Ratepayers across the City of Lathrop could see a slight increase in refuse collection fees if the Lathrop City Council gives its blessing next week.
On Monday, Lathrop’s governing body will decide whether to approve a request by Republic Services, which holds the City of Lathrop’s refuse collection contract and has since 2003, to increase the monthly collection fees by 2.67 percent to remain concurrent with the consumer price index for the San Francisco Bay Area.
For residential customers, the increase, if approved, would be in line with the annual cost adjustment that has been a part of the contract since it was signed, and would be almost identical to the 2.7 percent increase that was approved by the council last year.
But unlike last year, senior rates will also be affected by the proposal.
The average monthly cost increase for residential collection across the board with be $0.82 – with small container families facing a $0.73 increase while those who use the large 90 gallon bins would watch their rates go up an additional $0.92 every month.
Seniors would see their monthly rates increase by $0.59 every month on average. The same 2.67 percent hike would also apply to commercial rates across the board.
And even though the City of Lathrop does not have its own in-house refuse collection department, they will stand to benefit financially from the price increase if approved by the council through a 7 percent franchise fee and recycling fee of 7 percent of the gross revenue collected with 10 days of the completion of each calendar month.
As per the contract that first signed with Lathrop Sunrise Services in 2003, which ultimately became Republic Services, the decision to set a maximum collection rate rests in the hands of the Lathrop City Council. The same agreement also states that collection rates are to be reviewed annually, and increased when necessary based on the CPI for the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose Area, not to exceed 4 percent.
On average, the residential collection rates for Lathrop residents has increased 2.03 percent over the since the 2010/11 fiscal year.
Of those seven years, four of them did not include an increase to rates for seniors, and one of them increased their rates by only $0.36.
If approved, the proposed hike would go into effect for all customer classes on July 1, 2017.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.