City Services

You, your lawn piles and 311

2009-04-18T23:40:28Z

Branden Bradley knows so much about Sacramento city services that he gets on his mother’s nerves. That’s because he informs his mother -- and his friends – about city rules for things like the acceptable size of lawn and garden piles, and the breakdown of items that should go in trash cans and recycling bins.

When he explains a city rule to his mother, she’ll say she doesn’t care. He responds: “But you will when you see the fine.”

Bradley is a customer service representative for Sacramento’s 311 phone line, which acts as a clearinghouse for city services. Residents can ask 311 for assistance with any city service. Employees at the service receive nearly 8,000 calls per month, according to Bradley.

Residents can call 311 at any time on any day of the week – city representatives take calls 24 hours per day, including on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Scoop on Appointment-Based Cleanups

Bradley says people often call 311 and ask him about appointment-based neighborhood cleanups. People are often confused about the status of the program. Bradley wants to clarify to residents: Yes, the program is ongoing. In these cleanups, city employees take away residents’ “bulky items,” he explains.

The city continues to offer the appointment-based cleanups. One free cleanup per calendar year is available to residents, Bradley notes. Residents should call 311 to schedule an appointment for the service.

Items the city will accept include: portable DVD players, mattresses, carpet, toys, tires without rims, wood, appliances, furniture, televisions and computers.

The city won’t take the following items: liquid waste, universal waste, dirt, rocks, brick, concrete, tires with rims, garden refuse, household hazardous waste, junk vehicles, bullets and shells, steel pipes, auto parts, and commercial or contractor waste.

You can learn all you need to know about your lawn piles, and ask for any city service, by calling 311. You can also reach Bradley and other representatives by completing the e-mail form at the following website:
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/generalservices/311/email/

City Management Academy may be cut

2009-04-29T05:32:51Z

The City Management Academy, which educates residents and business owners about city processes, may be cut to save the city money.

The money needs to be saved to balance Sacramento’s $50 million budget deficit.

“That is one of the things that may be on the chopping block for this department,” said Vincene Jones, Neighborhood Services Department Director. She noted that the program, which began in 1995, always drew 25-30 participants each year.

The program consists of a 10-week class in which residents and business owners learn about the city’s management approaches and visit various city facilities.

Jones said the academy “empowers our community.”

More than 280 residents and business owners in Sacramento have completed the program.

It costs the city to staff the program, which is free to participants, according to Jones.

Jones did not provide information on the estimated cost of the program by press time.

The program has won two awards, according to the department. In both 1997 and 1998, the program was included on the list of the “Top 100 Innovative Ideas in the USA,” which is conducted by the Ford Foundation and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The Sacramento branch of the American Society for Public Administration in 1998 gave the program an Outstanding Innovations in Government Award, the department’s website noted.

Decision on green waste bins expected Nov. 17

2009-11-10T05:13:45Z

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.

Sac parks to benefit from new program

2009-07-24T03:57:53Z

The cash-starved Sacramento Parks and Recreation Department received a boost this week with the start of a new volunteer program. Participants in a county job training program will learn skills for employment while volunteering at local parks, according to city officials.

The city is collaborating with the county’s Community Work Experience Program to bring volunteers to city parks. Parks and Recreation needs volunteers because it faced $8.3 million in recent budget cuts. The county program is a local branch of the state’s California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Program, known as CalWORKs.

The first group of volunteers is starting off at Parks and Recreation, but volunteers may also work at other city departments in the future, Mayor Kevin Johnson told reporters Tuesday. “And this allows us, again, to stay true to being a full-service city,” he said.

The parks services division of the Parks and Recreation Department has the capacity to accept 20-25 volunteers from the county program, Parks and Recreation spokesman Hindolo Brima said. Three volunteers will start working at the parks Monday and will carry out duties including litter pick-up, landscaping and mowing, he said. Volunteers will join work crews with staffers, Brima also noted.

Brima said that volunteers do not have the same level of expertise as staffers. “These volunteers are not going to be displacing regular employees,” he said.

