For Long Beach’s private trash collectors, changes might be in the wind, and they have five years to figure out what they are.
The Long Beach City Council voted on May 23 to study the possibility of moving into a so-called “exclusive franchise system” with its private trash haulers, which serve commercial businesses and apartment complexes of 10 or more units. The council also voted to give the current 15 private waste companies that serve Long Beach a five-year notice that the City is pondering an overhaul to waste-collection services for commercial businesses.
If ultimately adopted, an exclusive franchise system would mean that only a limited number of trash collectors would be working under a franchise agreement with the City and a limited number of collectors would be chosen to haul waste in a given zone, according to a memo from Vice Mayor Rex Richardson.
“The five-year notification letter being requested will not commit the City to any specific course of action,” Richardson stated in his memo, “but rather, will allow the City to consider changes to the current system.”
This particular action does not affect the current City waste-collection service, which covers residential and smaller commercial customers. The proposal only covers the 15 private waste-collecting companies, which already have an agreement with the City to cover commercial and larger apartment complexes.
In his memo, Richardson pointed out a few of the concerns with the system as it currently stands: inefficient routing, overlapping truck routes and increased pollution. The vice mayor noted that there are times when there are at least six different waste companies that operate in a half-mile area.
He also noted in his memo that there are new state mandates covering recycling and diverting organic waste from landfills that must be implemented over the next few years. Richardson stressed these points in his presentation to the council last week.
“On behalf of thousands of businesses, the City would [be] able to hold haulers accountable for the best customer service and!the most fair customer rates,” Richardson told the city council last week. “And let’s remember there is already a public option in our city.”
At this stage, the council only voted to study the issue, and city staff will be expected to look at how other cities have adopted an exclusive franchise system and return to the council with recommendations. Richardson estimated that a study could take about 2.5 years to complete.
The vice mayor went on to describe how the City also has a waste-collection service, which covers residential and other commercial services. He pointed out that the city haulers are not “burdened” to increase corporate profits.
“If someone says, ‘My rate skyrocketed,’ you can always go with the public option, the city option,” Richardson said at the council meeting. “That helps regulate the pricing.”
The council also voted to ask that the study explore options to allow the gas bill to report how much of the trash bill is absorbed by landlords and also explore possibilities to ensure that small-business owners have an opportunity to compete to become a private hauler.
The prospect of a five-year notice to make a change bothered Kelly Astor, who appeared before the council members last week before they voted on the issue. Astor is a general counsel for the Los Angeles County Waste Management Association. He does represent some of the private waste collectors who would be affected by any change. He pressed the council to wait six months in order to create a task force that would include all stakeholders to review the issue. Astor noted that there are already issues with how the City of Los Angeles has implemented its own plan for an exclusive franchise system.
“In the meantime, please do not issue that notice,” Astor said, “and please recognize we have haulers in this community that have been working here for several generations. The thanks to them should not be that they’re given a wave on the way out.”
Before they voted on the issue, the council did express their desire to have stakeholder input, which would include not only the waste customers who would be affected, but the trash collectors, community and environmental advocates as well.
“I think this a great opportunity to address our climate-change goals in the city,” Garcia said as the present councilmembers voted unanimously to approve Richardson’s motion. “And I think we have to get serious about waste.”
Second District Councilmember Jeannine Pearce recused herself from the vote.
Garcia did acknowledge that other cities have had issues in implementing their own plan, but the mayor remained optimistic that Long Beach could learn from mistakes other cities have made.
“I think,” Garcia concluded, “we can improve on what other cities have done and ensure that we end up with [what] I think could be the model system in the country, and I think that’s what we want.”
