Let's set the record straight and examine the facts.

The City of Sunnyvale has three major areas of concern when it comes to the SMaRT Station: A concern that our contract with GreenTeam/Zanker, the station operator, is properly administered; a concern for the workers and a financial responsibility to our rate payers whose trash goes to the SMaRT Station.

The recycling workers are employed by GreenTeam/ Zanker, a company Sunnyvale has contracted with to staff and operate the facility.

But the issue of wages is not a black-and-white situation as some have said.

It would be a violation of law if Sunnyvale were to interfere with the contract between GreenTeam/Zanker and its employees. Labor issues, including wages, are negotiated directly between GreenTeam/Zanker and its employees' bargaining unit, Teamsters Local 350.

The city's concern for these workers began before the SMaRT Station ever opened--our contract with GreenTeam/Zanker requires the company pay prevailing wages to its employees. Thus the City of Sunnyvale ensured workers would not be stuck in a minimum-wage job, but instead would earn as much as most others doing the same work in Santa Clara County. Prevailing wage rates are determined by the State Department of Industrial Relations and we use this determination within the GreenTeam/Zanker contract to establish minimum rates of pay.

Last summer, when the department of industrial relations determined the prevailing wage for trash sorters was significantly higher than what GreenTeam/Zanker was paying, Sunnyvale moved quickly to notify GreenTeam/Zanker that it was in breach of its contract by not paying the prevailing wage. This was based on the premise that California Waste Systems, under contract to San Jose, had 78 sorters, compared to GreenTeam/Zanker's 77. Under department of industrial relations policy, the salary paid to the largest number of workers becomes the prevailing wage.

Last fall, Sunnyvale staff saw a newspaper article and other public documents that contradicted the employment data given to the department of industrial relations by Teamsters Local 350. A September newspaper article reported a total of 64 workers at the California Waste Systems facility, and a San Jose City Council agenda memo included a July 2004 letter to the city manager indicating only 48 of those employees were sorters, far fewer than the 77 employed at the SMaRT Station.

Based on this conflicting information, we requested the department of industrial relations validate the numbers used in making its prevailing wage determination. While it appears the department is exploring the issue, no plan to resolve the question has yet been forthcoming.

Late last month, GreenTeam/ Zanker's attorney forwarded all this information to the department of industrial relations with a request that the earlier wage determination be withdrawn, and the following day, Teamsters Local 350 notified the department it would not oppose reopening the investigation for the sorters.

While this process has taken longer than any of us would like, it appears a final resolution is near. Sunnyvale will work with our SMaRT Station operator to ensure prevailing wages are paid as the contract requires once a final determination is made by the state. And Sunnyvale has kept faith with ratepayers in Sunnyvale, Mountain View and PaloAlto, ensuring the fees for trash service are accurately based.

John Pilger is the communications officer for the City of Sunnyvale