The city of San Diego must FIX the way it is setting fees for single family home trash collection. The current process cheats residents.

The process should be truly open and transparent, accountable to the customers. Presenting the plan to customers only after it has been brought to the city council is unfair to residents who will pay the bill.

Only the current city trash collection users should be surveyed on what they want, when they begin paying for service next year.

The list of choices should start with continuing the current basic service for 285,000 customers counted in the city’s documents at the true cost of $73 million per year, or $257 per household per year – not the $900 per year envisioned by Sean Elo Rivera. Staying with the current plan and cost is not being offered as a choice.

The proposal should include the choice to opt out of city service and go with private contractors already serving the city neighborhoods. More than 250,000 residences already do.

The option to pay bi-monthly, with the water bill, should also be included. Billing with taxes creates mortgage escrow problems and drastically reduces transparency and accountability.

The city should count and bill the thousands of larger residential buildings that currently use trash and recycling containers – which it does not plan to do.

The city billing should be by household, not property. If there are three households on a lot, each should be billed. 

There is no need for the advocated increase in recycling pick-ups. The city loses money on recycling. More collection means more trucks, more drivers, more GHG emissions and particulate matter pollution – and more administrative costs for NO additional benefit.