By Julie BUTCHER

Mayor Paula Devine reported at the Tuesday night meeting of the Glendale City Council that the Montrose Shopping Park Association (MSPA) has asked the city to rescind existing regulations regarding parklets while the MSPA works on alternatives for encouraging sidewalk dining.

The main topic on the agenda, however, was the approval by the council of a series of ordinance changes and the finalization of contract details with four trash haulers to implement a new exclusive franchising system for collecting the city’s trash from commercial and multi-family properties (five or more units).

Moving forward, instead of the 31 trash companies that service Glendale businesses and apartments, four selected haulers will service the city – one for each of four quadrants. The main reasons for the change, public works director Yazdan Emrani summarized, are to ensure consistent pricing and to enable the city to comply with burdensome and ever-increasing requirements from the state regarding the collection and processing of waste.

“As a city, complying with state mandates and coordinating with four trash haulers is a lot simpler – we’re also transferring liability for complying with these regulations to them (even though we’re ultimately responsible) – it’s a lot easier to manage. If there are performance issues, there are mechanisms in place to address them,” Emrani assured the council.

Glendale resident Annette Galstian called into the meeting to oppose the action.

“While I understand that various state regulations and mandates have necessitated the need for changing policies, I am very disappointed at what appears to be the tentative result. According to the staff summary, the city currently has 31 haulers and is proposing going to only one for a particular area, providing no alternatives. Going from one extreme to another does not appear on its face to be a reasonable or rational alternative. By mandating commercial businesses and multi-family property owners not to have any option in selecting a trash company of their choice essentially results in a monopoly by the four trash companies that will be serving Glendale exclusively,” said Galstian. “What this will ultimately cause is an exorbitant rate hike, especially for those customers of the city’s public works program.”

“By way of example,” she added, “I served on an HOA board for a condo building in the City of Los Angeles prior to the city’s ‘Recycle LA’ program rollout and where we were paying $450 a month before, we were forced to change companies and the bill jumped $1,200 overnight, a 300% increase. Rate increases of 200%-300% are unreasonable especially when the city has prohibited rent increases over 7%. You are essentially promoting rent increases to the fullest extent of the law to residential and commercial tenants and even rate hikes for other commercial businesses. I’d urge you to reconsider the financial repercussions of this on the end user and offer at least some options in the selection of the haulers.”

Councilmember Vrej Agajanian asked for clarification of the process by which costs are contained.

“It says here that the maximum rate will be adjusted annually, each July,” said Agajanian. “Having voted for this, I’m not happy with just one hauler. Thirty years ago, I had trouble with a trash company and I had the choice to replace him. When I’m not happy with him now, tell me what will happen?”

Councilmember Ara Najarian questioned city staff about city workers.

“Are any city employees losing their jobs as a result of this?”

“No. Absolutely not,” city manager Roubik Golanian responded. “Because we’ve been operating in a deficit situation we’re able to move workers on the commercial side to the residential side. We’ve gone through the process and every one of them will be accommodated.”

Councilmember Dan Brotman acknowledged that even if the city were able to do all that is required itself, rates are going to go up. He asked about cost comparisons with similarly situated cities in the region.

Staff replied that, based on its overall cost of service analysis, customers should expect to see increases of 106%-110% after the transition to a franchise scheme. Rates have reportedly not increased in 11 years.

Comparing costs for a standard three-yard bin picked up once a week, Glendale’s costs are expected to be approximately 10% below the average of the surveyed cities. Glendale is at $162.50 while Pasadena is at $170.24 and Burbank at $304 per bin per week.

“Change is difficult. There’s a lot of concern about this and it is understandable,” Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian noted.

“You have been open and transparent with the employees and with the apartment owners,” Mayor Devine commended staff working on the matter. “Rate increases are inevitable. They’ll be taking care of organics and recycling and food recovery and that is important; rate increases are capped.”

Glendale City Employee Association (GCEA) union president Orlando Urquidez Jr. recalled “just shy of nine years ago, the city met with our members informing them of the direction they intended to go. Since that day, our members have lived with this pressure and instability, wondering if they would soon be losing their jobs. Many of those original workers are fortunate to have retired; others have left the organization to pursue other opportunities. Meanwhile the burden has fallen to the remnants and, throughout all these years, they have consistently shown up, day after day, facing mandatory overtime and short staffing, then as front-line workers throughout the pandemic. Imagine how the burn-out, exhaustion and continuing injuries have piled up while the city figured it out,” Urquidez said. “Finally we are here. Thank you specifically to Yazdan Emrani who recognized the importance of this finalization and recognized the toll this has taken on our employees. Through many conversations, he’s made good on his word to make integrated waste a priority and to remove the weight hanging over our members’ heads. And to Matt Doyle and the HR team that assured us they would leave no stone unturned to ensure our members remain employed by the city and for facilitating the signing of an agreement guaranteeing no jobs would be lost and no positions eliminated. Given all this division has endured, a small salary increase – at least to the average of the 10 cities surveyed – would have made this agreement all the more agreeable – you all can still make that happen.

“Lastly thank you, city council, for your meticulous oversight of this venture. While we know the employees working in integrated waste would better serve the commercial account community – we know this because of the many times affected customers have approached our drivers and said as much – the GCEA is happy knowing our employees are safe and there will be no attempt to remove them from their positions. We look forward to seeing the quality of their work lives improve following this transition and we will always be ready to have city employees service our commercial accounts again in the future.”

Councilmember Najarian then addressed Urquidez.

“The entire city council appreciates your leadership in protecting employees in these negotiations,” Najarian said. “If we were to have lost jobs, I would have looked at this very differently.”

Earlier in the meeting, the council commended the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission for its work helping the city with implicit bias training. Executive director Robin Toma thanked the council for the recognition, highlighting that the commission is “all about transforming prejudice into acceptance, inequity into justice, and hostility into peace,” commending the City of Glendale as it has “come a long way” in working to separate itself from a troubled past.

Councilmember Brotman raised concerns about Glendale’s lagging vaccination rates, reporting that the county is at 71% (those who have received at least one shot) while the city is at 60%. In response, city manager Golanian announced plans to implement a new vaccine policy for the city’s workers, requiring proof of vaccination or weekly testing and continued masking.

“The public expects – rightly so – a safe environment, and employees deserve to work in a place that values their health and safety,” Golanian said, explaining that details were being worked out and that the city would “meet and confer” with its unions.

“California is at 77.5%, with 63.5% fully vaccinated. Glendale is way behind,” Councilmember Agajanian bemoaned. “I encourage everyone to get vaccinated, for themselves and for everyone around them.”

The Glendale Environmental Coalition announced an upcoming training webinar for those interested in learning more about using recycled grey water (from dish washing and bathing, for instance) for landscaping needs on Sunday, Aug. 1 at 3 p.m. Details can be found at https://tinyurl.com/czvyy9ed.