Title
Notice/Advertisement Title: Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee Hearing
Contact Name: Chelsea Golterman
Contact Telephone Number: 614-645-3091
Contact Email Address: CLGolterman@columbus.gov
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COLUMBUS CITY COUNCIL
Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee Hearing
Minutes
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 3:30 PM Rumpke Recycling and Resource Center
CALL TO ORDER
Call to Order: 3:40 P.M.
Present: Councilmember Christopher L. Wyche, Chelsea Golterman, Skyler Goody, Brad Bader, Councilmember Otto Beatty, Suzan Mchao, Tanisha Pruitt, Ph.D., Kim Bojko, Morgan Harper, Disu Oshodi, Jake Heffron, Dr. Londale,
INTRODUCTION
Opening Remarks:
[Chair Wyche] Good afternoon everyone! Thank you for joining us to learn about the updated proposal to regulate utility reselling in Columbus and the first phase of recycling expansion.
The hearing will have two parts. First, we will cover utility reselling before we move into the recycling portion of the hearing.
Utility Reselling Presentations
We will kick off our discussion on utility reselling by outlining the changes in the Utility reselling draft.
Before we jump into the presentation, I want to give a little bit of background for anyone that is not familiar with what utility reselling. The proposed ordinance language we are reviewing today is drastically different from the original reintroduction from former Councilmember Stinziano in 2017. What we are reviewing today is the product of months of interested party meetings with stakeholders in the industry, residents, and community advocates. I understand that utility reselling provides a service to landlords and this new proposal will allow these companies to continue to operate while protecting residents.
I am grateful to the individuals that have come to this meeting to help us to continue to tweak this proposal to get to the best policy possible for Columbus. The testimony we receive today will inform the final language that is brought before the full council for a vote.
Here to go over these changes is Dr. Tanisha Pruitt, Legislative Analyst with Council’s Legislative Research Office.
Tanisha, Thank you for being here to go over the updated draft. As I mentioned, I know we made a lot of changes based on feedback we had received since the last hearing in April.
[Tanisha Pruitt, PhD, Legislative Analyst] Thank you Councilmember Wyche.
Utility Reselling is the practice of a third party purchasing a utility from a regulated public utility and resells them to consumers and submetering is the practice of
As far back as 2013, utility reselling has inflated residential utility bills and the state of Ohio currently allows unregulated third party submeter providers.
In recent years, the state has been working through the Ohio Consumers Council and PUCO to protect consumers as well as through Legislation, all of which have ultimately failed. There are currently 3 bills in the statehouse regarding utility reselling, but they are not all favorable to local efforts.
Consumers would benefit from this legislation because they are experiencing an unregulated service that often lacks transparency and inflates their bills, and residents who rebuy utilities cannot receive the same discounts as individuals in single family homes.
The proposed legislation aims to regulate utility reselling billing, require utility cost transparency, ensure consumer benefits and protection access, and establish enforcement provisions for Code Violations.
We believe residents in multi-family units will benefit most from this.
“Residential utility reselling” means any situation in which a property owner or operator charges a Tenant an amount for Utility services that is a distinct charge, separate from the standard monthly rental charge and in instances where the consumer could be billed directly
"Submetering" means measuring, by a building's owner, through mechanical or electronic devices, the use of Utility service by Tenants in multiple-unit residential buildings to fairly apportion the entire Utility service costs for the building among its Tenants.
The legislation prohibits property owners from charging a distinct charge for a portion of a utility service provided to a common area, use a ratio that aggregates charges for all tenants who receive a utility service through a single meter, and adds limits to how much a landlord can charge for utilities of common areas.
Landlords must also at the beginning or renewal of a lease provide in writing how utility bills are processed and when they will be issued.
Enforcement for noncompliance is currently being worked out with the City Attorney.
Additional provisions address separate billing for electricity, billing errors, payment plans, undercharges and, dispute resolution
[Chair Wyche] This legislation is a reflection of some of the feedback we got from property owners and community members and we want to continue to hear your feedback. Councilmember Beatty do you have any comments or questions?
[Councilmember Beatty] Has there been any movement on City water bills and more frequent billing and how that interacts with this legislation?
[Chair Wyche] Yes, the City intends to move to monthly billing but a stipulation is that residents have to have installed an enhanced meter.