While the volunteers from the county program will help the department, it still needs additional volunteers. Even before the budget cuts, the department needed volunteers, Brima said. “There’s always a need,” Brima noted.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

How to ask the city for green waste bins

2010-01-06T03:48:20Z

Choosing bins for green waste instead of on-the-street pickup saves each eligible resident $3 per month. But if residents want to put their green waste into bins instead of on the street for pickup, it’s not guaranteed they’ll receive bins from the city. That’s because the city is using two separate green-waste pickup systems and bins are not currently available to all residents.

However, residents can use the following information to encourage the city to bring bins to their neighborhood.

How do I tell the city I want to use bins?

Call 311 to inform the city that you want to put your green waste in containers, Utilities Department spokeswoman Jessica Hess said. You can also make a request for city employees to come to your neighborhood association meeting and explain the bin system, according to Hess. Make your request for a neighborhood presentation by calling the Utilities Department at 916-808-4931.

Another way to express your preference for bins is to fill out this online form.

How much does it cost to use bins?

The bin program is cheaper than on-the-street pickup. This means your bill would go down if you use bins. Bin pickup costs $9.37 monthly, while on-the-street pickup is $12.41 per month. Learn more about the differences in the costs here.

Why are bins not available to all residents?

The city must provide on-the-street pickup because Sacramento voters banned bins in 1977. Because residents passed an ordinance that said the city couldn’t set rules for bin use, the city’s bin program is voluntary, according to the Utilities Department.

A Nov. 24 Utilities Department report notes that about 85,000 people in the city have chosen to use bins.

Certain criteria is used by the city to decide if a neighborhood should be part of the bin pickup system, according to Hess. When making the decision to offer the service, the city considers the number of houses on a block that are interested in the program, she said. The city also examines the neighborhood’s proximity to an existing route that uses the bin system, she said.

The interest of neighborhood leaders and members of the City Council are among other factors that impact the city’s decision, according to Hess.

Councilman Steve Cohn and a staffer for Councilman Rob Fong recently said they support the idea of giving all residents the choice to use bins instead of on-the-street pickup.

This Jan. 4 story explains how to opt-out of the bin system if you want to maintain on-the-street pickup.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

How to opt-out of green waste bin system

2010-01-05T05:30:44Z

When the Utilities Department recently explored changes to Sacramento’s green waste pickup system, some residents expressed intense opposition to scrapping on-the-street pickup. They said they prefer that method to the use of bins.

The city's current methods of green waste pickup are on-the-street pickup and a voluntary bin system. Councilman Steve Cohn and a staffer for Councilman Rob Fong said recently that they support giving all residents the choice of bins over on-the-street pickup.

Residents can continue on-the-street pickup and the following information will help.

How to opt-out

A city employee may leave a green waste bin at your house if your neighborhood has been selected for bin pickup. To keep on-the-street pickup, you need to opt-out of the bin system.

You can opt-out by calling 311, Utilities Department spokeswoman Jessica Hess said, and telling the operator that you don't want the bin.

What will it cost me?

Hess pointed out that if you opt-out of the bin program, green waste pickup will cost more. The city now charges $9.37 for bin pickup, and $12.41 for on-the-street pickup monthly.

The difference in price is because when city workers gather lawn waste piles from the street, they use two vehicles — the “claw” and a loading vehicle.

By contrast, the city uses one vehicle to pick up bins.

In addition, the loading vehicle used for on-the-street pickup system fills up more quickly than the loading vehicle for the bin system, Hess said. This means that on-the-street pickup vehicles make more trips, adding cost.

Utilities Director Marty Hanneman said last week that city staffers do not know the current costs of the on-the-street system. A growing number of people are choosing bins, which is hiking on-the-street pickup costs, he said.

For now, the $12.41 monthly for on-the-street pickup will remain in force.

What are these city employees talking about?

The Utilities Department uses specific terms to refer to the city’s green waste system.

Officially, the city refers to on-the-street pickup as “loose-in-the-street collection.”

The city uses the phrase “containerized green waste collection” to refer to the system of using bins for green waste.

Coming Tuesday: A guide for residents who want the city to start bin service in their neighborhoods.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Plan to combine some city/county services advances

2009-12-09T05:41:38Z

The Sacramento City Council is open to the idea of consolidating some of the services offered by the city and county governments.

Councilmembers unanimously decided Tuesday that city staff should analyze the issue over the next 90 days, and then bring their findings to the City Council. The discussion about consolidating services is moving forward as both the city and county struggle with severe budget problems.

