Willow Glen Resident

News

City dumps Norcal for two new trash haulers

By Monica Heger

San Jose said no to Norcal, opting not to extend the indicted company's trash hauling contract. Instead the city chose to award the contract to two smaller companies.

The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to pursue a contract with Garden City Sanitation and California Waste Solutions effective July 1, despite city staff predictions of trash-filled streets for switching garbage haulers on such short notice. Garden City will collect the city's trash and CWS will collect the city's recyclables.

The new contract will affect 156,000 households in San Jose, not including Willow Glen and West San Jose. Green Team currently service these areas.

City staff recommended Norcal's contract be extended for two years to allow more time for the transition. The recommendation did not go over well with council members, who opposed any contract extension since the Norcal indictment.

"I'm not sure what world you're living in," Councilman Ken Yeager said to city staff, "but we're up here living in a different world, and it includes a lot of
headlines that we've been reading about on a daily basis, grand jury reports and indictments. The public very much does not support an extended contract with Norcal."

Under the Garden City/CWS combination, residents can expect to see a rate increase of $5.84. The recommended two-year Norcal contract would have increased rates $5.04. Residents will also have their garbage and recyclable items picked up by two different trucks, instead of the split trucks Norcal uses.

Mayor Ron Gonzales excused himself from the meeting because his attorney did not want his vote to have an effect on the upcoming trials of Gonzales, his aide Joe Guerra and Norcal.

In a lengthy presentation, city staff explained why they were recommending an interim two-year contract with Norcal. The main issue, they asserted, was the transition from Norcal to the smaller Garden City Sanitation. Former director of environmental services Lou Garcia reminded the council of the problems in 1993 when the city transitioned to Western Waste Industries, which at the time was the fifth largest trash-hauling company in the country. On the first day of the new service, 3,000 residents were left without garbage service. Trash was left on the streets for days, Garcia said.

Staff was particularly concerned about the amount of time required to order garbage trucks. Garden City has said its drop-dead deadline for securing a contract would be the end of August, which would give them about 10 months to prepare. Barbara Stevens, president of Ecodata, a solid waste management consulting firm, said the timeline for ordering trucks can take up to a year.

Aside from concerns about the timeline, staff also noted CWS' spotty past performance. CWS has been operating as a subcontractor of Norcal, processing the city's recyclables. San Jose found it transported recyclable material outside city limits without authorization from city officials. For this reason, city staff had advised the council to consider disqualifying CWS from the bidding process.

Under Yeager's recommendation, the new contract with CWS will include more oversight by city officials and strict performance measures and customer evaluation. The council also gave city manager Les White the authority to negotiate a possible extension of Norcal's services if Garden City would not be ready by July 1.

More than 30 people spoke on the matter, including representatives from Norcal, Garden City and CWS.

Louie Pellegrini, the president of Garden City, assured the council it would be a smooth transition.

"I have over 34 years of industry experience," Pellegrini said. He oversaw the transition to Green Team, the company that collects the city's yard waste, which was a relatively smooth transition compared to previous mobilizations.

Garden City's general manager Steven Jones concurred.

"If Garden City is selected today, I will be the face you see," Jones said. "We understand what our responsibility is. We are committed to create a comprehensive timeline for the mobilization."

Most of the speakers were community members urging the council to select CWS, a minority-and locally owned business.