Trash Talk

An Event Affecting All Pacificans

by Lionel Emde

On Monday, November 30, 2009, the City of Pacifica will be holding "a community forum on solid waste disposal services, including recycling..."

The start time is 7PM and it will be held at the city council chambers, 2212 Beach Blvd., Pacifica.

Garbage collection; that's what will be talked about, and the notice fulfilling the legal requirement appeared on page 17A of the Tribune this past Wednesday.

Why page 17A with no news story attached? Well, Tribune publisher/editor Elaine Larsen told me that the notice was received just before their publication deadline, and there wasn't time to do a story, much less give it more prominent placement.

If it wasn't for Elaine, I would have never known the notice was there, I went right over it.

Now why would such an important, once-in-a-lifetime event such as changing trash collection firms be so under-noticed?

Maybe because it's becoming evident that the City of Pacifica wants to shove the problem/contract at Recology and not do a Request For Proposal process. (RFP)

An RFP might (horrors!) protect the ratepayers, who've been paying the highest rates for garbage collection in San Mateo County, courtesy of the gougemasters at Coastside Scavenger.

And of course, the city mustn't be let off the hook for their complete lack of oversight between 1995 to 2006.

An RFP would encourage a competitive bidding process. You know, that thing you've heard of and never seen here in Pacifica.

The  city manager characterized this process as "contentious" and he's right--it's really a bitch when all us unwashed citizens come out and speak our minds.

But it's important that we do so, and ask that an RFP be instituted for this contract, and tell them what we'd like to see in recycling services--something other than being told by Coastside Scavenger that containers bearing recycling nos. 1,6, and 7 be "thrown away".