Councilman Rob Fong strongly supported the idea. If the city and county can have “virtually identical” regulatory processes for businesses, then organizations like the Sacramento Area Commerce & Trade Organization and the city and county’s economic development departments could market Sacramento as a “dynamic region,” he said.

Uniform processes at the city and county governments could also lead to better land-use planning decisions, Fong said. He acknowledged that his ideas may be too expansive for the 90-day period, but said he hoped staff’s analysis would move beyond everyday issues such as “who picks up the leaves.”

“We would do ourselves a disservice if we didn’t start to have those kinds of conversations,” Fong said.

Staffers will now select services that could potentially be combined, according to Assistant City Manager Gus Vina’s report to councilmembers.

Vina said Monday that combining services could save money in the long term for local governments. In addition, joining services could eliminate redundancies, Vina said. The city and county provide several similar services, he said, such as animal control and code enforcement.

City Finance Director Leyne Milstein said her office is not ready yet to provide an estimate for the city’s budget situation next year. Staffers still need to analyze third quarter sales tax information, she said. However, she estimated in May that the city would face a $30-million deficit in the 2010/11 fiscal year.

She acknowledged Monday that the city’s budget for next year could be troubling, saying that “nothing has changed” since her May estimate of a $30-million deficit.

The county’s budget crisis is severe: Its $180-million gap last spring was followed by a $76-million shortfall in the summer.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City's development department consolidated, renamed

2009-05-02T20:45:28Z

The city’s Development Services Department has a new name. It’s now known as the Community Development Department (CDD).

City records manager and acting spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson explained that the new department brings together long-range planning staff and development services staff. The administrative change is an efficiency, she said.

The city’s 2009/2010 proposed budget includes a plan to move Planning Department employees. Under the plan, the Planning Department would move 26 full-time positions and $2.4 million to the new CDD “as part of the consolidation of planning services,” the budget states. Of the 26 positions, one is not funded and the remaining 25 are funded.

The new CDD includes the following services: planning, administration, customer service, building, infill and new growth.

Sacramento's City Council will address the proposed budget at its May 19 meeting.

Read more of Sacramento Press' budget coverage here.

City, County to consider consolidating some services

2009-12-08T05:34:22Z

Sacramento’s city and county governments are considering consolidating some of their services to save money as they wrestle with tough budgets. The City Council and Board of Supervisors will discuss the idea at their public meetings Tuesday.

Combining services could help local governments save money in the long term, said Gus Vina, assistant city manager. It also could cut redundancies, Vina said, noting that the city and county offer several similar services. For example, the county and city both provide animal control and code enforcement services, he said.

The city and county have not yet selected which services to combine. At this point, city and county officials are asking elected representatives if there is a “thumbs-up” for staff to pursue the idea, Vina said.

If the City Council supports it, city staff would choose services that could be combined, according to a report Vina is presenting to the City Council on Tuesday. Staffers would analyze the issue over the next 90 days, and then bring their findings to the City Council, the report notes.

“We’ll evaluate services on both sides: what’s the benefit, what’s the downside,” Vina said. “We’re looking for things that are not that difficult to do.”

City Finance Director Leyne Milstein said that city staffers are not ready to provide numbers for next year’s financial picture. They still need to analyze third-quarter sales tax information. Milstein estimated in May that the city would face a $30 million deficit in the 2010/2011 fiscal year.

While she did not release specific figures Monday, she acknowledged that the picture could continue to be grim.

“Nothing has changed for the better since that estimate was out there,” Milstein said.

The county has faced a wrenching budget crisis over the past several months. Its $180 million gap last spring was followed by a $76 million shortfall in the summer.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sac parking rates and fines rise

2009-08-13T03:46:10Z

$49.50.

That’s the price of a parking ticket in Sacramento for parking in a permit-only area.

Tickets have gone up locally because of state fees on parking tickets, among other reasons, according to the city’s Department of Transportation. Tickets are also being distributed more often in certain parts of town because the city is ramping up enforcement hours in residential areas designated for permit-holders, according to department spokeswoman Linda Tucker.

Tucker explained that city parking tickets have increased because of state fees. The state fees add $9.50 to every parking ticket distributed in Sacramento.