You mentioned that the State legislature is also looking at regulations for this industry. Can you speak to why we are still moving forward with a local ordinance?
[Pruitt] Most of the state efforts have been unsuccessful, but we would like to advance this legislation to address resident’s concerns at the City level. We want to make sure we are doing everything we can for our residents.
[Chair Wyche] Next, I would like to call Kim Bojko with Carpenter Lipps, here to speak on behalf of Champion Company.
[Kim Bojko, Champion Company] This legislation has come a long way and we appreciate the removal of the prohibition from this legislation. Things like strip malls and industrial parks have often used this practice to manage utilities.
PUCO has recently made a decision that a submeterer is not allowed to charge more than the local rate. This decision does not find the resale of utilities unlawful, but does require transparency and disclosure on leases. The PUCO did not rule utility reselling businesses to be utilities as well.
I find a lot of the pieces of legislation, HB 173 specifically, is moving and the Council should consider this before moving forward. The mentioned legislation codifies the PUCO decision and adds consumer protection.
In the protections for tenants, there are plenty of mandates for landlords to maintain consumer protections and mandates a bill cap. Many of the utility resale companies already provide payment plans, and HEAP, but not PIP which is a state mandated program that we have no control of.
Champion believes the legislation at the statehouse will be beneficial to everyone in providing clarity and we encourage city council to allow the state to complete its work and not pass conflicting legislation.
We also have concerns about the conflicting definitions of electricity components and different types of consumers in the legislation. Happy to answer any questions.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you Kim. We appreciate you being part of this discussion. We will continue to move forward as many times it has been said the state will pass this legislation. We feel we need to step in due to the concerns of residents who are not experiencing transparent billing, and will continue to do so until there is a protection, either at the state or local level.
Next, we will hear from Morgan Harper with Columbus Stand Up. Thanks for being here.
[Morgan Harper, Columbus Stand Up] I represent a grassroots organization to represent the working class here in Columbus. We have heard from residents that costs of utilities have surged over the years, outpacing inflation.
One of many reasons for these rising costs is the use of middle men utility resellers by landlords. Many people cannot access assistance programs without detailed bills.
Other municipalities in Ohio, like Toledo, have taken action to target this practice. We need more enforcement than just transparency and disclosure, bad actors need to be held accountable in a way that is funded in a meaningful way.
[Chair Wyche] We are still working to determine if enforcement should be complaint driven or done through the housing assistance program.
Before we move to the next portion of the hearing, is there any one else in the room who would like to provide testimony on utility reselling?
If so, please be sure to state your name for the record and connect with my staff so they can get your contact information. Thank you! You may begin.
Thank you to everyone who spoke to this policy, diversity in opinions and perspectives make for better policy making.
Recycling Presentations
Now we will move into the recycling portion of the hearing.
While Columbus has made great strides to increase waste diversion, currently, only residents living in single-family homes or in buildings with fewer than five units are currently guaranteed access to recycling services.
While the Department of Public Service does not have the capacity to provide recycling to all residents, every resident should have the ability to access recycling services that best meet their needs, no matter where they live.
That’s why we are here today. To start the discussion around how the City can phase in the expansion of recycling services city wide.
We have some amazing waste diversion programs currently available to residents and there are many efforts to expand reuse and recycling in our city. We want to increase awareness about these programs, work with stakeholders to remove barriers for businesses and property owners to offer recycling to their residents, and make sure city run facilities are recycling the right way.
With that, let’s kick off the Waste Diversion portion of the hearing with a presentation from our Department of Public Service.
Presenting for the Department of Public Service today, we have Disu Oshodi- Refuse Operations Coordinator to discuss some of the highlights from a multi-family pilot the Department has been operating in partnership with SWACO and Rumpke.
Disu, the floor is yours.
[Disu Oshodi, Refuse Operations Coordinator] The 2021 multi-family recycling pilot program aimed to introduce recycling services to 10,000 units.
We recognize there is a rising need for service expansion as our city grows, with 3,000 new apartment units being build per year, and we have a goal to reduce the recyclable waste from the landfill by 95% by 2050.
A brief overview of the next pilot is the implementation and measurement plan, test camera technology, and develop and educational toolkit.
The Division has identified 38 complexes that would be suitable to do the recycling pilot at. We then did an initial waste audit.
40 front loading recycling dumpsters were placed out at the participating complexes with “Recycle Right” signage.
