From:
To: Sandra Maurer; Neysa Hinton; Phill Carter; Jill McLewis; Stephen Zollman; City Council; Mary Gourley Cc:
Subject: Support for Recology is Supporting our Community Date: Monday, January 6, 2025 6:34:27 AM
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Retrograde Tombe Example Bill SCRR vs Recology.png
Dear Members of the Sebastopol City Council,
I am writing to express my strong support for retaining Recology Sonoma Marin as Sebastopol’s trash service provider. Choosing SCRR instead of Recology is not in the best interest of our community, as it will negatively impact both residents and businesses.
SCRR’s proposed rates are significantly higher, especially for commercial and multi-family customers. For example, Cambridge Palm & Tombe Realty, our landlord, would face a $698.94 monthly increase under SCRR—a staggering 33.87% increase compared to Recology for one single building's service. I attached our bill for you to plainly see the facts.
This is largely due to drastically higher costs for recycling and composting. Such rate hikes discourage participation in environmentally crucial programs like recycling and composting, and will trickle down to small businesses and residential communities who are lease-holders.
Additionally, SCRR does not have a local recycling facility, transporting materials out of the county to facilities with lower processing capacity. This will undermine Sebastopol’s recycling rate, increase greenhouse gas emissions, and contradict our city’s sustainability values.
In contrast, Recology is an employee-owned company with a state-of-the-art facility that properly recycles 85% of collected materials. They actively support our community by providing exceptional service, transparency, and resources for local events. Recology’s proposed rates are also more affordable for the majority of residential customers, including a $4 per month savings on the widely used 32-gallon garbage cart. Recology also donates waste bins to local events and has a strong community relationship we should continue to foster.
It is important to note that SCRR is part of a larger, non-local corporation, which means profits are more likely to leave our community rather than being reinvested locally. In comparison, Recology’s employee-owned model ensures that profits stay within the organization, benefiting workers and supporting community initiatives. Choosing SCRR would take money away from Sebastopol and concentrate it in a larger corporate entity with less stake in our local well-being. This information is present on their website and with a quick Google search, you can clearly see the corporations that own them, and that they are not local.
Presenting this company as a small local entity is plain misinformation.
Sebastopol is already grappling with rising costs from PG&E rate increases and water rate hikes. Our small businesses, the backbone of our local economy, are struggling to stay afloat.
In the past year, we’ve seen far too many closures, and further cost increases could drive even more out of our community. We need city council members who understand that keeping costs down as much as possible for both small businesses and residents means that our local economy will thrive.
Sebastopol prides itself on being environmentally conscious and community-focused. SCRR’s poor track record in Windsor—marked by customer complaints, lack of transparency, and rising costs—further demonstrates they are not aligned with these values.
I would also like to address a concern regarding responses from Council Member Saundra to constituents’ inquiries. Some of these responses have come across as dismissive of valid concerns, suggesting they are not real despite the availability of clear, fact-based rate comparison data showing SCRR to be more expensive than Recology. It is crucial that our leaders acknowledge and engage with these well-supported concerns in a meaningful and transparent way, your job is to listen to the constituents that elected you and not passively brush off their concerns with no data or concrete information.
I urge you to prioritize the interests of Sebastopol’s residents and businesses by maintaining our partnership with Recology Sonoma Marin. Their commitment to affordability, sustainability, and community support makes them the clear choice for our city.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Danielle Connor & Casey Lanski
Owners, Retrograde Coffee Roasters
photo Danielle Connor, she/her
Co-Founder, Head of Operations,
Retrograde Coffee Roasters
www.retrograderoasters.com
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