1 Casey Erlenheim
From: Cesar Tobar
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2026 6:50 PM
To: City_Clerk
Subject: PUBLIC COMMENTS NOT ON THE AGENDA
Subject: A Simple Proposal to Make San Pablo Cleaner at Zero Cost: Reschedule Garbage Pickup Before Street Sweeping
Dear Mayor Pabon-Alvarado, City Manager Rodriguez, and Members of the San Pablo City Council,
My name is [Cesar Tobar] and I am a homeowner near John Herbert Davis Park. I am writing with a simple proposal that I believe could make San Pablo noticeably cleaner at virtually no cost to the city.
THE ISSUE:
On my street, the street sweeper passes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Garbage pickup is on Thursday. This means that every piece of small trash that falls during Thursday’s garbage collection — wrappers, debris, loose items that drop from bins or trucks — sits on the street for an entire week or more before the sweeper returns.
The sweeper cleans the street, then the garbage truck comes the next day and makes it dirty again. We are sweeping before the mess instead of after it.
THE FIX:
Reschedule garbage pickup to the closest available day BEFORE the existing street sweeping day — not after.
If the sweeper comes Tuesday, schedule garbage pickup for Monday. If the sweeper comes Wednesday, schedule garbage pickup for Tuesday. The sweeper always follows the garbage truck and cleans up whatever fell during collection.
WHY MOVE TRASH DAY INSTEAD OF SWEEPER DAY:
Moving the sweeper schedule would require updating every posted "No Parking — Street Sweeping" sign on every affected street across the city. That means printing, labor, and installation costs for potentially thousands of signs.
Moving the garbage pickup day requires zero sign changes. There are no posted signs for trash collection. The garbage company simply sends a mailer or notification to affected households. Residents adjust within a week or two. The sweeper signs stay exactly where they are.
Same result. No infrastructure cost.
THE IMPACT:
This is a citywide improvement that requires nothing more than coordinating schedules between the sanitation contractor and the street sweeping department. No new equipment. No new staff. No new budget. Just a logistics adjustment.
I suspect this scheduling mismatch exists across multiple routes in San Pablo. A systematic review of all sweeper and garbage pickup schedules — ensuring collection always precedes sweeping — could make a visible difference in street cleanliness across the entire city.
2 A PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY:
This is exactly the kind of analysis that could be performed in partnership with Contra Costa College, which is right here in our city. Urban planning, environmental science, logistics, or data analysis students could audit the current schedules across all routes, model the optimized sequence, and present recommendations as a class project or capstone.
The city gets professional-quality logistics analysis at no cost. The students get real-world experience and academic credit. And San Pablo begins building the kind of town-and-gown relationship that defines a true college town.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this proposal further or to present it at a City Council meeting.
Thank you for your time and your service to our community.
Respectfully,
[Julio Cesar Tobar]