From:
To: City Council
Subject: Trash hauling
Date: Saturday, January 4, 2025 10:44:27 AM
Hello, I’m unable to make the meeting in the 7th so I’m writing instead. I understand the City is considering switching providers from Recology to SRCC.
If reporting in the Press Democrats is correct, 2 options are under consideration, each resulting in approximately doubling of cost over then next 15 years. In return, customers get Christmas tree pickup and 2 bulky item pickups. I expect most residents would rather skip those benefits rather than see their bills double. The same reporting indicates the city would get event trash services at a lower rate. This is clearly a benefit to the city, but comes at great expense to residents.
In addition, if communication from Recology is correct, the new fee structure would disproportionately increase fees on recycling and composting. This would obviously disincentivize recycling and composting, which surely is counter to the city’s, and its residents, desires. The same communication from Recology indicates waste would have to be hauled out of the county, directly increasing Sebastopol’s carbon footprint. Again, this seems counter to expressed intentions of the city and residents.
Overall, this deal seems to offer some financial benefit to the city but at great cost - both financial and environmental - to customers. I urge the council to not adopt this change. At the least, the city should feel a responsibility to clearly outline all benefits and costs associated with the change and open that information to a public comment period.
Additionally, I see that the City has again hired an outside consultant to analyze the situation and make recommendations. This is a constantly recurring theme in city financial discussions. At this point, one has to wonder why the city continually pays for-profit consultants? Surely it would be cheaper to hire a couple of staff analysts to help the council understand these issues. For a city we are continually told is facing extremely dire financial problems, the continued use of outside analysts seems like an expense worth looking at very closely.
Thanks
Chris