By admin 
West Sacramento residents got their chance Wednesday to weigh in on a proposed trash collection contract, with many criticizing how the city handled a decision that could change its waste hauler for the first time in nearly 40 years.
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Residents packed the meeting hall, including several wearing the neon yellow uniforms of the competing waste haulers. More than 30 people waited to speak, with much of the discussion focused on rates, how the city evaluated the three companies vying for the contract and why the public was not brought into the process sooner.
Council members echoed some of those concerns, expressing frustration with the city’s handling of the process and questioning whether there was enough time for additional public input before they were expected to make a decision.
The city’s current contract with WM is set to expire in June. City staff evaluated bids from three companies before choosing GreenWaste, a San Jose-based company that served more than 300,000 residential customers and worked with more than 20 public-sector clients.
The proposed contract was reviewed by the city’s Environment and Utilities Commission earlier this month. Residents who spoke in that meeting said they were wary of disruption and happy with WM. The commission voted against recommending the contract to the City Council, which had final approval, without more community input.
Commissioners and members of the public questioned why they were not brought into the decision sooner and why there was not more public involvement, comparing the process with a March decision about water and sewer rates.
During Wednesday’s council presentation, city staff responded to those concerns by explaining how rates were set, how bids were evaluated and why the process differed from the water and sewer rate increases.
The process differed from the water and sewer increase because the council was not working to set rates. Instead, it was reviewing bids from a competitive process, West Sacramento Finance Director Roberta Raper said.
All three bids included rate increases, due in part to the city shifting billing responsibilities to its waste management provider. The increases would also close the nearly $2 million gap between what the city paid its trash hauler and what it charged residents.
Since July 2021, city rates for residents have held steady, but the city’s costs have increased by 4% per year, a nearly 22% increase since the last rate hike for residents, Raper said. The city paid about $4 per month more than it charged for most residential customers last year.
“Our rates need to catch up with current waste hauler trends,” sustainability manager Ryan Burnett said.
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Ahead of the workshop, the city received dozens of written comments about the proposal. Most criticized the city’s decision-making process, highlighting the lack of community input. Several letters mentioned the increased costs to consumers under the GreenWaste contract and said WM provided a better value.
GreenWaste has offered several contract enhancements since the commission meeting, Burnett said.
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Many commenters said they worried about the added costs of extra recycling or yard waste bins, so GreenWaste offered to maintain the same bundle WM provided: one trash bin, two recycling bins and up to four yard waste bins for the price of GreenWaste’s initial offer of one bin of each. The initial proposal included one bulk waste pickup a year, but GreenWaste offered two, matching WM.
GreenWaste also offered a 20% discount to seniors and free side-yard service, meaning seniors and people with disabilities would not have to move their bins to the curb on garbage day.
The City Council expressed concern about the tight timeline to make the decision and frustration with city staff for bringing the council, commission and public into the process after so many decisions had been made.
“I’m very disappointed with the city administration’s process,” West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero said to Burnett. “Not you, above you.”
Guerrero thanked the Environment and Utilities Commission for pushing for a better contract and said commissioners should have been brought into the process sooner, a point she said was driven home by the changes that followed their meeting. “A public meeting in a commission provided the most formative feedback for a modified proposal,” she said.
Others on the council asked whether the city could do more to lower the proposed rates for residents. “Rates are really really important right now,” Councilmember Dawnté Early said.
Early said she had concerns about the level of community engagement for such an important contract. She asked city staff about contingencies and what options the council had to ensure the city obtained the best possible deal.
She also asked whether the city could host more than one public event to raise awareness and solicit feedback in the coming weeks.
“I honestly would love more community engagement,” she said. ”I think it’s needed.”
The city will hold an open house to solicit more community feedback on Sept. 1. City staff would then bring the contract back to the council for its decision. Because the bids were set to expire in mid-September, the council aimed to vote on the contract at its Sept. 9 meeting.
City staff are also taking steps to combat inaccurate information circulating online, including by making the staff presentation about the contract available online and by sharing an FAQ page to answer common questions from residents.
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