Concerned about how the proposal would apply to the landowners who rent large numbers of houses, however, Council Chairman Riki Hokama urged the Department of Public Works and Environmental Management to "work it out a little more thoughtfully."

A bill before the council Committee on Public Works and Facilities would amend the current county law that has renters responsible to sign up and pay for county residential trash pickup.

Solid Waste Division officials said renters who have signed up often forget to cancel service once they decide to move out, complicating the paperwork when new tenants move in and may not realize they must pay for trash pickups.

According to Public Works Director Milton Arakawa, the proposed bill would cut down on the amount of paperwork needed to process the accounts as well as the number of delinquent refuse collection bills.

"This would reduce the number of transactions for the Solid Waste Division," he said. "We believe the proposed change will provide continuity of service for our customers."

Council members were concerned the proposal does not address residents living on Hawaiian homestead lands or on properties owned by real estate giants like Castle & Cooke Hawaii, which owns most of the island of Lanai.

According to Hokama, who holds the Lanai council residency seat, about one-third of Lanai residents rent their houses from Castle & Cooke Hawaii. He said that the trash collection amendment does not clearly delineate who would be responsible for refuse accounts in situations where large corporations have hundreds of holdings.

Committee Co-chairman Bill Medeiros added that a similar problem would arise with residents on Hawaiian Homes lots that technically are owned by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

"With respect to Hawaiian Homes, the owner would be the occupant or the owner of the structure because that's who is on the tax record," said Deputy Corporation Counsel Cindy Young.

The effort to hold landowners responsible stems from a billing backlog that occurred when the Department of Public Works and Environmental Management took over billing for refuse collection in January 2006. Billings previously were handled by the Department of Finance.

Due to the amount of processing required to identify and cancel delinquent accounts, there was a backlog of more than 2,000 residential accounts that were receiving trash service but had not paid the required six-month advance fee.

"The majority of them were renters," said Solid Waste Division Chief Tracy Takamine.

Since then, the division cleared most of the accounts, identifying customers who had not paid and issuing payment notices to delinquent customers, whittling back-payment amounts due from $184,000 to less than $10,000.

"But it's not about the money," Takamine said. "It's about putting the responsibility on the owner to manage the account."

With committee members also expressing concern over other issues, including absentee property owners and the growing number of out-of-state renters, the committee deferred action on the bill.

According to Takamine, the Solid Waste Division will meet with Castle & Cooke, and it hopes to present a revised proposal dealing with the council members' concerns.