Subcommittee forwards $114,138 state grant to expand used motor oil recycling programs

Chair Carmen Chu said the Budget and Finance Subcommittee voted to forward a resolution authorizing the Department of the Environment to retroactively accept and expand a $114,138 grant from the California Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery to increase used motor oil recycling and household hazardous-waste management.

Mark Weston of the Department of the Environment told the subcommittee the grant "is to promote used oil recycling." He said the program will emphasize outreach in Spanish and Chinese and will publicize drop-off locations and one-day oil collection events through a brochure titled "Wonder What to Do with It." Weston added the program is focusing outreach on what he described as "Chez Tree mechanics," which he defined in the meeting as "people in the community that change other people's oil," and which the department identified as a leading source of improperly disposed oil.

During a budget review, Chair Chu questioned a discrepancy between a summary sheet showing $62,000 in contracted services and the department's budget schedule. An unidentified staff member explained the schedule lists $10,000 as a to-be-determined contractor line and $42,000 for community-based outreach (total $52,000) and suggested the summary sheet may contain an error. The department confirmed the grant requires no additional city funding or new employees.

With no members of the public requesting to speak, the committee forwarded the resolution to the full Board of Supervisors "without objection." The item will appear on the Board agenda on 04/05/2011 unless otherwise noted.

Details from the meeting record: the grant amount cited in the resolution is $114,138; the department cited $114,000 in spoken remarks. The committee discussed a possible transcription/summary-sheet inconsistency between $62,000 and $52,000 for contracted/outreach line items.