With the predictability and offensiveness of a phonograph needle on a scratched record, certain representatives on the board of directors for the Southeastern Public Service Authority spoke out again on Thursday in favor of charging the city of Suffolk tipping fees for trash disposal.

The motion by a Chesapeake representative on the board failed on a 5-10 vote, but it had little chance for ultimate success, even if a majority of the regional waste authority’s directors had voted in favor of it. Suffolk enjoys free disposal of trash at the regional landfill by virtue of a contract that all of the municipal members signed in the 1970s, when Suffolk agreed to host the landfill in exchange for free tipping there.

It’s an agreement that has proved unpopular with Suffolk’s sisters in the authority, especially in recent years, as tipping fees have risen well above the $100-per-ton mark. Thirty-five years ago, when Suffolk was a sleepy little place with a small population and comparatively little trash to dispose of, the agreement made plenty of sense to the folks in thriving Chesapeake and the rest of Hampton Roads’ core cities. But as Suffolk grew, its contributions to the landfill rose, contributing to the authority’s need to open expensive new landfill cells, and therefore to the cost of operating the landfill. Juxtaposed with the continuing budget problems faced throughout Hampton Roads, the situation was bound to cause some hard feelings among SPSA’s members.

Still, a contract is a contract, and Suffolk’s leaders would rightly be pilloried for agreeing to renegotiate the contract to their singular disadvantage. Citizens of Suffolk, especially those who live and work near the landfill, already deal with problems — odor, litter and traffic, for a start — that stem from having the landfill sited within the city’s borders. Accepting new fees to dump trash at the landfill would just add insult to injury.

The other members of SPSA can be forgiven for not appreciating what they see as an inequitable situation, but until they’re ready to start allowing trash trucks from all over Hampton Roads to start leaving garbage in their cities, they should learn to just grin and bear it.