The pending solid waste rate hikes the Manteca City Council will consider adopting Dec. 6 has prompted a lot of questions from ratepayers.
The monthly rate changes would be phased in over five years starting in 2017 until fully implemented in 2021.
It would take the 35-gallon residential Toter from $19.78 to $30.67 for a $10.85 per month increase.
It would take the 65-gallon residential Toter from $25.49 to $32.61 for a $7.12 per month increase
It would take the 95-gallon residential Toter from $30.02 to $34.33 for a $4.11 per month increase.
It would take senior low-income residential Toter service from $12.72 to $19.72 for a $7 per month increase.
Renne Garcia is one of the ratepayers with questions. She submitted them to City Manager Elena Reyes who worked with municipal staff to answer the questions. The questions and answers follow:

 1. Since the great recession is “over”, why have you not moved street sweeping back to the general fund?
Up until July 1, 2009, street sweeping operations were accounted for in the Gas Tax Fund. A study was conducted in 2009 prior to moving these costs into the solid waste fund that supported nexus and concluded that most of the debris picked up by the street sweepers was generated by the residents/rate payers.
2. Why is cleaning up homeless encampments not on the general fund?
The Solid Waste department’s primary role in this activity is limited to the collection of debris and waste. Part of the goal of the solid waste program is to protect health and safety and to support the general welfare of the community. By supporting activities such as cleaning up homeless encampments, the City can ensure that trash, debris, green waste, and appliances/furniture are disposed of in accordance with all rules and regulations of the State of California. These costs are standard costs borne by solid waste private haulers as part of their franchise agreements with cities. As such, the City of Manteca has historically followed suit and included such costs as part of the solid waste rate structure. Working with the City’s Police Department on homeless issues and drug busts has become a regular community service that solid waste staff provide. In the overall scope of things they are a relatively minor part ($25,000 +/-) of the Solid Waste operations.
3. Why is police evidence storage not on the general fund?
 The support provided by the Solid Waste division in regard to evidence storage is primarily related to the provision of dumpsters. The purchase of the dumpsters is a qualified use of asset seizure funds and the Police Department has offered the use of the funds to offset the cost of this service. 4. Why is cleaning up illegal dumping not on the general fund? We handle illegal dumping in a number of ways. Some is picked up by streets crew (if it is within the Right of Way) other is picked up by the property owners of the adjacent property (in alleys). Sometimes we provide bins to facilitate the removal of debris by one of those groups. And in some cases, solid waste picks up debris that we can’t get picked up by others.
Again, part of the goal of the solid waste program is to protect health and safety and to support the general welfare of the community. By supporting activities such as cleaning up illegal dumping, the City can ensure that trash, debris, green waste, and appliances/furniture is disposed of in accordance with all rules and regulations of the State of California. These costs are standard costs borne by solid waste private haulers as part of their franchise agreements with cities. As such, the City of Manteca has historically followed suit and included such costs as part of the solid waste rate structure.

5. Why is clean up and staffing of special events not on the general fund, especially if you waive fees for cleanup and staff.
The cost of staffing and clean-up of special events by any special revenue or enterprise fund (including the Solid Waste Fund) is funded by the General Fund. Reimbursements are made from the General Fund to the Solid Waste Fund via a Council approved special event waiver.  
6. Why is garbage collection from parks not on general fund?
 Garbage in parks used to be collected by parks staff paid out of the General Fund. During recession, this function was moved in part to solid waste, since parks no longer had staff to provide the service. Note that solid wastes public service in parks is limited to the automated pick up of carts that are located on the perimeter of the parks. The logic was that the trucks were already in vicinity, literally on the streets driving past the carts, so just stopping to pick up a few more carts would have minimal impact on the efficiency of the drivers.
Part of the goal of the solid waste program is to protect health and safety and to support the general welfare of the community. By supporting activities such as refuse collection in parks, the City can ensure that trash, debris, green waste, and appliances/furniture are disposed of in accordance with all rules and regulations of the State of California. These costs are standard costs borne by solid waste private haulers as part of their franchise agreements with cities. As such, the City of Manteca has historically followed suit and included such costs as part of the solid waste rate structure. 7. Why is working with police on drug busts not on general fund? The support provided by the Solid Waste division in regard to evidence storage is primarily related to the provision of dumpsters. The purchase of the dumpsters is a qualified use of asset seizure funds and PD has offered the use of the funds to offset the cost of this service. Working with PD on homeless issues and drug busts has become a regular community service that solid waste staff provides. In the overall scope of things they are a relatively minor part ($25,000 +/-) of our operations.

