PD Editorial: Santa Rosa's greener trash contract comes at a cost

Garbage is a messy business.

As is the history of Santa Rosa’s trash hauling service.

After failing to put the lucrative franchise out to bid for ?54 years, the City Council in 2002 chose a new hauler, the Ratto Group, which promised lower rates and greener service.

The contract was extended without bids eight years later - with the city struggling to stay afloat during the recession and Ratto agreeing to a steep increase in its franchise fee.

Another no-bid renewal seemed likely until a scathing 2016 audit found the Ratto Group in violation of the basic terms of its contract. Among other things, the company hadn’t replaced aging trucks, its sorting facilities were substandard and recycling fell far short of minimum levels.

Santa Rosa officials went looking for the greener service they were promised 15 years earlier.

This time, however, no one is pretending that it’s going to cost less.

“It will be a bit of a shock to our residents because rates have been so low,” Councilman John Sawyer told Staff Writer Kevin McCallum last week. “But it kind of goes back to that cliché, you kind of get what you pay for.”

Residential collection rates will go up about 60 percent if the City Council approves a proposed contract with San Francisco-based Recology, which emerged from a field of five bidders for the trash collection franchise.

That’s a significant bump, but it needs to be kept in perspective. The price for a 32-gallon can, the most popular size, would increase from $16.97 a month to $26.85. The difference is about the cost of one large coffee a week at Starbuck’s or Peet’s, and Santa Rosa officials say local residential rates would still be lower than the regional average.

For its part, Recology agreed to invest $28 million in new trucks, new containers and upgrades to the sorting facilities on Standish Avenue. The company promised more information to the public about recycling, addressing a common complaint about the Ratto Group. Finally, it committed to raising Santa Rosa’s recycling rate from an abysmal 36 percent to 60 percent by 2029. The city would receive $7 million a year in franchise fees.

Recology, which stands to collect $735 million in revenue over the life of the contract, has an impressive track record. In San Francisco, for example, it has raised the recycling rate to 80 percent.

So far, only a summary of the 15-year contract with Recology has been made public, and it doesn’t include any information about sanctions for failure to perform.

The full contract will be released prior to a City Council vote on Aug. 29. Council members and interested citizens should study the details and ask questions - which wasn’t allowed during the closed-door process of reviewing bids.

The Ratto Group delivered on one of its big promises. Trash collection rates in Santa Rosa have been as much as 50 percent below the regional average over the past 15 years. But there have been hidden costs - air pollution and safety risks from outdated trucks and an unacceptably low recycling rate.

Better, greener service will cost more, but Santa Rosa residents are committed to a clean environment, including conscientious recycling and composting efforts. Now the city must ensure that these promises become a reality.