MONO SUPES REJECT TRASH RATE HIKE
Mono County Supervisors talked trash for almost an hour at their meeting on Tuesday. No, literally.
Mammoth Disposal Company made a request to the board to raise the service fee floor at the board’s meeting on Tuesday. The request was posed as a complicated issue by its presenter, Public Works Director Paul Roten, but it eventually boiled down to the business trying to keep an edge against its competitor, D&S Waste Removal, Inc.
“They’re asking us to make a decision that ultimately helps them with their business,” Supervisor John Peters remarked.
After much deliberation, Peters made a motion to make zero changes to the solid waste removal floor rate, which was seconded by Jennifer Kreitz and passed unanimously, 5-0.
Now here’s the down and dirty of the issue: while rates are set by individual franchisees, there is a mandated “service fee floor” that cannot be undercut. Mammoth Disposal requested a 28.1% increase in this floor rate, citing adjustments for inflation and other costs, whereas D&S did not request any increase.
“I think, with the economy being the way it has been the last 2 or 3 years, people are hurting,” said Kevin Brown, owner of D&S. “Daryl [his business partner] and I feel that if we have to have an increase, fine, but don’t kill the people.”
There have been no increases to the floor rate since before COVID-19. However, Mammoth Disposal has decided to increase its rates by 5% each year, and Roten expects they will raise rates by another 5% this year. This would place them at 20% above the current floor rate.
D&S has not chosen to increase its rates over the last couple years, Brown said. But should the floor rate increase, it would also need to adjust its rates.
“In theory, the franchise agreements are trying to maintain competition,” Roten explained.
Mammoth Disposal primarily serves Mammoth, while D&S covers other areas of the county, including Crowley, he said. Many constituents in Crowley opt for D&S, likely due to the differing rates between the two companies.
“Our prices include everything we need to accommodate our infrastructure and operations,” Brown stated. “I don’t want to be subject to paying for their operation.”
When Kreitz inquired how Roten tends to receive these rate requests, he responded, “they send me an email, make phone calls, hassle me on the street.” After the motion to make no changes passed, Roten expressed his gratitude to the board for the conversation, and noted that he “needed” the decision to go that way.
Pay hikes
In another, separate, unanimous decision, the Board agreed to support pay increases for 12 positions within the county’s Environmental Health Series and Public Health Nursing Series, which were the only positions identified as below market in the county’s salary survey.
“Hopefully, that’ll help with some of the recruiting and hiring because they’re struggling to get public health nurses,” Supervisor Lynda Salcido said.
All other benchmark positions were found to be over market, and no recommendations were made to change or lower the salaries of those considered over market, said Special Projects Officer Mary Snyder.
“It is an acknowledgment that these salaries have been adjusted over time to recruit and fill positions, and it also reflects our Board’s commitment to the employees in Mono County,” Snyder added.
The fiscal impact for the remainder of the fiscal year is $47,134, and for a full fiscal year, it is $94,268, excluding future cost-of-living increases. The calculated fiscal impact does not include unallocated and vacant positions.
Letter to LADWP
The Board also reviewed in the meeting a letter of commitment to maintaining Mono Lake water levels. It moved forward with the letter, with the caveat that it should be addressed directly to Janisse Quiñones, the new CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), and Richard Katz, a new commissioner on the DWP Board of Commissioners.
Geoff McQuilkin, executive director of the Mono Lake Committee, made the suggestion to address the letter in this manner. He mentioned having met with DWP staff twice about their decision to exceed the committed water export amount.
The original commitment was for 4,500 acre-feet of water export, which would provide supply for the city while helping preserve recent gains in Mono Lake from a wet year, rather than artificially lowering the lake, McQuilkin stated.
However, DWP recently changed the diversion amount to stand at about 7,800 acre-feet, translating to approximately 2.5 billion gallons of water.
“There was really no communication provided when DWP just reached that level and then exceeded it,” McQuilkin noted. “We were aware that the number had been exceeded before Thanksgiving and spent about two weeks inquiring before receiving a response.”
Eventually, DWP gave McQuilkin two reasons for the increased export: potential dry conditions and the need for water in the city, or potential wet conditions and concerns about reservoir management, particularly regarding the Grant Lake Reservoir.
“The key question we’ve raised but not received an answer to is whether meeting the State Water Board’s healthy lake level requirement factored into that decision,” McQuilkin said. “The answer was no, not really.”
Within the letter, the county requested a meeting with LADWP representatives “to discuss this matter further and to explore mutually beneficial solutions.” Additionally, Karen Bass, the Mayor of Los Angeles, was CC’d on the letter, and Supervisor John Peters requested that other legislators also be included on the CC list.