8. The money from the sale of credits, and fuel savings generated by food scraps is not targeted for the department that created it, why?
There are a couple of issues here. First, the garbage trucks are heavy and have an impact on the long term condition of our streets. Ideally the solid waste fund would contribute to the maintenance of streets, especially residential streets where Solid Waste trucks are the heaviest frequent load that over time cause more wear and accelerated failure of the pavement. However, adding this to the current rate would have resulted in a higher increase and was therefore dropped from immediate consideration. The Renewable Identification Number (RIN) Credits on the other hand are years away, and may or may not have any value by the time we complete the infrastructure required to generate them. Lastly, the solid waste fund will get the benefit of the biogas that will be produced, as that will fuel the trucks. Creating our own fuel will insulate us from any long term increase in petroleum, plus we get the benefit of greater efficiency, lower noise, and cleaner energy.

9. In the proposed new rates, the 6-yard commercial bin picked up once a week goes from $196.06 down to $184.34. Why is this rate slated to go down?
The new rates are based upon the calculated cost of services. In most cases this had gone up, however in a few cases the new rate actually went down. In the case of the 6-yard commercial bin, the older calculation was heavily weighed on volume, and in the new calculation, volume is a lower proportion of the overall cost. These two factors changed in proportion. This is the same reason why the cost of the smaller bins increased.

10. Please explain in more detail why the 35 gallon Toter needs to go away?
a) Having three different cart sizes requires that we maintain more inventory, more expense & storage space
b) Contamination - Smaller carts are the most frequent cause of cross contamination. Residents who are trying to save money order the smaller cart, and then when they have more garbage, they slip it into the blue and green bins.
c) Operational issues – The other option for those with small carts that have too much garbage to fit is to pack it into the small container. When our truck goes to pick up the packed cart, they have to shake it loose which sometimes means the cart is shaken into the hopper of the truck which then means the driver has to climb in to retrieve it. That is not safe for the driver and causes delays on routes.
 
11. How is it that the city dropped the ball with regards to making sure new construction pays its way? Bonus Bucks?
The City of Manteca is unique in that most cities in California are serviced via negotiated franchise agreements with private haulers. The private haulers incorporate the cost of providing carts/dumpsters to new accounts in their overall rate structure. This has also been the historical approach of the City. In developing the proposed rate structure, staff was able to develop a nexus specifically to the provision of new service, and as such is recommending that a new fee be established to shift the cost of this service from the current rate base to development/new residents.
In researching solid waste franchise agreements with private haulers in neighboring communities, staff confirmed that the items listed in questions 1-8 are standard services negotiated to be provided free of service to the community in addition to the negotiated franchise fee. These costs are then included in the overall rate structure offered by the private hauler. Hence you see that rates in Tracy and Lodi where private companies collect the garbage are much higher.
Public Work’s Conclusion:
Over 80% of our identified “Public Services” are the cost of providing free community clean up bins. This has been a very well received program that is a direct benefit to the rate payers and helps reduce illegal dumping significantly. The remaining items addressed above with the exception of street sweeping are all relatively minor costs and parts of the operation. If the cost of those services were to be charged to the general fund, such a change would have a negligible effect on rates (less than 1% change).