Talkin' Trash - The Next Step

In the previous articles on Talkin' Trash we looked at the recent selection of a new waste management company for Lake Forest. Here’s what we found –

• Single family residential customers will see a 45 cent per month decrease in rates.

• Small business owners will see a 40%+ increase in rates. Medium sized business owners will see increases between 2% and 30%.

The cause of these increases is a function of

• the state mandated push for more recycling,

• the fact that we had only 2 companies to choose from, thus limiting our options, and

A FEW OBSERVATIONS

Before we discuss the next step, I want to make some observations-

• Three Council members (Voigts, McCullough, Robinson) accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from one or both of these trash companies, but none of the three mentioned this during the discussions.

• Mrs. McCullough rambled on, took a trip down memory lane, told us she talked with her “cousins” from all "over the states” and otherwise occupied precious Council time that could have been spent on more cogent items, particularly since the topic was so vital to the wellbeing of the City.

• Mayor Robinson and Councilmember Voigts are always talking about helping local businesses, yet they voted a fee increase that will significantly impact businesses, and they voted for the company that proposed the higher fees.

Among other things, the Council could have concluded that the flawed RFP needed to be revised and then re-issued so that more companies would be incentivized to offer competing bids. Or, the Council could have authorized the City to explore the additional proposal from WM that offered even lower rates. But none of these things happened.

The fact that we are faced with significantly higher rates than we might have received is a direct result of two major problems confronting the City, which I have chronicled many times on these pages – the corrupting influence of council members accepting money and the incompetent reports being submitted to the Council. Isn’t it interesting that the only two companies to apply for the contract are companies that “greased” the skids with campaign contributions? Have companies learned that the cost of doing business in Lake Forest is paying thousands of dollars to Council members so they can get elected? Did this result in the other companies not applying?

NEXT STEP

The next step in the trash process is a public hearing on April 29 to adopt the rates proposed by CR&R and the City. It will be held at 6 pm at the City Council. Proposition 218 requires that notice be given 45 days in advance, so nearly everyone in the City should be receiving notice by the end of next week (March 14).

Among other things, Proposition 218 regulates the way local governments can assess fees. It requires proposed changes to be submitted to the people and requires a majority vote, although certain types of fees are not subject to the majority vote requirement. If more than half of the 25,000 people who are going to get changes to their fees object to the changes, the City will be forced to keep the old fees. This will make little difference to single family residential home owners, but for businesses and for people who live in condos, mobile homes, and apartments, it can mean the difference between increases that will average 40% and some which will more than double. If enough people comment that they want to prevent the price increase, I will follow-up with an article about how to do this.