Head of Sonoma County Waste Management Agency to resign

The executive director of the embattled Sonoma County Waste Management Agency is resigning, citing the agency’s uncertain future, which is clouded by an ongoing legal battle and questions over whether it will exist in two years’ time.

Henry Mikus announced his decision in a letter to the agency’s 10-member board last week, noting that he has accepted the position of engineering manager for the city of Sebastopol.

Mikus, who has led the agency since 2011, cited in his letter the “very uncertain future for the agency” as well as his “desire to provide stability while my youngest child completes his schooling.”

Mikus was a public works director in Virginia before taking the helm of the waste agency. He has a 16-year-old son who is a junior at El Molino High School.

He said the time seemed right for a change given that his contract with the agency is up in December and the entity’s board remains split on what the agency’s role should be past February 2017.

That’s the expiration date of the 1992 deal between local cities and the county to form the agency in order to coordinate and promote regional recycling efforts.

Discussions have been underway about how the agency’s core functions - facilitating the composting of green waste, disposing of hazardous waste, public education and reporting to the state - can be accomplished through a revised joint-powers authority or by other entities.

The agency is talking with Sonoma County about having Republic Services, the county landfill operator, take over some of its functions. Another regional public agency, the Regional Climate Protection Authority, could handle future public education and policy functions.

Complicating matters for the waste agency has been an ongoing legal fight over the compost operation it oversees at the county’s landfill west of Cotati. The green waste operation, now set to shut down by October, has been the subject of two lawsuits brought by landfill neighbors.

Given that backdrop, Mikus’ decision doesn’t come as much of a surprise, Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt said.

“I think the system pushed Henry into a box, or into a corner,” he said.

The waste agency has faced numerous challenges during Mikus’ tenure. Foremost among them, it had to defend itself against a Clean Water Act lawsuit filed by neighbors who alleged the compost operation atop the landfill had long polluted Stemple Creek.

It faced steep fines from water quality regulators, forcing the agency to build a larger stormwater pond and haul excess water off site for treatment.

It also had to study and select a new home for that compost operation, a long-delayed and highly political process that has resulted in project costs soaring to $52 million.

And it has had to do all of it with a 10-member board that needed unanimity for any major decisions.

Dan St. John, Petaluma’s public works director and chairman of the agency board, stressed that the organization has managed to find ways to maintain compost service for customers, largely by hauling green waste to other facilities.

He said the board members remain committed to constructing a new, modern facility near the site of the old one, despite not knowing who will finance, build and operate that facility.

“I can’t tell you today what things will look like in 18 months, but I can tell you that you’ve got 10 very committed agencies with their shoulder to the task,” St. John said.

Mikus’s resignation could be effective in the middle of next month, pending the outcome of his planned request to the agency’s board.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @srcitybeat.