“The city of Sacramento raised selected parking fines ... effective July 1, 2008, by a modest $5, first time in at least three years,” Tucker said. “But this year, we had to increase penalties by $9.50 to pass through the fees already collected by Sacramento County and the state for the court system. We do not keep any of this portion of the fee.”

“I know to the citizens it means more money, and it’s out of the pocket,” Tucker said.

I had a recent personal experience with the city’s nighttime parking enforcement. I don't consider myself much of a scofflaw. But last Friday night, I parked on Dolores Way in East Sacramento at 10 p.m. in an area with a sign that banned parking at any time except with a permit. I parked long enough to purchase and eat a frozen yogurt at Big Spoon on J Street.

I didn’t think anyone would be enforcing parking violations at 10 p.m. on a Friday night. I was wrong. When I returned to my car, I was greeted with a $49.50 ticket.

I might have been caught earlier — the city was previously enforcing parking violations from 6 a.m. to midnight — but my hefty ticket proves that the city is working late nights in residential areas.

Residents asked the city for the beefed-up enforcement, Tucker said. In response, the city is now enforcing parking violations in residential areas from 6 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

“We are helping by enforcing near bar areas, restaurant areas and near the hospitals to increase turnover,” she said.

The city has also stepped-up daily and monthly parking rates at some locations for various reasons. Tucker points out that the raised rates are in effect at the Sacramento Valley Station, as well as City Hall Garage and Lot X adjacent to Crocker Art Museum. “Of the total 15 city-owned garages and seven parking lots, we’ve raised rates at two, in addition to the depot lots,” she said.

The new Citizen Hotel changed things at the downtown parking garage nearby. “City Hall Garage’s monthly rate went from $155 to $185 in January as a result of supply and demand after the new Citizen Hotel opened,” Tucker said.

Daily rates at Lot X climbed to $10 from $8. The rate increase intends to “open up more lots for short-term parkers,” Tucker said.

At the Sacramento Valley Station, daily rates at the central lot have risen. “We estimated when we took over the parking lot in December 2006, that in three years we would be at the point where we would need to raise rates,” Tucker said. “When garages and lots get to a certain level of occupancy, we need to consider raising the rates to promote turnover. The daily rate at the main, most convenient lot at the depot needed to be raised to $9 from $6.50 effective Aug. 1.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Change is in the wind for your lawn piles

2009-11-07T04:19:31Z

The practice of dumping green waste on the street may become a thing of the past.

The City Council will discuss a proposal Tuesday to ask voters if they want to place their piles of leaves in bins instead of in the street. The people of Sacramento banned bins in 1977.

“On September 27, 1977, city of Sacramento voters passed Measure A, an initiative ordinance that prohibited the city from requiring containerized collection of yard and garden refuse (green waste),” according to a Utilities Department report that will be presented to the City Council Nov. 10.

The department is asking the City Council if it wants to sponsor an initiative to overturn the ban on the bins. A city ordinance establishing a green-waste pickup system that uses containers can be enacted only if voters reverse the 1977 law, the report states.

While the city is forbidden from making rules for bin pickup, many citizens over the past five years have chosen to use bins. “To date, over 70,000 customers receive containerized green waste collection on this basis and another 45,000 customers will be offered the service by the end of FY 2009 / 10,” the report states.

The city is supporting mandatory container use. Bin use is cheaper, the Utilities Department states. “One of the major benefits of containerized green waste collection is that it is less expensive than loose-in-the-street collection, due to the fact that loose-in-the-street collection requires the operation of two vehicles, the ‘claw’ and the collection vehicle,” according to the report.

“Containerized green-waste program participants are presently charged $9.37 per month for a single-family home, which is 24 percent cheaper than the rate to those with loose-in-the-street collection service.”

The Utilities Department also says the container system is more environmentally friendly than street pickup. While two vehicles are used to pick up green waste from the street, only one would be needed if bins were used, the department states. A bin system also would enable the city to compost clean green waste, according to the report.

Read the report from the Utilities Department here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Downtown neighbors seek quiet, protest loud trucks

2009-12-17T04:39:06Z

Several residents in the Alkali Flat and Mansion Flats neighborhoods downtown are tired of being awakened at odd hours.

They’re asking a local solid waste agency to tighten the rules for the operating hours of private garbage trucks.

