Recently, approximately 6800 households around Newby Landfill have received a class action settlement. The settlement was signed by Peter Ng, Dolly Wu and Republic Services, but it applies to all residents within 1.5 miles of Newby whether they are aware of it or not. The settlement stipulates that all residents who live within 1.5 miles of the Newby Landfill have four choices: 1. Opt-in: Fill out a claim form to claim the compensation. The total settlement is 1.2M. Plaintiffs’ law firm gets $650k, two plaintiffs get $10k, and the balance of $540k will be evenly divided among the 6800 households. Each claim is as low as $79. 2. Opt-out: For residents who want to be excluded, they have to write a letter to Class Counsel Ng, et al. v. International Disposal Corp. of California, et al. c/o Liddle & Dubin, P.C. 975 E. Jefferson Ave. Detroit, MI 48207 The deadline is Feb 9th, 2016 and must be first class mail. 3. Comment/object: For residents who want to oppose the settlement, they have to be the class action members first, otherwise you can’t say no to the settlement. 4. Do nothing: Most residents may do nothing. They think they didn’t hire a law firm or attorneys to represent them, and they don’t want $79, therefore, they still reserve their right to sue and complain. Unfortunately they are wrong, since do-nothing will be treated as agreeing with the settlement. Reasons to OPT-OUT: Target residents with alleged or confirmed odor complaints, and against the landfill expansion. Opting out is the only way to preserve evidence of 6 Regulatory Violations and 90% BAAQMD confirmed complaints to Republic Services. 1. The settlement under the premise of Newby’s no wrong doings is not acceptable. 2. Option to close the compost facilities left fully up to the Newby landfill owners’ choice is not acceptable. 3. The compensation to residents as low as $79 is ridiculous! 4. The settlement will give Newby an excuse and ground to get the landfill expansion which will make the landfill stay in our neighborhood for another 30-40 years or longer. 5. Settlement will bring huge benefit to the landfill owners with a cost as little as a drop of water in a big barrel! 6. It is documented in this lawsuit that homes within 1.5 miles of landfill are devalued by 5%. Average housing price in Milpitas is $620k, so 5% is $31,000. Milpitas home valuation is way below all the cities in the bay! You may have received an email from the law firm that alleged that each claimant may get $6200. Will it to be true? In my opinion, the law firm despairingly wants people to agree with the settlement because if more than 5% residents opt out, the RS may modify the payment to the law firm or even cancel the settlement, then they can't get paid. They want to toy people by saying the compensation is going to be $6200. It is very laughable. $540k/6800 is not equal to $6200 but 87 people. If 87 is the final number of the claimants, I am pretty sure RS will cancel the settlement and those claimants will get zero payout! Please let your neighbors know the reasons they should opt out. We deserve a stronger settlement that can force Newby to compensate >$31k home devaluation, to close its composting, recyclery facilities or relocate to other landfills with no residents odor complaints. If you want to opt out, please click the link:http://tinyurl.com/NewbySettlementOpt-out Thanks! Jennifer Strohfus