly an hour comparing Salisbury’s current policy with other cities and debating the merits of fines, notices and enforcement.

Here are some things on which the group reached consensus:

• It’s OK for residents to roll out their carts the night before their next day’s pickup. Dusk or later seemed to be a reasonable time.
• Carts should be removed from the curb by midnight of the collection day.
• People in violation of the city’s policy for removing the carts from the curb would receive a warning on their first offense and a fine on the second and subsequent offenses.
• The task force generally agreed that $25 would be a good fine for the second and other repeat offenses.
• A citation would include a city telephone number by which a resident could appeal a fine. That would be appropriate, for example, if the city cited a new resident for a second offense when the first offense had been the fault of a previous renter or owner at the same address.
• Enforcement would come from the city’s public works department, which handles the garbage collection.

Consultant Glenn Harbeck said city staff members will bring a revised ordinance related to rollout containers to the task force meeting scheduled for Dec. 1. If approved, the task force would send the recommendation on to council.

At that same Dec. 1 meeting, the task force will tackle a new question.

City Manager David Treme said he first envisioned the task force as reporting to Salisbury City Council with all of its recommendations at one time. But taking issues one by one gives a recommendation more focus and is easier for the council to digest, Treme said.

Noting that council is supportive of the task force’s work, Mayor Susan Kluttz said, “We’re ready to start seeing recommendations come from it.”

At present, the public works department issues red stickers as reminders to residents who leave their garbage carts on the curb for too long. Public Works Director Vernon Sherrill said his department recently has begun sending letters to repeat offenders, and he shared a list of roughly 110 addresses in the city that are considered trouble spots.

Sherrill said the city has not issued any civil citations against the violators.

“It’s the person who continually abuses the policy that’s going to get the penalty,” Harbeck suggested of city fines in the future.

Kluttz asked whether other task force members considered $25 as too much, but others said smaller fines may not serve as the deterrent the group was seeking.

Councilman Pete Kennedy said the task force might want to consider an escalating fine for repeat offenders, such as $50 and $75 for the third and fourth offenses, respectively. Generally, the group agreed that $25 for each offense would be enough.

If a violator did not pay his fine, the case would go to court, where the resident would be responsible for both the fine and court costs of at least $32.

The current city policy says the rollout carts should be removed from the curb on collection day by 7 p.m. No containers of any type should be on the curb Saturday or Sunday, the existing policy says.