The Cypress City Council has unanimously approved a scheduled hike in the trash rates for Valley Vista Services at its regular meeting on April 28, but not before a peace offering to the company that extracted additional services from the trash-hauling firm.
The operative word here is unanimous, because it has been a long time, if ever, since the embattled trash hauler has been in complete unison with a sitting Council.
The Council’s discussion revolved around an annual increase in the hauler’s monthly rates tied to the Consumer Price Index due to the company under their controversial, lengthy trash-hauling agreement.
The Council meeting, following a spring hiatus, marked the official welcome of its new city manager, Shannon DeLong.
In addition to the CPI rate adjustment allowed by the Valley Vista contract, the Council also went on record to support a new 10-year WISE agreement (Waste Infrastructure System Enterprise) to authorize the city’s use of the existing three solid waste landfills.
Public Works Director Nick Mangkalakiri, P.E., said one of the county’s three landfills will be closed at some point soon; therefore, the new agreement will authorize expansion of one of the remaining two.
“The franchise agreement allows a direct pass through, so any increase that we see at the county level are directly passed along to the rate payers,” said Mangkalakiri.
“It is also important to note that this increase is not being driven by the city, or the franchise hauler, and that this is not unique to Cypress. This is a county-wide issue affecting all Orange County cities,” said Mangkalakiri.
Accordingly, Cypress homeowners will see a quarterly increase of $5.80 on their Valley Vista trash pickup bills, which is slightly higher than some surrounding communities, residents were told.
Council member David Burke noted, however, that though county-wide landfill issues did affect the rate increase, actions by an earlier Council, not the current one, also affected the rate of increase.
According to Burke, the 2021 conract gave the trash hauler the right to allow 37 percent of their increase to be tied directly to landfill rates rather than the 20 percent, like many other cities.
“I want to be very clear with our residents about the increase,” said Burke.
That said, Burke signaled it may be time for a peace offering of sorts to Valley Vista, suggesting there were a couple of giveaways in their existing contract (approved in 2021) that perhaps should be revisited.
“We used to have 12 free bulky item pickups during the year in the previous contract,” said Burke, “and when it got amended, it got cut from 12 (bulky item pickups) down to 2.
“I think that puts a strain on residents to dispose of some of their bulky items,” he said.
“I should ask our representatives from Valley Vista if there’s any sort of potential improvements we can make to our disposal of bulky item options here in Cypress,” Burke said.
Large-sized disposal items such as couches, refrigerators, and other such items that do not fit within the services’ regular pickups are considered bulky.
Valley Vista Executive David Perez, in the Council chamber for the meeting, responded directly to Burke’s question and was permitted to address the Council. It was clear from the tone that he welcomed the chance to satisfy the Council.
before the Council at their April 28 meeting. Courtesy photo
“I have been discussing this with your staff and trying to come up with some ideas,” Perez began. “Obviously, the two bulky items pickup per year (schedule) is restrictive, for sure,” said Perez.
“I’ve heard this speaker earlier, and I can’t argue that point. I mean, it would appear to be a little restrictive, so I would say we could come up with something a little more generous, and probably more thoughtful,” he said.
During the oral communications portion of the meeting, resident Tom Moore told the Council that just two bulky item pickups per year were not enough.
Valley Vista Services is interested in “aligning better with what the residents really need,” said Perez, “as opposed to what we saw in the past.”
“As someone pointed out earlier, there really isn’t a lot of calls for bulk items, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t provide the service,” Perez said.
“And, as you pointed out,” he told Burke, “we do want to provide stellar service for this community because we really do enjoy servicing Cypress. It’s a great contract, and we appreciate everybody here.”
Burke and Perez agreed that Valley Vista will now provide at least two bulky items, and Perez indicated that he may even consider even better terms.
“I think something along the lines of, we go to, like, four calls per year and every call from 10 to 12 items,” said Perez. “I think in that way, everybody gets something,” he added.
City staff will now sit down with Valley Vista and work out all of the details before the final amendment to the waste hauler’s agreement comes back to the Council for approval.
“I would certainly want to bring something back to be approved before new rates go into effect,” Perez continued.
Obviously, we want to give the people something for when they see rates go up,” he said, defending the earlier Council’s much-discussed, long-term, no-bid contract.
“I do believe the deal is a very good deal for the city in the long haul. I mean, it’s a short-term kind of ‘ouch,’” he said, “but in the long term, it’s going to prove to be a good and wise decision,” Perez suggested.
Burke also pressed Perez on the once-a-year, so-called curbside pick-up “sweep,” saying while it is voluntary on the part of Valley Vista, Burke suggested adding it to the contract “since you’re doing it already.”
“I’m happy to do it,” said Perez, adding that “you can always count on our better angels, but I agree that it should be codified.”
With everyone in such a cheerful mood, Council member Bonnie Peat suggested the Council also consider making the Valley Vista contract an “evergreen” agreement.
While the Council took no formal action on it, and neither did Peat request any, she suggested the Director of Public Works should look at it before the entire Valley Vista contract returns to the agenda for its update.
“When we look at our surrounding cities, most have an evergreen (trash) contract, and we chose not to do that. Firms in those cities have been given endless, or 30 years plus, in some cases, and they (the city) extend it each year,” she said.
“I appreciate the service Valley Vista has provided to us, and I think it would be a shift for us, but Nick (Public Works Director), you’ve had some good ideas that I think we can probably combine it with a review of the contract,” said Peat.
Mayor Pro-tem Dr. Kyle Chang asked Perez to consider the plight of the individual living in multi-unit apartment complexes, given that in the bulky item pick up, each “unit” gets two stops only, but thanked Perez for showing up at the Council meeting, given the five years of barbed debate over the company and its contract.
Given the enormous friction between the Council and the company in the past, Chang also commended Perez for having the courage to appear before them.
“It took a lot of courage to come here,” Chang told Perez, “and I think it goes a long way with the city.”