GREAT WESTERN RECLAMATION, INC.1970

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City Manager 2 September 2, 1970 attached to this report. This area primarily includes the downtown portion of Santa Ana from First to Fifth, and from Birch to French along with other long-strip commercial areas such as Main Street, a small portion of 17th, a large portion of Fourth, and three small portions of Bristol. This means that the contractor has to pick up six times a week in those marked areas, but only once a week in all other areas of the City. The Map area can be revised on order of the Director of Public Works. In 1966, the City went to direct billing rather than placing the cost on the property tax rolls, and it was necessary to establish a rate schedule for people in the Map areas who in turn would pay the City on the basis of weight of trash and frequency of pick-up. All other commercial areas outside the Map area arranged for extra services by entering into contracts and making payments directly to Great Western. In order to administer this specific area so that proper charges could be made, it was necessary for the City to add considerable staff time; a Clerk-Typist on half-time basis, a Sanitation Inspector on a one-fourth time basis, and the Office Supervisor on a one-eighth time basis. The cost to the City for handling this particular feature of the contract is estimated to be $9,847 a year. We believe that all commercial areas of the City should be provided the same basic service at the same price as any other establishment whether residential, industrial or commercial; and that any service desired beyond this basic service, should be handled by agreement be- tween the customer and the contractor. There would be some loss of revenue to the City since all billing except the $1.00 per month would be transferred from the City to the contractor. The amount of this loss is estimated at $8,784 per year. However, by eliminating the administrative cost previously described, the City would end up with a net saving of $1,063 per year. There are 809 customers in the Map area that are not on container contracts. Many of these are small businesses producing small amounts of trash. Large generators of trash would have to pay more for refuse collection under this proposal if they were to go to container contracts. We believe that there are only a few in this category as most businesses that can utilize containers have already done so. Lack of storage space on the premises will many times prevent their use. In this situation the larger users (exceeding 200 pounds once a week) then enter into overweight or carry-out contracts with Great Western for this extra service. Small businesses, however, who only require once a week pick-up would not have to pay any more than they are presently. In fact, they would be permitted to place 200 pounds of trash each week out for pick-up, whereas the present rate schedule permits only 100 pounds per week for the $1.00 a month charge. Municipal Code Section 16-34(a) (2) says: "Commercial, multi-family industrial units, and others may have refuse collections more frequently than one time per week after entering into an agreement for such special services." We believe that the proposed change is needed for compliance with the intent of this Code Section and to be equitable for all areas of the City.