About 20 people in the neighborhood want private trash haulers to start work later in the morning. The Sacramento Regional Solid Waste Authority, which oversees private waste haulers in both the city and county, allows trucks to travel through neighborhoods starting at 6 a.m.

Alkali Flat and Mansion Flats residents want to change the rules so that private waste trucks would not operate until “full daylight hours” or 7:30 a.m.

"[Noise from the trucks] wakes us up and also shakes our homes," said Jennifer Caldwell, who lives in the neighborhood.

Caldwell and her neighbors have written a letter to Sacramento County's Department of Waste Management and Recycling. “The 6 a.m. language is insufficient as the trucks are running when it is dark out (currently 6 a.m. and prior),” the letter states. “The objective is to make it clear that no trucks are to be in residential areas at night. Routes should not begin until after dawn.”

The neighbors contend that private waste trucks are operating earlier than city waste vehicles. “City waste collection crews do not begin until 7:30 or so in our area,” according to the letter.

The neighborhood is also concerned about early-morning noise from leaf blowers. The city’s noise ordinance bans leaf blowers before 9 a.m. Monday to Saturday, and prior to 10 a.m. on Sunday.

Sacramento Code Enforcement Operations Manager Ron O’Connor said enforcement staffers will respond to complaints about leaf blower use “if there’s a pattern” of noise ordinance violations.

The city's 311 service handles all of the complaints that are sent to the Code Enforcement Department, O’Connor said.

To complain about leaf blowers and private garbage trucks operating before their scheduled times, call 311 by phone. Residents can also e-mail 311 at 311@cityofsacramento.org

Photo by David Watts Barton

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City clerk's office goes techie

2009-11-05T04:37:43Z

The Sacramento city clerk’s office has gone digital.

In one of the presentations at the city’s first eExpo Wednesday, the office provided a sneak peek into its upcoming electronic agenda system.

The office estimates it will save about 50,000 reams of paper each year by creating its agendas to digital form, according to Assistant City Clerk Dawn Bullwinkel. She emphasized that the figure of 50,000 reams was a conservative estimate.

Bullwinkel told about 20 city staffers at the technology expo that the city will launch a new system to create paperless agendas by February or March. The city currently offers electronic agendas on its website, but the new Automated Agenda Workflow system will cut the amount of paper used in the process of creating agendas.

“We’re going to be so committed to getting rid of our paper, we are not going to be printing resolutions, ordinances or minutes,” Bullwinkel said. “They are going to be signed digitally.”

Bullwinkel also explained the office’s philosophy on the digital world.

“And one of the things that we talk about in the city clerk’s office is that we are no longer an administrative office or a clerical office, we’re really a technology office,” said Bullwinkel, noting that the office depends on technology to deliver information.

The eExpo also featured presentations from other information technology professionals including Chris Preston, an executive at the EMC Corporation and Barclay Blair of Forensics Consulting Solutions.

Citizens can receive free e-mail alerts from the city on numerous local issues.

The public can also follow the city of Sacramento on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/saccityclerk

http://twitter.com/SacPolice

http://twitter.com/SacFirePIO

http://twitter.com/KJ_MayorJohnson

http://twitter.com/SpareSacWater

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Residents seek ways to maintain parks services

2009-07-01T04:18:42Z

For residents who care about their local parks, the city’s budget cuts to parks maintenance could mean that volunteering may become a necessity instead of an occasional activity. A few neighborhood groups are now talking to city staffers about how they can volunteer to maintain parks, according to Parks and Recreation Director Jim Combs.

In one of its many budget cuts, the city slashed the parks department by $8.3 million for the 2009/2010 fiscal year. Pink slips were sent to 65 workers in the department; they are scheduled to be laid off Thursday. The total number of parks workers to be laid off this week was unclear, but acting city spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson said the layoff figures are “moving numbers” at this point.

The handful of groups interested in maintaining parks to address budget cuts are a small number of volunteers amid the thousands of volunteers the department sees each year. About 11-to 12,000 volunteers give their time to the department each year, according to Combs.

The Sacramento United Soccer Club is interested in enhancing field maintenance at parks they use for soccer games, Combs said.

A group of senior residents in North Natomas is also contacting the city because they want to be in charge of upkeep at their local Willow Park, Combs noted.

