Request By:
Mr. Ralph T. McClave
Route 1
Box 346
Grayson, Kentucky 41143
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of February 22, 1979 in which you raise the question as to whether a city of fourth class can adopt an ordinance making it mandatory for city residents to pay a garbage collection fee, with the billing to be computed and charged along with the other utility bills. You further relate that the garbage collector is a private firm.
Our response to your question would be in the affirmative. A city can contract by franchise with a private company to collect its garbage and can, at the same time, require all residents to use the service and pay a reasonable collection fee which, in turn, can be enforced by cutting off the individual's water. See
City of Bowling Green v. Davis, 313 Ky. 203, 230 S.W.2d 90 (1959) and OAG 78-444, copy attached. In addition, we also refer you to McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, Volume 7 § 24.245, 24.246 and 24.248.
The fact that the garbage collector is a private firm is of no consequence in the city's right to bill the garbage service fee on the utility bill, including of course the water bill. In this respect we refer you to KRS 96.930 - 96.943. KRS 96.934 [providing for coordination by the sewer body with the water supplies] clearly indicates the sewer service charge can be billed with the water service charge simultaneously. KRS 96.931(c) defines the term "sewer body" to include, not only a board or commission created by statute or by city ordinance, but also a private person performing such functions under lawful contract with the city.