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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 2025-01-14_10a Supplemental 1 pRROVO O C� INCORPORATED �Z it JULY 10, 1911 4/FOS MEMORANDUM TO: City Council FROM: Jessica Matson, Director of Legislative & Information Services/ City Clerk SUBJECT: Supplemental Information Agenda Item 10.a. — January 14, 2025 City Council Meeting Establishment of a Solid Waste Rate Adjustment Consistent with Proposition 218 DATE: January 14, 2025 Attached is public comment received prior to 2 p.m. for the above referenced item. cc: City Manager Assistant City Manager/Public Works Director Director of Administrative Services City Attorney City Clerk City Website and Public Review Binder Enc From: Garry Schmidt < Sent: Monday,January 13, 2025 8:33 PM To: Jessica Matson Subject: SCSS rate hearing,January 14, 2025 Attachments: FRANCHISE AGREEMENT LIST OF VIOLATIONS.docx To the Members of the City Council I am writing to express my opposition to the requested rate increase by SCSS. While the rate increase itself seems reasonable there have been significant failures by SCSS to abide by the Franchise Agreement over the past three years since the last public hearing on rates back on June 14, 2022. As with any contract, one would expect the Franchisee to abide by the terms of the agreement before being paid more for the work to be done. I have attacheda summary of these failures. While I know this will not hold up your approval of the rate increase, I hope this will motivate the City of Arroyo Grande to be more vigilant with regard to the Franchise Agreement requirements and that you will be more proactive to support AG residents who experience the adverse effects of these failures. Thank you, Garry Schmidt, Sunrise Terrace Mobile Home Park 1 ARROYO GRANDE SOLID WASTE COLLECTION FRANCHISE AGREEMENT List of Violations by South County Sanitation Services Reported by Garry Schmidt, Sunrise Terrace Mobile Home Owners Association, January 8, 2024 8.6 Publication of Rates A written notice with explanations if appropriate is required to be sent by the Contractor to the Customer. The SCSS Rate Request presentation at both the April 12 and June 14, 2022 City Council meetings indicated that our "residential" rate would go from $19.46 to $24.78. Then, without notification of any kind, in August 2022, we were changed to the "commercial" rate. This was an increase of 53% instead of the 27.33% in the rate increase request. When calls were made it was explained that Sunrise Terrace had been incorrectly billed for many years. The explanation without merit since it is not consistent with the Franchise Agreement in place before 2022, in which all residential facilities that have individual bin collection are classified as "Single Family". 5.9 Clean-up Days Twice a year clean-up days are required for all single-family and multi-family residential units. No clean- up days have been provided for Sunrise Terrace ever, and particularly not since this service was required in the Third Amendment to the Franchise Agreement which was adopted in April 2022, by the City of Arroyo Grande. SCSS has committed to providing this service in 2025. 6.10 Public Education No public education materials have been provided to the residents of Sunrise Terrace as required by the Franchise Agreement and the SB 1383 regulations. Very few residents know that organic food waste needs to be discarded in the green bin, thus defeating the intent of the law. Exhibit G Record Keeping and Reporting The result of my Request for Public Records reveals that the required annual report from the Con-tractor (Franchise Agreement G.3.3) is not available as reported by the City Clerk on December 2, 2024. This is probably also true for the monthly reports since the City of Pismo Beach has not been able to locate any of these reports according to their City Clerk. ASSOCIATED POTENTIAL VIOLATIONS OF SB 1383 REGULATIONS It is likely that these violations of the Arroyo Grande Franchise Agreement have resulted in numerous violations of the Short-lived Climate Pollutants: Organic Waste Reductions Regulations, CC Title 14, Division 7, Chapter 3, since the Third Amendment to this agreement is intended to bring the jurisdiction into compliance with the law. Listed below are just a few of these potential problems. Section 18981.2 Implementation Requirements on Jurisdictions (2) Jurisdictions are ultimately responsible for compliance with the requirements of this Chapter. Section 18985.1 Organic Waste Recovery Education and Outreach This section specifies the responsibilities of the jurisdiction which has not happened. Section 18994.2 Jurisdiction Annual Reporting The detailed reports required by this section would not be possible unless these were annual reports by the Contractor as prescribed in G.3.3 of the Arroyo Grande Franchise Agreement.