Opinion

Yes on Prop. A - Fees could total $50 million SAN FRANCISCO PROP. A Vote yes: Collect franchise fees

Seagulls pick their way through the transfer station at Recology. Recology's transfer station is one of the busiest places for the company. San Francisco is preparing to award a new landfill contract to Recology, the garbage company that picks of the city's rubbish, recyclables and compostable Wednesday July 20, 2011. less Seagulls pick their way through the transfer station at Recology. Recology's transfer station is one of the busiest places for the company. San Francisco is preparing to award a new landfill contract to ... more Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Yes on Prop. A - Fees could total $50 million 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

If there were a way to get as much as $50 million a year for San Francisco's budget, without raising taxes, fees or garbage rates, don't you think we should do it?

That's what Proposition A on the June 5 ballot does, by mandating competitively bid contracts for garbage and recycling services.

Two City Hall studies done in 2011 found that, of 71 Bay Area cities, only San Francisco lacks a contract for garbage and recycling services. Everyone else gets a franchise fee from such services to support their city's budget, but we don't. We pay more than twice as much as San Jose for garbage and recycling, even though San Jose has more people and a much larger land area.

Why do we pay so much more? Because the city's 1932 garbage collection ordinance has been manipulated into a no-contract monopoly without public accountability, and the only way to change the situation is at the ballot box.

The sole part of garbage and recycling collection that is (barely) regulated is residential rates. Those rates have been raised 136 percent in 11 years, with another rate increase on the way soon after the June 5 election. How much will that increase be? Thirty percent? Forty percent? More?

The Chronicle's Proposition A editorial claims Recology has a local "regulated monopoly." How can a monopoly be regulated without a contract? Recology works under competitively bid contracts in 16 Bay Area cities, and pays franchise fees to those cities. Can't it do that here?

Recology claims its system successfully diverts refuse from the landfill. But the "system" is not the no-contract monopoly. Is Recology's work worse in San Mateo County, because it bid for that work and pays a franchise fee there? Of course not. Last year's City Hall studies found no correlation at all between recycling rates and the rates we pay, or between recycling rates and franchise fees.

Numerous examples exist in California in the last decade that consistently show that requiring competitive bidding for garbage and recycling services saves a city about 20 to 25 percent in costs. For the $220 million a year San Franciscans pay Recology, that could create a $44 million to $55 million reduction in rates or deliver a franchise fee for the city's budget.

There's no mysterious new bureaucracy needed for competitive bidding; it's already the city's way of doing business for every other contract. And there's no new power granted the Board of Supervisors under Prop. A; the board already has the authority to approve every competitively bid contract the city makes.

Prop. A isn't a threat to Recology's business. If Recology truly resembles the company promoted in their ads, it will easily win every competitive bid submitted. But instead, it is spending millions of dollars - money given to them by ratepayers - to protect its no-contract monopoly control of San Francisco. Think about that when you see an ad or billboard for Recology's campaign.

For zero waste in garbage collection and recycling, vote yes on Prop. A.