Parks and Recreation has posted on its website information about how budget cuts will limit services at summer camps and community centers, on park maintenance, pools and park restrooms.

In a related development, Mayor Kevin Johnson is promoting Volunteer Sacramento, his volunteering program. The HandsOn Sacramento group and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) are working with Johnson on the program.

“It’s incredibly important to remind everyone that we have down times in terms of our economy, [and] you need everyday citizens to play a role and help out,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday.

He said he wants to see Sacramento lead all cities in the state on the number of volunteer hours from citizens.

Information on how to volunteer with Johnson’s program is available here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Green waste debate changes course

2009-12-29T04:49:27Z

The fiery public debate over possible changes to the city of Sacramento’s green waste pickup system has changed course.

The City Council was expected to decide in January whether to ask voters to use bins for their green waste. But it will not make a decision on the issue in the immediate future, according to Marty Hanneman, Utilities Department director.

The issue of scrapping the on-the-street pickup system has been “pushed back on the table, on the back burner,” he said.

For weeks, residents have been debating whether bins should be used instead of on-the-street green waste pickup. Recent reports from city staffers said a bin system would be cheaper and more environmentally responsible.

Residents who object to bins say they are impractical because the trees create too much lawn waste.

Lisa Nava, district director for Councilman Rob Fong, addressed the issue in a Dec. 22 e-mail to Paul Trudeau, president of the Southside Park Neighborhood Association. “There is no longer interest in bringing a ballot initiative to City Council to repeal Measure A (which would enable the Council to make containerized green waste mandatory),” Nava wrote.

“However, we have decided to provide the Voluntary Containerized Green Waste program city-wide. This seems like a good compromise at this time.”

City staff decided to postpone the green waste issue, Hanneman said, adding that he discussed the delay with City Manager Ray Kerridge. Councilman Robbie Waters, who asked staff to bring the idea to the City Council, accepts that the issue has been delayed, Hanneman said.

The current system is complex because the city uses two methods of green waste removal: an on-the-street pickup system and a voluntary bin system.

Workers remove piles of green waste from the street with the "claw" machine and a second vehicle.

However, residents in some sections of the city can choose bins instead of on-the-street pickup, according to a Nov. 24 Utilities Department report. About 85,000 residents have chosen bins, the report notes.

An opt-out system is in place for the bins now. After the city delivers bins to a neighborhood, residents must refuse them to maintain on-the-street pickup, Hanneman said.

Over the past several weeks, city staffers have worked on a plan to ask voters if they want to switch to a bin system and stop on-the-street pickup. City staffers had planned to bring the idea to the City Council. If councilmembers liked the idea, they would have had to ask voters to allow a bin system.

That’s because Sacramento voters passed an ordinance in 1977 saying the city could not establish the use of bins for green waste. A mandatory bin system can be set up only if voters overturn the 1977 ordinance, according to the report from the Utilities Department.

City staffers do not know the costs of the on-the-street pickup system, Hanneman said. That’s because a growing number of people are choosing bins, which hikes the price of on-the-street pickup, he said.

Nor have staffers decided how multifamily complexes would be incorporated into a bin system, Hanneman added.

“We have some issues we have to resolve.”

Photo by Geoff Samek.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City opens bathrooms in local parks

2009-08-25T02:55:25Z

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department has heard the public and reversed a budget cut that was particularly aggravating to many residents: The department has reopened the bathrooms in city parks.

However, the reopening of the bathrooms means the city will have less time for other tasks such as mowing and trash pick-up, department spokesman Hindolo Brima said.

The bathrooms in most city parks were shuttered earlier this summer as part of the $8.3 million in budget cuts that the City Council approved for the department in June. But in response to complaints from residents, the department opened the bathrooms Friday.

Jim Combs, director of Parks and Recreation, told the City Council in an Aug. 20 memo that the department was reopening the bathrooms. “The community made it clear that their top priority for park maintenance services is the re-opening and daily availability of our restrooms even if it means further reductions or slowdown in other park maintenance services,” Combs wrote.

Trash picks-up, mowing, blowing, edging and “general park cleanliness” are the tasks that will take a lower priority than maintaining the bathrooms, according to Combs’ memo. “While further reductions in these areas are unfortunate, we feel re-opening the restrooms is the right thing to do,” Combs wrote.

