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The Sacramento Utilities Department has delayed for one week its presentation to the City Council on potential changes to green-waste pickup. At its Nov. 17 meeting, the council will decide whether to put a measure before voters to establish the use of bins for green waste.

Bin use would mark a change from the city’s current system of removing piles of green waste from the street with the ‘claw’ and a second vehicle. The City Council was scheduled to consider the department’s proposal Tuesday but staffers are adding more information to their report, said Support Services Manager David Levine.

He said changes to the report will include new information on the cost to the city of placing the measure on an upcoming ballot. Levine noted that green-waste pickup in Sacramento is a “very personal issue to many people.”

If the council decides to seek changes to its current system, it will need to ask citizens through the ballot if they want bins. Sacramento residents banned bins in a 1977 initiative. Voters would need to reverse the 1977 law to allow the city to set up a bin system, according to the department’s report.

The city can't set rules for bins, but it does allow residents in some parts of the city to use them. Over the past five years, more than 70,000 citizens have chosen to use bins, the report states.

The Utilities Department is in favor of bins, calling a container system cheaper and more environmentally friendly than street pickup.

Levine said he had no information on why voters passed the 1977 ordinance.

The text of the 1977 ordinance is on Page 6 of the report.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

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Dale Kooyman

edited on November 9, 2009 | 10:10 PM

A one week delay means nothing. Any vote should be the same as street lighting assessments and only be open to property owners the same as street lighting assessment is. An expensive ballot measure is unneeded. Further the suburbs where all city council and city staff live should be separated from the central city. Containerization seems to work in the burbs since so few cars park in the street--most there park in their snout garages and/or driveways and leave for work before the street sweeper comes around, leaving street curbs vacant. That is not the case in the central city!

There was a seven year study in the central city that resulted in implementing the current system which corrected clogged drains and filthy gutters from often weeks of accumulation because cars parked along the gutters and the sweeper sweeping the traffic lanes was unable to get next to the gutters. Eliminating claw services now will turn us back nearly three decades when the gutters were dirty and smelly from accumulated gunk, standing water and clogged storm drains! Talk about mosquitos!

No council member or city employee knows that, as we all know, because of where they live, and the city does not maintain such historical records, which is why our city costs soar. New city management, new staff, new mayors and new councils invent the wheel all over again on repeated issues never seeming to learn from the past! And this is a classic example.

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harryc

November 10, 2009 | 9:26 AM

Sure in the Land Park area each house will need 5 bins, At this time of year.

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Dale Kooyman

November 10, 2009 | 9:39 AM

For two months out of the year, "leaf season," LP and other suburban areas will have claw services if this were to pass. Of course, the "leaf season" varies and normally lasts longer than two months depending on wind, rain, temperature but that is another issue.

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Stella M.

November 10, 2009 | 10:09 AM

As others have pointed out, we now have *both* bins and piles. Because the container system is currently voluntary, it sounds like the city now has to do two types of pickup...and until a decision is made one way or another, this double system is going to be a pain for residents and an expense to the city.

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savemidtown

November 10, 2009 | 1:08 PM

The city has been trying for years to do bins in the central city and owners have not volunteered because it is completely ineffective on the grid. Our trees and yardwaste is so massive a container wouldn't work much of year. When you factor in multi-unit dwellings, the lack of off street parking and storage (we are a dense neighborhood) it is the wrong solution. I get the claw costs more money because it takes two staff instead of one but still what good is cost savings when the unintended consequences are far worse?

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Jessica Hess