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Uploaded: Thursday, September 20, 2012, 8:41 AM
Council OKs new garbage contract
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by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff
While competitors were knocking on the city's door, the City Council gave long time garbage hauler Recology Mountain View another eight years on Tuesday, unanimously approving a new contract that contains costs while adding a modest amount of new services.
While council members had questions about whether the new contract would help the city towards its goal of increasing recycling to get closer to zero waste, one thing was clear: "We'll get more for less dollars," said council member Jac Siegel. "I'm very happy with that."
City officials say major new efforts towards the zero waste goal may come when the Recology contract expires in 2021, the same time as the city's contract for its landfills and garbage sorting services at Sunnyvale's SMART station.
"This gets us to 2021, in case we want to make massive changes at that point," said council member Laura Macias.
Future changes could include simpler recycling bins, or the use of an anaerobic digester which converts organic waste into gas and electricity. Until that can happen, the new contract adds recycling and food scrap services for commercial users. Residents will see additional collection of yard waste in the fall along with a new curbside pickup of household batteries, engine oil and filters, cooking oil, compact fluorescent bulbs and cell phones, among other upgrades.
The Mountain View Recycling Center at 935 Terra Bella Avenue will expand its list of items that can be recycled and will be open longer, staying open two hours later every weekday and opening on Mondays.
The contract also calls for a transition to new garbage trucks powered by compressed natural gas, which will make up half the fleet by 2015, replacing bio-diesel powered trucks.
Rate increases are expected next year of up to 2.5 percent for the carts used by most residents and 16 to 22 percent for those who use large bins and compactors. Recology's employees will see a pay raise of 9.45 percent in the first year and 1.1 percent in the following year.
The new contract goes into effect in July, 2013. For details, see recologymountainview.com or mountainview.gov and look for council agendas and reports for Sept. 18, 2012.Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Andrew, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Sep 20, 2012 at 2:31 pm Doesn't "We'll get more for less dollars" contradict "Rate increases are expected next year of up to"?
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Posted by Steve, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Sep 20, 2012 at 2:49 pm Nice to see competitive bidding. Oh wait, there wasn't any.
'Fewer' dollars, not 'less' dollars. Oh wait, neither one.
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Posted by JLS, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Sep 20, 2012 at 2:52 pm It stinks of back room politics that MV City Council would not allow other companies to give their proposals. Los Altos has a MUCH better program. My birthday gift from Los Altos friends was to be able to drop my compost off in their bins--a gift an environmentalist really appreciates. And not to give this and other companies a chance to bid smells very fishy indeed. Was someone paid off? If other companies were cost more, fine--they don't get the job. But to not allow them to bid? What is going on here?
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Posted by Frustrated, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Sep 20, 2012 at 4:30 pm Same old MO from the city officials. Back door deals, and higher costs for residents. Kind of inline with our water rates skyrocketing because we rationed too much and didn't use enough. That is enough! November is coming up, time to vote out EVERY SINGLE incumbent! Time to stop corruption and fraud while playing with our dollars on our payroll!
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Posted by Bettina, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 9:19 am Can anyone tell me what the average Recology employee makes a year to justify more than a 10% raise within 2 years? After the two years are up are they going to ask for more? Just curious.
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Posted by Nicole, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2012 at 2:47 pm Seriously, no composting for 10 years, that is really really sad. Are we the only city left witout composting? And every other week for recycling, frankly I have more of that than garbage. Why not garbage every other week and recycling/composting every week?
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Posted by Tom, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Sep 25, 2012 at 4:44 pm This reminds of the Halliburton no-bid contracts aproved by ex-CEO and then VP Dick Cheney for the Iraq war and reconstruction.
Well, at least this money will be spent cleaning up our own trash here in the US, not wasted away in some far-off desert.
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Posted by Judy, a resident of the Waverly Park neighborhood, on Sep 27, 2012 at 1:21 pm Recology is the absolutely BEST collector in the area. Compare them with our neighbors collectors. They offer great services and have done an unassuming and amazing job for years. Thanks!
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