Brima said that maintaining the bathrooms means there will be less time for the above maintenance tasks. But while less time will be available for those tasks, they’ll still be carried out, he said, noting, “It’s not going to mean that the grass is not mowed.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Code enforcement: The drama, grime and social work

2009-09-22T04:08:36Z

Syringes on the ground. People emerging from boarded-up homes that don’t have water or gas. Vacant homes with human feces on the floor.

You probably don’t associate the term “code enforcement” with drama, grime and social work. Yet, a day in the life of a Sacramento code enforcement officer makes for a gripping tale.

The Sacramento Press observed Supervising Code Enforcement officer Bill Hutcheon, Ron O'Connor, department operations manager, and other officers during a three-hour ride-along on Sept. 14. The first stop on the list was a filthy vacant lot at 38th Street and 7th Avenue in Oak Park. Hutcheon scoped out the site, pointing out a syringe on the ground and a makeshift sleeping area with pillows and a comforter.

He had examined the site a few days earlier in response to a complaint from a Sacramento police officer. In response to the mess at the vacant lot, the department will hire a city contractor to clean the site, he said. A temporary fence will also be installed and stay up for 30 days, he added.

The three property owners of the vacant lot have been in trouble with code enforcement before, according to Hutcheon. The code enforcement department will bill them for the costs of the cleaning and the fence, plus an extra 20 percent to pay for the city’s administrative costs.

From there, Hutcheon and O’Connor drove to the next stop, an Oak Park home full of garbage and personal belongings. The dumpster that was placed in front of the home was about 60 cubic yards, Hutcheon and O’Connor said. It was the third time a dumpster had been used to remove garbage from the home.

Hutcheon explained that the trash-filled house was a fire hazard and could attract rats. He said a similar process will be followed: The woman who owns the home will pay for a contractor to come to her house and clean the house. After that, a building inspector will verify the house is safe, he said, adding that he was trying to avoid assessing penalties on the woman. “The emphasis right now is obviously to help her,” Hutcheon said.

The homeowner, who walks with a cane, made the sign of the cross when she heard that one of the people in her house was a news reporter. She asked that her name not be used, but wanted to talk about Hutcheon’s efforts to help her clean out her house. “Because of his graciousness, it has been a pleasure,” the woman said. “And I think it’s going to save my life.”

She said most of the belongings that filled the house were left by a man who had lived there.

After the code officers left the woman’s home, there was more drama. The windows and door of the house at 3408 21st Ave. were boarded up. But the owner was allowing two people to live there. It’s a fire hazard for people to live in a boarded-up house, O’Connor explained, because there is no way for them to escape. The house did not have running water or heat.

“It’s moving day,” building inspector Richard Leiker said to his fellow code officers. As the officers walked the perimeter of the house, they encountered one of the men who was living there and told him to leave.

A nearby house with putrid conditions was next on the code officers’ schedule. The home at 3630 21st Ave. was vacant, but one or more people had knocked down a piece of the house’s wall to create a back entrance. Two code officers climbed through the small makeshift entrance and began to cough loudly. They were exploring an unsanitary living space; there was feces on a carpet, Hutcheon said.

The Code Enforcement Department has issued an order for the owner to repair or destroy the house. The owner owes the department about $12,000.

The city’s budget problems meant that two employees in the department were recently laid off, O’Connor said. The department also has 18 vacant positions because of budget cuts but still is getting its work done and addresses all dangerous situations, he said.

However, the loss of positions means workers can’t engage with the work as deeply as they could before. Staff now spends more time “putting out fires,” O'Connor said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

To Bin or Not to Bin: The story of Sacramento's green waste battles

2009-11-29T17:41:23Z

The debate over the Sacramento Utilities Department's desire to use bins for green waste pickup has a familiar ring.

This isn’t the first time green waste has been a hot topic in Sacramento. Green waste disposal was controversial as far back as 1977, when a fierce fight took place between those who wanted bins and those who sought to maintain on-the-street pickup.

Utilities Department Director Marty Hanneman said that staff plan to bring the issue to the City Council on Jan. 21 or Jan. 28. Supporters of the bins argue that their method is cost-effective, while bin opponents say on-the-street pickup is the most convenient system.

