City of Gonzales
PUBLIC WORKS / CITY ENGINEER DEPARTMENT
STAFF REPORT
TO: Honorable Mayor Rios and City Council
DATE: January 18, 2022
FROM: Patrick Dobbins, Public Works Director/City Engineer THROUGH: René L. Mendez, City Manager
SUBJECT: Ordinance No. 2021-129 Adoption of an Organic Waste Disposal Reduction, Recycling and Solid Waste
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council:
• Receive the staff report;
• Open public hearing to receive and consider public comment; • Close public hearing; and
• Adopt, waive reading and read by title only Ordinance No. 2021-129, An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Gonzales Adding Chapter 5.30 to Title 5-Public Health and Safety of the Gonzales City Code for Organic Waste Disposal Reduction, Recycling and Solid Waste Collection.
BACKGROUND
In 2017, the State set a goal to reduce statewide disposal of organic waste by 50% from the 2014 level by 2020, and by 75% from the 2014 level by 2025. In order to meet these goals, the State has implemented requirements for the recycling of organic waste and the recovery of edible food that would otherwise be thrown away.
Most recently, the State has imposed regulations to implement these goals in Title 14, Division 7, Chapter 12 of the California Code of Regulations, entitled “Short-Lived Climate Pollutants.” These regulations were developed and adopted in response to California Senate Bill 1383, so they are often referred to as the “SB 1383 Regulations.”
AGENDA
ITEM
24 The regulations place requirements on multiple entities including cities, residential households, commercial businesses and business owners, commercial edible food generators, haulers, self-haulers, food recovery organizations, and food recovery services to support achievement of Statewide Organic Waste disposal reduction targets. It requires cities to adopt and enforce an ordinance or enforceable mechanism to implement relevant provisions of SB 1383 Regulations. These new regulations will take effect January 1, 2022.
On December 6. 2021, the City Council took action to introduce, waive reading and read by title Ordinance No. 2021-129.
REVIEW AND ANALYSIS
In response to the above-referenced statutory requirements, the City Attorney’s Office, using a template provided by the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority (SVSWA), prepared the attached proposed ordinance, which is the first step toward bringing the City into compliance with the SB 1383 Regulations.
Ordinance Summary
The Ordinance includes new definitions, which reflect the increasingly technical and complicated nature of State law in this area. In addition, it imposes the following major provisions and/or requirements for:
1. Automatic enrollment of all businesses and residents in a waste collection service that provides for recycling of both non-organic recyclables (e.g., bottle, cans, plastics, and glass) and organic waste (e.g., food, green waste, wood, and paper products), unless the business or resident obtains a waiver. The primary reasons the City will grant waivers will be (a) if a business does not have sufficient space on its property for an organic waste container, or (b) if a business produces no organic waste or a de minimis amount of organic waste.
2. Commercial edible food generators, including grocery stores, businesses that distribute food to grocery stores, wholesale food vendors, restaurants over a certain size, hotels and health facilities over a certain size that have food facilities, and certain event venues. These generators must make arrangements to recover as much edible food as possible that would otherwise be thrown away, including contracting with food recovery organizations, and keep records of such efforts.
3. Food Recovery Organizations and services that have contracts or written agreements requires maintaining specified records and/or data.
4. The City’s franchised waste hauler to provide a solid waste collection service that will comply with the SB 1383 Regulations, which includes a 3-container system.
5. For facility operators and community composting operations to provide information by the City within 60 days necessary to comply with the provisions of SB 1383;
6. For self-haulers – individuals and businesses that haul their own solid waste – to comply with the provisions of SB 1383, maintain the necessary records and provide said records to the City upon request. Said records are designated in the proposed ordinance that include but is not limited to maintaining records of the amount of organic waste delivered to the solid waste processing facility.
7. For water efficient landscaping, comply with existing requirements in the City Code and the State Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance, which are now referenced in this proposed ordinance.
8. Procurement mandates for city departments, direct service providers and vendors. Essentially this requires the purchase of recycled products, like paper and printing.
9. That allows the City representatives and/or designee to conduct inspections and investigations.
10. That allows for the enforcement of this ordinance by a City Enforcement Official(s) and/or designee(s) and provides the process for enforcement. It further establishes the following penalty amounts and types of violation for:
a) Commercial Business of $100 for the first violation, $200 for the second violation and $500 for a third and subsequent violation; and
b) Single-Family of $50 for the first violation, $100 for the second violation, and $250 for the third and subsequent violation.
However, it is important to point out that the proposed penalties are set at the minimum range established by the State and also as allowed by SB 1383, the City will take an educational and non-punitive approach for the first two years from January 1, 2022, through January 1, 2024.
11. On businesses (including owners of multifamily dwellings) to educate their tenants and employees about the new organic waste recycling requirements and provide appropriate separate waste containers for organic waste.
12. Provisions delegating primary authority for implementation of this ordinance to the City Enforcement Official and a recognition of the hauler’s role to maintain compliance.
