Alameda County recycling agency hits pay dirt

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When it comes to turning garbage into gold, they've struck the mother lode in Alameda County - where the head of a little-known, government recycling program is knocking back a cool $213,000 a year.

Plus benefits.

Program director Gary Wolff's staff isn't doing badly, either. Half the 39 full-time workers are making between $70,000 and $155,000 a year.

The StopWaste program, funded mainly by garbage customers, provides "strategic planning, research, education and technical assistance to the public, businesses and local governments" on recycling.

In 2010, StopWaste ran 50 educational programs for schools, businesses and communities. It also helped Ghirardelli Chocolate and Peerless Coffee and Tea come up with more eco-friendly packaging.

"The idea is to help reduce the use of landfills," said agency spokesman Jeff Becerra.

For this, it had a budget of $26.8 million - $19.5 million of which came out of East Bay garbage bills.

Garbage bills that, according to a recent civil grand jury report, have gone up about 7o percent in the past few years.

By comparison, San Francisco pays its Environment Department director, Melanie Nutter, $148,000 to oversee a staff of 115.

San Jose's Environmental Services Department head, John Stufflebean, gets $193,000 to supervise 500 employees handling everything from recycling to the city's water treatment plant.

Berkeley City Councilman Gordon Wozniak, who sits on one of StopWaste's two governing boards, defended Wolff's salary, saying, "He's done a very good job at going out and getting grants."

Wozniak added that Wolff came on board at a lower salary than his predecessor received.

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, who also sits on one of the governing boards, said a study commissioned in 2010 found that StopWaste staffers were underpaid.

As a result, many got a 5 percent raise.

Carson said Wolff wasn't happy and felt he should have gotten an even bigger raise. The board, however, declined.

Wolff did not return calls for comment.

Making the grade: No official word yet on whether Gov. Jerry Brownwill sign state Sen. Mark Leno's bill to include the achievements of gays, lesbians and transgender people in history classes.

We have been told, however, that if Brown does sign the bill, there is a good chance he will do it in San Francisco.

Pension tension: Word is, Public Defender Jeff Adachi and his supporters are paying upward of $5 a signature to petition circulators in an effort to ensure that his pension reform measure makes it onto the November ballot.

We also hear that paid signature gatherers have been flown in for a last-minute push before today's filing deadline and are being housed in a South San Francisco motel.

Adachi didn't dispute the $5-a-name figure.

"The operation is split about 50-50 between volunteers and paid gatherers," Adachi said.

Central question: The San Francisco civil grand jury's 55-page report questioning the soundness of the Central Subway project to Chinatown wasn't dead on arrival - it was dead well before arrival.

As former Mayor Willie Brown said, "This has been a done deal with Chinatown, going back to the decision to tear down the Embarcadero Freeway."

Chinatown merchants were about the only people on the planet to mourn the demolition of the double-deck freeway along the waterfront after it was damaged in the 1989 earthquake. The extension of the Muni Metro is supposed to ease their still-lingering pain.

So chances are, not a single city, state or federal elected official - from Rep. Nancy Pelosion down - will give the grand jury's report more than a passing glance as it sails into the round file.

Nonetheless, to put it in perspective, at 1.7 miles, the Central Subway will be the same length as the Golden Gate Bridge.

And as the report notes, it would cost about as much to rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge in today's dollars as it will cost to build the subway.

One difference: The bridge eventually paid for itself. The subway never will.

EXTRA! Catch our blog at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.