Talkin’ Trash at Open House Meeting at Point Loma Library

By Geoff Page

As reported here in The Rag last Friday, the City of San Diego held its Open House Meeting designed to garner input on the coming trash collection tax at the Point Loma Hervy Library, Monday August 26. According to those managing the event, about 40 members of the public attended.

To refresh memories, in 2022, Measure B, the ballot initiative that asked if San Diegans would be willing to pay for trash service, was approved. It was passed by only 50.48 percent of voters. To put that into perspective, the difference was only 3,839 votes out of 400,000 cast.

The city is now trying to figure out what to charge the public to collect trash. A person might wonder why this is much of an issue because the city should have all the records it would need to figure this out. But, as reported here in The Rag on April 5 of this year, the city approved $4.5 million dollars to have consultants study the issue of what to charge. That’s four million five hundred thousand dollars.

The Rag’s April article referenced a March 12 UT piece by David Garrick that broke down what the money was to be specifically used for. Of the $4.5 million, $1.7 million is budgeted for community outreach, including meetings like Monday’s at the library.

According to those running the event, there will be three outreach efforts of some kind in each city council district. The calendar for these many events can be seen here.

The outreach events consist of one Open House Meeting in each district, presentations at 14 different community planning groups, attending 20 “community events” like Farmer’s Markets, summer movies, a race, a dance, and a festival.

Of the District meetings, five in-person and one virtual meeting have been held so far. The previous in-person meetings were held in Districts 8,4,6,9, and 3. District 2 was Monday and District 7 was Tuesday, August 27. District 5 and 2 meetings will be held the first weeks of September.

Attending a meeting is not the only way to participate. There is an on-line poll. In fact, the Open House Meeting was basically just a physical manifestation of the on-line poll.

The large library meeting room was set up in eight “stations.” There were one or two consultants or city personnel at each station to answer questions. There were also three or four people wandering around answering questions. Using a conservative count, there were about 12 people working the event. It is easy to see where the $1.7 million is going.

Station 1 was the welcome station.

There participants could pick up a couple of flyers and a “Passport.”

At the top of the Passport is the following:

Collect stamps for visiting each station and bring your completed card to Station 6 to receive your participation reward and provide any feedback on the event today!

The stamp for Station 1 is a figure of a pig’s face. Why this image was chosen is a mystery. It was necessary to look around the room for reassurance that this was not actually an event for fourth graders.

Once past the welcome station, folks moved from station to station, some of which included placing stickers on white boards to indicate trash pickup preferences. These are the same preferences included in the on-line poll.

Stations

The on-line poll introduces waste pick up choices that might be incorporated in the new fee. The list of choices for possible pick up includes clothing, old paint, fluorescent bulbs, batteries, electronics, old appliances, furniture and medication or medical waste such as used needles.

The pickup choices are weekly, monthly, twice per year, once per year, every couple of years, seldom or never, or don’t know. The list is repeated with two other choices, pickup vouchers a few times per year or regularly-held community drop-off events.

Every one of these choices involves a cost, which is something no one had any information on at this time. According to the organizers, once all the opinions are read, the consultants will produce the result, which will then have a price tag.

It was not clear if the price tag will show specific costs for each option chosen, such as battery or old paint pickup, or just a price for trash collection that includes various items that were most popular, lumped together.

It is not difficult to see how complicated this will be. Different people have different needs. One woman complained that she only needed a black can picked up every few weeks because she lives alone and generates very little trash. If the general vote is to have black cans picked up once a week, people like her will be paying for something they do not need or want.

The subject of short-term vacation rentals came up. Some of these rentals have multiple trash bins because of their business. Should these be treated as commercial ventures and made to arrange their own trash pickup like large apartments and other businesses?

Then, some expressed a worry that the city will inflate this fee beyond what is needed for trash collection to finance other city desires.

What came as a pleasant surprise to this writer was that the final cost number must be put to a public vote because of a very interesting amendment to the state constitution, California Proposition 218.

California Proposition 218 – Right to Vote on Taxes Act

Proposition 218 passed in 1996. It passed convincingly 56.55 percent to 43.45 percent with over nine million votes received. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the group responsible for the Proposition 13 property tax revolution, sponsored Proposition 218.

Proposition 218 was characterized as a follow-up to Proposition 13. It was needed because, almost immediately after Proposition 13 passed, local governments started creating special assessments, fees, and charges, that did not require two-thirds voter approval, to make up for revenues that Proposition 13 took away.

Proposition 218 requires that all local government taxes, which previously did not exist before the amendment, be put to a public vote. By using different names for these assessments, they were not considered taxes. Proposition 218 was created as a protection and it relied on a predecessor, Proposition 26, that defined what a state or local tax is:

This measure broadens the definition of a state or local tax to include many payments currently considered to be fees or charges. As a result, the measure would have the effect of increasing the number of revenue proposals subject to the higher approval requirements summarized in Figure 1. Generally, the types of fees and charges that would become taxes under the measure are ones that government imposes to address health, environmental, or other societal or economic concerns. Figure 3 provides examples of some regulatory fees that could be considered taxes, in part or in whole, under the measure. This is because these fees pay for many services that benefit the public broadly, rather than providing services directly to the fee payer. The state currently uses these types of regulatory fees to pay for most of its environmental programs.

If a fee the city wants to impose is actually considered a tax, under Proposition 26, then Proposition 218 ensures there is a public vote. If the fee is not considered a tax, Proposition 218 provides something very interesting the public can still do to have the final say.

Proposition 218 contains provisions for citizen initiatives to force a vote to repeal or reduce fees or assessments. What may not be well known is that initiative signature requirements under Proposition 218 are greatly reduced from what would normally be needed for a ballot initiative making it easier to get something on the ballot.

The basic rule that governs whether or not something is a tax is whether or not the “fees pay for many services that benefit the public broadly.” If that is the case, the fees are treated as taxes. It would be hard to argue that a trash collection fee, that benefits the public broadly, would not be deemed a tax.

What this means is that the public will have an opportunity to vote on the final trash fee or tax proposal one way or the other, either before or after a fee – or tax – is imposed.

If anyone wants to talk to people directly, look at the event calendar previously discussed for opportunities.