Big thanks to the ad hoc committee and city staff for their no doubt complicated negotiations and analysis charting the best future course for the city’s solid waste collection agreement.
The City of Sebastopol is in a serious fiscal emergency, while simultaneously costs for basic services have exploded and continue to rise, so any effort to stem the bleeding of both businesses, citizens and the city are essential.
Garbage contracts are very big, multi million dollar business.
The Ratto group, our previous city contract holder, were bullied out of being the predominant Sonoma County service provider in 2016 and sold out in January 2017 to giant multi state
‘Recology’ (formerly known as Norcal Waste Systems) the parent to approximately 40 operating companies across California, Washington and Oregon.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosabased-ratto-group-selling-north-bay-garbage-empire-to-recologyo/ Recology profits are over a billion a year. They are in agreements with the Teamsters union Solid Waste and Recycling Division.
As has been discussed at length in previous council meetings our garbage bills are going up, the only question is by how much.
Recology made it clear at past council meetings they have been losing money on the City of Sebastopol since assuming the Ratto contract in 2017 and will need a great deal more revenue from any agreement with the city going forward.
The decision was made to put the contract out for proposals from other suppliers. Local Windsor based. SCRR/ ‘Sonoma County Resource Recovery’ bid and are now recommended by the ad hoc committee and city staff in their 200 page analysis.
https://www.sonomacorr.com/
During their time as the city’s solid waste collection provider, Recology have done an excellent job of embedding themselves into the city, chairing the Chamber of Commerce and aligning closely with locals who are alarmed by climate changes.
Once the ad hoc committee and city staff recommendations were published, Recology as the incumbent put out a skillfully worded document designed to spread widespread alarm, particularly amongst local businesses. This is very big business and there is a lot of money at stake, this is typical and normal large corporation behavior to protect their profits and growth.
However the SCRR public comment letter I just read makes it clear that there are a lot of ‘apples to oranges’ comparisons in Recology’s claims and that they are framing their arguments based on outmoded models.
I doubt a local county services business entity has the resources to mount a massive pr campaign against a very well funded incumbent but looking at the knee jerk reaction public
comments flooding the city website in support of the billion buck Recology corporation I suspect some may have only read Recology’s 4 pager and not the ad hoc committee and city staff’s careful analysis and recommendations.
As a city that is sadly becoming increasingly unaffordable, the whole reason for the laborious and time consuming efforts to negotiate an equitable, cost effective solid waste collection contract that works for everyone was to get the best deal and services possible for everyone. Layers and layers of restrictive new state legislation inevitably place more and more cost on services users and this is an expensive problem for everyone.
It would be helpful for city staff to provide a short, balanced comparison of the two bidders offerings to deflate the hysteria, and the considered reasons for the decision to engage SCRR as our new provider.
Business development and nurture is essential for the survival of the City of Sebastopol, so strong engagement with the new community development director would also be helpful as we enter this new era.
Oliver Marks
Downtown Sebastopol