City planning for increases to cover cost of picking up organics waste

Curbside organics collection services — the final item needed for the city of Tehachapi to comply with a corrective action plan issued by CalRecycle last year — would mean a rate increase of $11.23 per month for residential customers.

That’s the word in a staff report for the Feb. 20 meeting of the Tehachapi City Council. The meeting was planned for after the deadline for this edition. See next week’s edition or tehachapinews.com for the latest information.

In the report, Assistant City Manager Corey Costelloe said the city has already passed ordinances to help it comply with Senate Bill 1383.

The state law intended to reduce the impact of shortterm climate pollutants was passed in 2016, but regulations didn’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2022. And some jurisdictions — including the city — were able to delay compliance by showing progress. The state aims to divert 75% of organic waste from landfills by 2025.

Providing residents with a third can specifically for organic waste — including food scraps — is among the ways the city can meet state requirements.

Costelloe said a requirement for the new service was added to the city’s municipal code in 2023.

“The enforcement of that code was put on hold until all the remaining elements of starting the new service were addressed,” he told City Council members in the staff report. “We have reached that position in this long journey.”

Costelloe said the city worked with its trash hauler, WM (formerly Waste Management) and consultants to review proposed rates.

WM will need another vehicle and staff to service the third can, he said.

“The costs were evaluated by our consultant and found … to be reasonable,” he added.

The city has proposed that residential customers will have one 96-gallon refuse cart, one 96-gallon cart for recyclable materials and one 64-gallon cart for organic waste. The refuse and organic carts will be picked up weekly and the recyclable cart every other week.

The residential rate is proposed to increase from the current $22.68 per month to $33.91 per month — a total increase of $11.23 per month.

Costelloe said there are necessary changes for commercial customers, as well, and that will also mean increased expense for those customers.

He also noted that the council will be asked to approve a new franchise agreement with WM in April.

PROPOSITION 218

Although the city has already mandated the organics collection, it must go through the Proposition 218 protest process to raise the rates.

“Customers will receive a notification via mail with the new proposed rate structure, including county landfill fees, which are adopted separately by the County of Kern, along with information regarding the process for the rate approval,” Costelloe said. “Those desiring to protest the proposed rate increase will be instructed in the notice about that process.”

He said a public hearing notice would be published in Tehachapi News no less than 10 days prior to the public hearing date.

“Barring a 50% plus one majority protest of all property owners, the new rate structure can be approved by the City Council at the public hearing,” he said.

If the protest is successful, the city would still be required to provide the organics collection and commercial recycling bin service, he said. Estimated costs for the service would impact the city’s general fund by $800,000 in the coming fiscal year.

Failing to provide the service could result in a $10,000-a-day fine by CalRecycle, totaling $3.65 million a year, he said.

Proposition 218 protests are rarely successful. However, Kern County’s efforts to comply with S.B. 1383 last year by mandating trash collection — including organics — in some unincorporated areas and adding the cost of that service to tax bills ran into a wall when protests were successful in some areas, including the Tehachapi Universal Collection Area.

How that will be resolved remains to be seen.

In Golden Hills, a Proposition 218 hearing wasn’t needed because the district was able to increase the rate to cover the expense of the third can because the increase was in line with the future increase policy approved through the Prop. 218 procedure on March 1, 2019.

Because the process is expensive and time-consuming, it is common for public agencies to plan for multiple years when proposing rate increases subject to Prop. 218.