Not a very sanitary charge

Geoff West

During their meeting Oct. 4, the Costa Mesa City Council, in a quest

for new revenue sources, decided to pick the pockets of their

constituents.

After a brief debate, they decided to impose a sanitation (solid

waste hauling) franchise fee -- the sole survivor of their

deliberations this spring, when the council rejected four other

alternative sources of revenue. Rejected at that time were an

increase in the transient occupancy tax, fire/medical subscription

fees, business license fee increases and a sales tax increase. They

could have chosen an increase in the transient occupancy tax -- Costa

Mesa is equal to the lowest in Orange County -- and generated a

significant increase in revenue without affecting most residents, but

that would have required a vote of the people. This is a tax charged

to the hotels, which would be passed on to the guests, most of whom

are not Costa Mesa residents.

They could have chosen to increase the business license fees,

which are presently among the lowest in Orange County, but that also

would have required a vote of the people. They could have chosen to

implement a fire and medical subscription plan, which would have only

affected the subscribers. They could have considered increasing the

sales tax, but that would have certainly proved to be an unpopular

decision.

Instead, they selected the one item sure to reach into the pockets

of each and every resident of this city and pluck out hard-earned

dollars -- the sanitation franchise fee.

Apparently, our city is one of only three in Orange County that

does not charge such a fee. So, the plan would be to charge each

waste hauler licensed to do business in the city a fee -- which would

simply be passed on the their customers -- you and me. The only

inconvenience to the haulers will be passing the dollars from one

hand to the other. Instead of taking this opportunity to implement an

exclusive, or modified exclusive, franchise arrangement that could

reduce the number of huge, heavy trash trucks crisscrossing our city

each day by awarding franchises to a few successful high bidders, the

city perpetuated the traffic and impact on our deteriorating streets

by making this a nonexclusive fee.

So, the existing haulers -- more than a dozen presently -- will

simply continue to charge what they want with no incentive to engage

in competitive pricing. The trash trucks will continue to traverse

our streets like so many elephants in a circus parade, pulverizing

the already-crumbling pavement and belching diesel fumes like Uncle

Harry on Thanksgiving evening.

This sanitation franchise fee is a sticky wicket, though. There is

a body of thought that the council doesn’t have authority to impose a

franchise fee on the residential hauling element because the Sanitary

District is an independent, separately elected body, which controls

the hauling of residential waste in this city. So, with the cloud of

potential legal action once again floating in the air, the council

delayed further action until Nov. 1, at which time they will

reconsider the entire issue. I hope they will take advantage of this

brief delay to seriously consider making this a modified exclusive

franchise for nonresidential haulers and open the process up to

competitive bidding, with a only a handful of bidders permitted to

haul this waste.

The result could be more reasonable rates for the consumer and

fewer trucks playing leap-frog on our streets. With lawsuits in it’s

wake like confetti after a parade, a legal department in such

disarray that it’s going to be disbanded, and the city’s legal work

outsourced, it appears likely that this council will leave a legacy

of behavior resulting in litigation unlike any previous quintet.

This, of course, is food for thought with an election right around

the corner.

* GEOFF WEST is a resident of Costa Mesa.