City Non-Compliance
While the proposed ordinance is needed for compliance and the City expects to gain compliance from residents and businesses, SB 1383 Regulations provide CalRecycle with the ability to engage in enforcement actions of its own against the City if the designated level of compliance is not met. Some of these actions include:
Conducting more frequent inspections;
Taking over direct enforcement on non-compliant businesses within the City; Establishing a schedule for City compliance and a probationary period, requiring a work plan and that the jurisdiction demonstrates it has sufficient staffing to implement the requirements of the law; and/or Seeking administrative penalties against the City of up to $10,000 per day.
While this is clearly an unfunded mandate and no money is being provided by the State to cities and counties for compliance, we simply have no choice but to enact the ordinance.
Enforcement
As mentioned above, the ordinance establishes an enforcement mechanism that will require the City to establish and enforcement program. On this front, staff will reach out to the County Health Department to request help enforcing the ordinance with commercial food generators and compliance with edible food requirements.
Violations by commercial businesses are proposed to be identified by the hauler. Furthermore, discussions have been held with the SVSWA for them to provide the initial contact to seek voluntary compliance. Violations will then be referred to the City’s Code Enforcement Officer for additional warnings and citations. Furthermore, preliminary discussions are underway among the City Managers of the four South County Cities to jointly fund and share a Code Enforcement position especially as the program expands to include residential customers.
Environmental Review
Ordinance No. 2021-129 is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act on the grounds that it can be seen with certainty that the proposed Ordinance will not have a significant, adverse effect on the environment, and merely implements requirements already mandated by State law. In the alternative, the proposed Ordinance is also subject to a Class 8 Categorical Exemption per CEQA Guidelines Section 15308, as it consists of actions taken by the City as a regulatory agency, as authorized and mandated by State law, to assure the protection of the environment through enhanced requirements for the handling of solid waste. Further, none of the exceptions under CEQA Guidelines Section 15300.2 are applicable to the proposed ordinance.
Public Hearing
As is noted above, Ordinance 2021-129 was introduced and read by title only by the City Council on December 6, 2021. A public hearing for consideration for adoption and the second reading of this ordinance has been scheduled and noticed for this evening’s meeting.
Explain Recommendation and How it Supports the Vision
Gonzales will continue to be a safe, clean, family-friendly community, diverse in its heritage, and committed to working collaboratively to preserve and retain its small-town charm.
Explain: While the proposed ordinance required by State law will likely overtime help the environment and reduce waste, the implementation is in essence a ministerial act because the City is required to adopt it and add it to the City Code.
Explain how the Recommendation Directly Implements the Mission The City Council and Staff of the City of Gonzales will realize our Vision by providing the leadership, commitment, and resources necessary to provide excellent services that enhance the quality of life of our diverse community.
Explain: N/A.
City services will be delivered in a cost-effective, respectful, and friendly manner to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the residents and the promotion of business, recreational, housing and employment opportunities in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Explain: N/A.
Strong fiscal policies allow us to provide appropriate infrastructure for:
• Public Safety Yes No X N/A
• Housing Yes No X N/A
• Recreation Yes No X N/A
• Environment X Yes No N/A
• Education X Yes No N/A
Explain: N/A.
ALTERNATIVES
Your Council has the following options:
1. Request modifications to the proposed ordinance; or
2. Not move forward with the adoption of the proposed ordinance; which is not recommended because that would likely result in the imposition of fines by the State.
BUDGET IMPACT
It is hard at this time to estimate the full budget impact to the City to enforce the proposed ordinance. The waste hauler will be primarily responsible for monitoring many aspects of the collection, inspection, and enforcement, which will ultimately be covered by a fee imposed by the waste hauler. As your Council is aware, the City provides the exclusive waste hauling franchise to Tri-Cities Disposal and every year the City adopts the garbage fees that reflect the cost from the waste hauler and the SVSWA.
In addition to the disposal rates charged by the SVSWA, there is also a management fee paid that provides management and administrative services that will help cover some of the expected costs.
However, the City will likely have administrative, record keeping, compliance review, and other costs associated with implementation of the proposed ordinance. While the City Approved Budget for FY 2021-2022 may cover the added cost any needed adjustments will be brought before your Council as part of the Mid-Year or Third-Quarter Financial Report.
In addition to the proposed ordinance, the City will be required to purchase and utilize a portion of the mulch or compost created by recycling the organics materials. This is an onerous requirement imposed by the State in that the market is being created on the backs of cities and counties, which ultimately are our residents. While hard to estimate, staff estimates that the City will be required to purchase approximately 680 tons of mulch or 400 tons of compost annually. The annual cost is estimated to be $4,000 $6,000 plus staffing costs to place the materials, which will definitely require a future adjustment to the budget.
CONCLUSION
It is recommended that the City Council:
• Receive the staff report;
• Open public hearing to receive and consider public comment; • Close public hearing; and
• Adopt, waive reading and read by title only Ordinance No. 2021-129, An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Gonzales Adding Chapter 5.30 to Title 5-Public Health and Safety of the Gonzales City Code for Organic Waste Disposal Reduction, Recycling and Solid Waste Collection.
Attachments:
1. Ordinance No. 2021-129
2. Proof of Publication
3. Press Release
4. Flyers