Oakland City Council Votes to Approve Garbage Contract Compromise

The Oakland City Council has ended months of controversy by voting to approve a compromise that gives part of the city’s garbage contract to a local company and part to Waste Management, the country’s largest waste hauler.

In voting on Monday night to split the contract between Waste Management and California Waste Solutions of Oakland, the council reversed its vote on Aug. 13 to award the entire $1 billion garbage contract for the next 10 years to California Waste Solutions. Six council members voted in favor of the compromise, Desley Brooks abstained and Larry Reid was absent. The compromise calls for Houston-based Waste Management, which has provided service in Oakland for more than 100 years, to continue to collect trash and compost and for California Waste to pick up and process all recyclable materials.

The agreement takes effect next July 1. The compromise came after Waste Management filed a lawsuit following the City Council’s vote to award the entire contract to California Waste Solutions, alleging that that it “appeared heavily swayed by long-term personal and political connections” to California Waste Solutions officials. Waste Management also launched a voter-referendum drive to overturn the council’s decision. The compromise calls for Waste Management to drop its lawsuit as well as its referendum efforts. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who helped broker the agreement, said city residents will get more services than before and will pay a total of $36.82 per month. The new rates are a 24 percent increase over current rates but Quan said there haven’t been any increases for the past 10 years and Oakland’s increase is smaller than recent increases in nearby cities.

Quan said the agreement is the greenest Oakland has ever reached because 80 percent of waste will be diverted away from landfills. She said the pact also continues Oakland’s ongoing efforts to reduce and mitigate illegal dumping because there will be 25 daily pickups at illegal dumping sites.

Quan said in a statement, “We have fought for and secured the lowest rate increase we could after a decade without increases” and the city has guaranteed continuity of service when the contract begins next July. City Councilwoman Lynette McElhaney and other councilmembers have depicted the competition between Waste Management and California Waste Solutions as a battle of David versus Goliath because Waste Management is a much bigger company.

But California Waste Solutions chief executive David Duong is well-connected politically and has photographs in his office of himself posing with President Barack Obama, former President George Bush and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Duong said in a statement, “We believe that this solution between the city, California Waste Solutions and Waste Management is best for Oakland residents and the community that we love and call home. We’ve been in Oakland for more than 30 years and this is where we plan to stay.”

—By Bay City News

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