Brea City Council postpones decision on solid-waste rate increase, seeks more time to review Republic Services agreement

Brea City Council members on Feb. 4 delayed action for two weeks on proposed adjustments to residential and commercial solid waste and recycling service rates and a second amended franchise agreement with Republic Services of Southern California.

Matthew Cuevas, senior management analyst in the Public Works Department, told the council the item arose from statewide requirements under Senate Bill 1383 and related implementation extensions under Senate Bill 619. A consultant, NewGen Strategies and Solutions, calculated a revenue requirement of $4,504,926 to make the solid-waste program cost neutral. NewGen's recommended residential rate was $32.59 per month; staff said vacancies and other adjustments would allow a lower staff-recommended option of $31.27, which would still leave an estimated first-year under-recovery of about $158,930.

Cuevas walked the council through service changes the agreement would add, including residential organic-waste collection, expanded commercial container sizes and reporting and monitoring requirements. The amended agreement includes liquidated-damage provisions that would allow the city to assess monetary penalties for substandard service (examples cited by staff included $500 per occurrence to clean up leaks or spills and $100 per occurrence for failure to respond to a complaint within 24 hours).

Council members pressed staff and Republic representatives on several specifics: whether outstanding liquidated-damage claims from a prior work stoppage remain unresolved; why Republic proposed switching from the previously negotiated garbage/trash index to a water'sewer'trash (WST) index; how flow control for commercial organics would be handled; whether dedicated trucks would serve Brea; and what materials (for example, untreated wood with nails) would be acceptable in residential organics carts.

"If you adopt the maximum rate, the $32.59 that was recommended," Cuevas said during a fiscal explanation of the timeline to reach revenue neutrality. Republic's Mitch Koptjek said the WST index was proposed to align with an anticipated regional (county) agreement and to reflect the new county index being used in other contracts. He explained that when trucks serve multiple cities, reporting and disposal are allocated to the originating city so tonnage can be tracked accurately.

Council members expressed concern that some revised contract language and rate schedules were provided only shortly before the meeting. "This whole all these changes'there's red and there's blue cross outs. Did we all get this today?" one council member asked. Another said the late changes made them uneasy about burdening commercial ratepayers while also protecting residential customers.

Republic offered two alternative approaches to the commercial-index transition to reduce residential impacts: a phased set of extra-percentage increases over several years (examples discussed included an additional 2% in a transition year, then smaller additions in subsequent years) or a modest flat extra percentage (1.5%) for several years before reverting to the normal garbage/trash index.

With questions remaining and the council seeking more time to review the revised agreement and index options, a motion to postpone the decision for two weeks was made and seconded. The council took a voice vote and the motion passed (recorded as 4'00 on the roll). Council directed staff to review all changes in the agreement and return with any recommended edits.

The public hearing record will remain available for written protests filed in accordance with Prop. 218 rules; staff noted 3 written protests had been received as of the presentation. The item will return to the council at a subsequent meeting for final action. In the meantime, staff and Republic representatives said they would provide additional materials clarifying the index options, flow-control language, commercial revenue-share details and education/outreach plans for residents.

The council then proceeded to routine consent calendar business and successor-agency items before adjourning.