Residents in the selected complexes were subject to mutli-faceted outreach tactics
From 2022 - last week the division collected over 113 Tonnes from these units.
Next we intend on doing a post-survey, a recycling audit, expanded program feasibility, and a cost evaluation.
[Chair Wyche] Can you talk a little bit about the educational toolkit and was there as much contamination that people are concerned about?
[Oshodi] Residents can go to Columbus.gov/trash to see our best practices. Our cameras helped with seeing where contamination is, but of course we can’t address the individuals for contaminating in these large units.
We also notice different age groups at different rates, with younger people recycling less.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you for all your work. You and the refuse team are the unsung heroes of our city. If your team misses a pick up for even one day the community notices. But, we don’t say thank you enough.
Next we have Jake Heffron, Municipal Specialist, Rumpke Waste & Recycling.
Thank you for joining us this evening.
[Jake Heffron, Municipal Specialist] Rumpke is committed to growing recycling services in the Columbus and Central Ohio area, and we have been doing curbside pickups in the City since 1995.
Our new center is the largest in the country with a state of the art education center to help educate residents.
We have been able to expand what we can take since moving into the new center thanks to our new technology. 80% of what we process in this facility is sold back to businesses in Ohio, maintaining a circular economy.
[Chair Wyche] Do we have the capacity to actually handle additional recycling?
[Heffron] This facility was built with the growth of Columbus in mind. We are working on decommissioning the old facility now.
[Chair Wyche] And last, but certainly not least, I would like to give the floor back to Dr. Pruitt to go over the first phase of recycling expansion and what we anticipate next steps for this proposal.
[Pruitt] The City started a contract with Rumpke in 2012 to do biweekly recycling, with a shift to weekly pickups from single family homes in 2023. We are working to explore a plan to extend services to buildings that do not currently receive services.
The City’s growth is outpacing the capacity of our landfill but many things sent to the landfill can be recycled, reused, or composted.
Costs of services will increase with the creation of a new landfill as SWACO will not build the new landfill in the county.
This legislation intends to ensure access to recycling in Columbus and utilize a phase-in approach to slowly increase service over the next 5-7 years.
We intend to start with City Facilities with human activity and train our staff on recycling. This will be phase 1 of our rollout plan.
The next steps are to continue to work with administration and stakeholders, increase community investment in recycling, and evaluate the ecosystem of providers and haulers.
[Chair Wyche] Can you elaborate on the types of buildings that would be included in city facilities?
[Pruitt] This would include Recreations Centers; City Parks; Municipal buildings such as City Hall and the Coleman building, where Departments or Council Staff run operations; our water treatment plants. It would not include buildings for storage or buildings where no or very little human activity takes place.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you Tanisha.
Before I close out the hearing, is there any one else in the room who would like to provide testimony on the recycling expansion plan?
If yes- Please come up to the podium and introduce yourself. Before you leave, please make sure to connect with my staff so they can get your information.
[Dr. Londale, Lifesavers] I represent the group of people who are separating the trash, compost, and recycling at every Ohio State University Home Game. Through this practice we are the most sustainable stadium. We have a 98% diversion rate and have for years. I think there is a lot of opportunity to involve the youth here especially with the new UFL stadium.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you for being here, special events are a frontier we are excited to continue on with after the success of our Jazz and Rib food rescue pilot.
As of the start of the hearing, my office has not received any written testimony.
CLOSING REMARKS
[Chair Wyche] If anyone did not want to testify but has any questions or comments they would like to share with me and my staff, please email my Aide Chelsea at CLGolterman@columbus.gov.
Thank you all again for joining us. I hope you all have a great evening.
ADJOURNMENT
Adjourned: 4:55 P.M.
Visit <https://bit.ly/WycheCBUSCityCouncil> to review submitted written testimony and draft code changes
All Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee Meetings can be watched at the City of Columbus Youtube Channel <https://www.youtube.com/cityofcolumbus>
Stay up-to-date by following Councilmember Wyche on Bluesky (@christopherwyche.bsky.social) and on Eventbrite <eventbrite.com/o/councilmember-christopher-l-wyche-81976334423>. You can subscribe to his monthly email newsletter by emailing his Analyst at <EMMorales@Columbus.gov>. You can reach Councilmember Wyche’s Aide at <CLGolterman@Columbus.gov>