City Considering Amending Municipal Code to Extend Garbage Contract

The city is considering amending its municipal code in order to allow a local garbage company to extend its contract instead of going out to bid and in exchange receive a food waste composing program and potential discounts for disposal at the local landfill.

The issue will be discussed at Monday’s City Council meeting, which starts at 7pm.

Petaluma Refuse & Recycling now hauls the city’s garbage and has until 2016 before the contract runs out. But according to the city charter, the guiding document for city administration, a competitive bidding process is needed to award an exclusive garbage contract to any company, something that cannot happen more than a year before the contact expires.

To sign the new waste agreement, the city would have to first terminate its existing exclusive franchise agreement and sign a new contract for 15 years without going out to bid. For more details, click here.

Another issue to be taken up on Monday is a resolution to support a bill to extend the boundary of two marine sanctuaries into Sonoma County in order to prevent oil drilling.

Authored by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, HR 192 aims to expand the boundaries of the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine sanctuaries into Sonoma County and the southern Mendocino coast. The region is one of the most biologically productive, producing 20 percent of the word’s fish, according to the resolution.

In addition, the coastal estuaries are important passages for endangered salmon and steelhead, essential haul outs for seals and sea lions and nurseries for hundreds of aquatic species. The bill, introduced this January, would maintain commercial and sport fishing enterprises and protect existing oyster operations and native fisheries.

Other items include reinstating the Chief Building Official position at City Hall, phased out in 2008 due to budget cuts. But now the city says it has money for the position because of higher revenues in the Building Department. The job is responsible for overseeing code enforcement, building permits and fees and the overall administration of the building department.

The meeting starts at 7pm Monday at City Hall. 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that council would vote on whether to amend the city charter in order to allow Petaluma Refuse & Recycling an exclusive contract. The charter can only be amended by the vote of the people. Petaluma Patch regrets the error.