I saw in your latest Update that you had reached out to Mike’s office for a comment about the waste hauling franchise program recently approved by the City Council, but neither Mike nor I ever received your request. Apologies for not getting back to you if you had connected with someone else in the office. In the future, please feel free to email me at this address if there is anything I can do to help.

Mike was an early and staunch advocate for this new system because he felt quite strongly that it will protect the environment, promote recycling, increase worker safety, and protect our neighborhoods and streets from dozens of loud, destructive and unnecessary trucks.

While this is obviously an issue that has generated some passionate comments from your readers, I think it is important to distinguish baseless accusations from actual facts. This idea has been going through the Council’s process for years and it received extensive coverage in the LA Times as well as other news outlets as the initial proposal was made (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/02/los-angeles-trash-recyling.html), as the Council voted to conduct an Environmental Impact Report (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/15/local/la-me-city-trash-wars-20121115), as the EIR was considered by committee (http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/31/local/la-me-zero-waste-20140401) , and as the EIR was considered by Council last week
(http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-trash-franchises-20140402,0,1230197.story#axzz2yGNgnZKg ). Community stakeholders were engaged throughout the process, including and especially Neighborhood Councils, some of which formally supported the plan (http://www.dontwastela.com/about-us/) and some of which opposed it.

There are obviously going to be concerns any time big change like this new system is debated, but in this case, the benefits of an exclusive franchise system far outweigh the status quo that existed. For example:

• In the old system, waste haulers had overlapping an inefficient routes that caused traffic nightmares in our neighborhoods and emitted excessive pollution into our air. In the improved system, truck routes will be coordinated, more efficient, and the City will be able to ensure that companies which receive franchise contracts are using cleaner trucks that do not egregiously harm our air quality.
• In the old system, the prices businesses were being charged were found to be random and often unfair to small businesses (which were found to sometimes be paying as much as four times more than their neighbors for similar service from the same company). The improved system, however, will allow for the City to ensure that the companies which receive franchises are charging fair prices for their services.
• Additionally, by requiring companies that receive franchises to comply with worker safety standards and recycling diversion goals, we will not only be able to better protect the people who are responsible for sorting our trash, but we can achieve the higher recycling rates that will help avoid the dire and expensive overfilling at the City’s landfills.

There is more information about the program available on the Bureau of Sanitation’s website, and I encourage you and your readers to check it out at http://www.lacitysan.org/ZeroWasteLA/PDFs/Zero_Waste_LA_FAQs.pdf –

Thank you for your time and please let me know how I can be of any assistance in the future.