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Council OKs county waste collection plan, nixes final housing settlement
2-2 vote fails to adopt measure that would end state confrontation

by Jeb Bing

With only four City Council members at their meeting Tuesday and with Mayor Jennifer Hosterman traveling, a measure giving more authority to a waste management agency passed 4-0 but a housing element amendment failed to gain approval with a split 2-2 vote.

A resolution approving the General Plan would have brought to a close two years of costly legal issues involving the state and an affordable housing coalition. It will be brought back to the council at its Oct. 16 meeting after City Manager Nelson Fialho makes another effort as requested by Council members Matt Sullivan and Cindy McGovern to get the state Housing and Community Development (HCD) authority to relax its rules on controlling Pleasanton development issues.

Sullivan also said he couldn't support moving forward on a plan negotiated for more than a year without alerting the community to the impact of the amendment. At the Oct. 16 meeting, he wants city staff to make a PowerPoint presentation that explains the state's insistence on reviewing local growth management constraints.

The waste management resolution proved to be easier for the council, with only two people in the chambers, to handle. It follows the council's approval earlier of Alameda County's decision to ban stores from using plastic bags and to start charging for paper bags.

At the time, the council delayed "opting-in" to the county's comprehensive recycling mandate affecting commercial waste placed in dumpsters, a plan that basically requires large users to follow the recycling plan now in force in Pleasanton for residential customers.

The council postponed adopting the broader waste management plan because Pleasanton Garbage Service, which handles garbage disposal in Pleasanton, was developing an action plan to recycle all wastes.

That study is still under way and the council decided Tuesday to move forward in joining with all other cities in the county to start implementing full recycling through county-run Stopwaste, the agency in charge of the county program.

Steve Bocian, assistant city manager, said the new plan that involves Pleasanton Garbage Service will likely raise garbage service rates for residential and business service.