By George Pardon
First of all, I want to commend the Los Alamitos City Council for obtaining a much better trash services agreement by going out to bid compared to the deal the Cypress City Council negotiated with the current trash services provider, Valley Vista.
Unless 50% plus parcels in Cypress send in a written protest to the Cypress City Clerk by 5 PM on January 24, Cypress residents will experience a 32% increase in their rate paying $21.43 per month compared to Los Alamitos residents paying $13.90 per month. Cypress residents can also expect an additional increase in April based on the consumer price index.
With the new Los Alamitos agreement, residents will also get 4 bulky item pick-ups a year and they allow 4 items with each pick-up and a quarterly Household Hazardous pick up. This is compared to Cypress residents getting 2 bulky item pick-ups a year with one item equaling one pick-up.
If you don’t think Cypress residents are getting an optimal deal, the only option at this point is to send a protest letter to the Cypress City Clerk. At a minimum, the letter must include the following information: a) address or assessor parcel numbers of the property subject to the proposed rate increases, b) the name of the owner of the property (or tenant if applicable) and whether the protester is an owner or tenant of the property, c) a statement that the party is protesting the rate increases, and d) the protester’s signature. Only one protest per parcel will be counted. The letter needs to be addressed to City Clerk, Cypress City Hall, 5275 Orange Avenue, Cypress, California 90630.
If the proposed changes to the agreement with Valley Vista are approved, the agreement will be extended until 2037. To extend this contract from the original 10 year term to a 22 year term without another bid process seems far in excess of the original intent especially given the concessions that have already been given to Valley Vista in previous contract revisions.
Given the significant value the Los Alamitos City Council has recently achieved for their residents through a bid process, it seems that it would be in the best interest of Cypress residents to bid this contract allowing the current contract to end at its current term ending in 2027 which already includes the 2 year extension previously granted to Valley Vista.
Residents need to protest this increase to avoid the proposed changes to the agreement.
Emails were sent to the City Council and the City Manager on December 16 and 30 and again on January 4. The emails were sent asking if I was missing something in my read of the Los Alamitos agreement because I didn’t want to spread misinformation. I also stated that unless I hear something to the contrary, I will presume my assessment is correct when I distribute the information to the residents.
The response I received from the City Manager was that my assessment of the Cypress and Los Alamitos refuse franchises is so careless that it detracts from public discourse. The fact that I received a response from any of my emails to the city was a surprise although the response received didn’t provide clarity.
If anyone has reviewed the agreements and can justify why Cypress should commit to Valley Vista for another 15 years without going to bid, I would love to hear from you at georgepardon@gmail.com.
George Pardon
Citizens for Responsible Development