The Seaside City Council voted Sept. 4 to join a regional, cost‑sharing memorandum of understanding (MOU) administered by Regen Monterey to fund consultant support for franchise collection planning related to area waste haulers.

Staff explained the project is a regionwide consultant engagement to evaluate existing franchise agreements with GreenWaste (the transcript notes GreenWaste contracts for participating member agencies expire in 2030), perform stakeholder engagement (surveys, public meetings), and assist member agencies with decisions to extend, renegotiate, or reprocure franchise services. The Regen-led approach allocates consultant costs across participating jurisdictions instead of each city running a separate procurement.

Kirsten Van Gend, an engineering analyst, told council that if a participating agency drops out during later phases, the remaining agencies would absorb the cost increase for the remaining work. Regen communications manager Kristen O'Hara said the shared approach reduces per‑jurisdiction expense: “Essentially over a 5 year period, if everyone is all in, it's about $76,000 per jurisdiction across 5 years. It's a little over $15,000 a year.”

Councilmember Miller asked whether some jurisdictions already use different haulers; staff and Regen confirmed Monterey and unincorporated Monterey County are not participating because they have different service providers (Monterey Disposal and Waste Management, respectively). Councilmember Garcia Arizola, who serves on the Regen board, told the council the regional process includes a technical advisory committee and staff liaison coordination.

The measure to adopt the resolution authorizing the MOU carried by voice vote; the public record does not include individual roll-call votes in the transcript, and staff described the contract as a regional arrangement administered through Regen Monterey.