With the latest cost of living adjustment in July, Cypress residents have started paying more for garbage service than many other cities in Orange County as citizens continue to ask for more transparency.
A far cry from when the Council approved a no-bid 10-year extension for Valley Vista’s waste hauling contract, worth an estimated $100 million for the company back in 2021 and 2022.
In addition to the huge financial plum, the city threw in for good measure another gift for Valley Vista, allowing them out of their original contract of a three-percent maximum increase in the cost of living adjustments, leaving it virtually uncapped.
The rate adjustment, opposed by Council member Frances Marquez, was approved in November of 2021 and finally approved in January/February of 2022 after a public hearing when residents, complaining bitterly, suggested they had not been given enough time to raise enough signatures to nullify the increase.
The increase was approved by then Mayor Paulo Morales, Mayor Pro-tem Jon Peat and current Mayor Scott Minikus. Records indicate Council member Anne Hertz Mallari voted for the original increase yet recused herself after the public hearing vote in 2022.
“Cypress is lower than all the other cities in our immediate area except for the one-off, Los Alamitos. Los Al is a different city, they have different requirements, and I congratulate Los Alamitos and Universal Waste Systems for coming up with an agreement,” said Peat at the time.
“I see no justification to lock in the citizens of Cypress to a contract that includes a 32 percent rate increase for the next 13 years,” said Marquez in 2022.
In fact, according to a brief analysis, trash hauling rates in the City of Cypress have already more than doubled that amount, up 67 percent since the new contract was approved.
To be fair, Cypress residents do not pay the highest rates in Orange County, but now rank not near the bottom but squarely in the middle of the ranges for the 34 cities in the county, according to an annual trash rate survey of OC cities.
The three-vote majority included modifications in the Valley Vista Agreement that included the no-bid contract extension until 2037, extending the lack of control over rates for the next three full terms of the City Council.
Contract modifications also included a no-bid contract extension until 2037, an immediate 32 percent bump in residential rates, and provided for additional annual increases. Due to those increases, residential trash rates in Cypress have increased by 67 percent since 2021.
At that point, the base monthly rate in Cypress was $14.60, according to available data.
The County of Orange publishes an annual trash rate survey showing rates for cities and unincorporated areas throughout the county.
The most recent survey published in 2023 shows that out of 34 cities in Orange County, Cypress residents had the second-highest percentage increase to their trash bill of any city in the county since 2021, behind only Laguna Woods. At the time, Council Members Jon Peat, Scott Minikus, Anne Mallari, and Paolo Morales supported the amended agreement, while Frances Marquez voted no.
The County of Orange Trash Rate Survey also showed that Cypress is the only city or unincorporated area in Orange County that uses Valley Vista Services as their solid waste hauler. The majority of other cities get their service from Republic Services, Waste Management, or CR&R.
Cypress’ steep rate increases stand in contrast to neighboring Los Alamitos. When Los Alamitos conducted a public bidding process for their solid waste franchise agreement in 2021, out of the seven bidders, Valley Vista Services had the most expensive proposed rates for standard 3-cart service. The Los Alamitos City Council selected Universal Waste, the lowest bidder.
According to the trash rates survey, rates in Los Alamitos decreased by 7 percent at the same rates in Cypress were climbing.
The Cypress trash contract has been an ongoing source of public discussion, with residents questioning council members’ decision-making in light of Valley Vista’s spending in Cypress’s elections.
According to public records, in the lead-up to the 2022 election, an entity called the Safe Neighborhoods PAC, which was funded in part by Valley Vista and its subsidiaries, spent $23,615.83 to support Scott Minikus and Bonnie Peat in the quests for public office.
In light of the ongoing controversy, some council members have publicly called for changes to the process by which the city awards its lucrative trash contract.
In October of 2023, Council Member David Burke proposed an item as part of the city’s strategic plan to form a subcommittee to “identify best practices for bidding and awarding the solid waste franchise to the City Council.”
According to Burke, the suggestion was omitted from the strategic plan after Peat and Council member Anne Mallari expressed concern about staff capacity.
Burke countered that he had been working with the city manager and department directors for months on a proposal and did not think it would be difficult to find time to discuss it within the next six months.
“Given a lot of the discussion in the community in the past couple of years around the issue, I think it’s important to be responsive to a lot of the things that have come up in the community and to take an opportunity to ensure that we have the best practices in place. So, I do not really see why we would not have the ability to consider this at this time.”
Marquez also supported considering new bidding practices for the trash contract, saying “I think it’s really important that we hear the voices of the people.”…And given that Council Member Burke has been working on this for a while with the city manager, I think it’s critical that we move forward with it so that people feel that we’re doing our job and addressing their concerns.”
Council Members Minikus, Peat, and Mallari were not swayed, and the item was removed from the strategic plan on a 3-2 vote.
Recent council meetings have shown that the trash contract is still in many residents’ minds. The trash contract was referenced multiple times during July 8,2024 city council meeting amidst a public hearing for a proposed ballot measure to zone for an additional 676 residential units on the Los Alamitos Racecourse.
“I have only lived in Cypress for four years. My only experience with the city of Cypress was running at your 10K every year, and reading about how the city awarded a trash contract to a company without following proper procedure, which gave me a very negative impression of the city,” said resident Armando Sepulveda.
Resident Paul Kokkinos referenced “our notorious trash contract while asking council members to improve the city’s website.
“As a city, our residents and our voters need to know in an easily accessible format who financially supports the campaigns of council members, both current and future potential, so we can ensure that our city council remains free as much as possible of pay to play governance.”
“Going forward,” said Kokkinos, “we need much more transparency.”