The department's position is that bins would be a cheaper and more environmentally friendly method of green waste pickup, according to a Nov. 24 department report. Residents now pay $12.35 per month for on-the-street pickup, while bins would cost $9.37, Hanneman said.

Councilman Robbie Waters also favors bins, Hanneman noted. Waters, whose district includes the Pocket neighborhood, asked the Utilities Department to bring the issue to the City Council, Hanneman said.

If the City Council decides in January that it wants to exchange on-the-street pickup for a bin system, the issue will have to go on a ballot. And there's a historical reason for that.

Voters approved an ordinance in 1977 to ban the city from establishing the use of bins for pickup. When residents put their opposition to bins into law, they made it difficult for the city to change the rules.

Measure A, the 1977 ordinance, includes language requiring a majority of Sacramento voters to overturn or change the law.

A group called Citizens for City Service championed Measure A. The group argued that it is easier for citizens to manage their green waste if the city picks up leaf piles on the street rather than in bins. They also said that a $2 monthly service fee for green waste pickup was affordable.

In the text of a proposal for Measure A, Bolton Phillips of the Citizens for City Service characterized the opposing camp as being made up of residents and certain city councilmembers and staffers.

"[The opponents of Measure A] want us to put all those tons of yard and garden refuse in non-biodegradable plastic bags and other containers before collection," Phillips wrote in the proposal. “They say this will save us money. This is not true. Without the service fee and workers, we will buy expensive plastic bags each week, then spend our valuable time and energy filling them.”

Joseph Coomes, Jr., president of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in 1977, countered Phillips’ points in the text of the proposal for the measure. He objected to Phillips’ argument that residents would have to buy plastic bags.

“THIS IS NOT THE CASE!,” he wrote, using capital letters. “Any box, can or even paper bag of proper size and weight is acceptable. It can easily be drafted into law that plastic bags cannot be used!”

Opponents argued that a bin system would generate savings in taxes of more than $1 million per year.

The proposal notes that opponents of Measure A included Sacramento’s mayor at the time, Philip Isenberg, as well as representatives from the County Taxpayer’s League, Inc. of Sacramento County and the Sacramento Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO.

In 1988, there was an attempt to overturn Measure A through the ballot. But that effort, which was called Measure F, was unsuccessful, according to the Utilities Department's report.

Read the text of the 1977 proposal for Measure A here.

What's going on now with green waste?

Today, in many Sacramento neighborhoods, workers remove piles of green waste from the street with the "claw" machine and a second vehicle.

However, residents in some sections of the city can choose bins instead of on-the-street pickup, according to the Utilities Department's report. About 85,000 residents have chosen to use bins, the report notes.

Bins are now set up through an opt-out system. The city gives bins to certain neighborhoods, and residents must refuse them to maintain an on-the-street pickup method, according to Hanneman. “If you don’t want it, you’ve got to let us know you don’t want it,” Hanneman said.

This means that both systems — bins and on-the-street pickup — are used.

The department, which has twice postponed a presentation to the City Council this month, is calculating the costs of the bin and on-the-street pickup systems, according to Hanneman. Thousands of residents recently joined the bin system, which means that the department needs to update its figures for the City Council, he said.

The changing numbers still show that bins would be cheaper, Hanneman said. “It’s definitely more expensive to do loose-in-the-street than containerized,” he said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

How to volunteer at city parks

2009-07-08T03:49:22Z

Sacramento residents are asking city staffers how they can help maintain services at local parks in the wake of the city council’s major cuts to the Parks and Recreation Department.

The city council’s $8.3 million in cuts to the department last month has spurred residents to offer their help. The department laid off 57 employees last week.

Dave Mitchell, operations manager for the Parks and Recreation Department, said the department is seeing an increase in the number of inquiries it receives about the Adopt-a-Park program. Sacramento residents are learning about the department through recent media coverage, he said. Residents are contacting the department and asking, “How do I become involved?”

Here is the answer to that question: Individuals can volunteer with the Parks and Recreation department’s Adopt-a-Park program. Interested residents should contact Julie Mier, the department’s volunteer program coordinator, at (916) 808-2285 or at jmier@cityofsacramento.org.

Neighborhood associations can contact managers at the department. Parks and Recreation Director Jim Combs can be reached at jcombs@cityofsacramento.org. Mitchell’s e-mail address is dmitchell@cityofsacramento.org.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Residents use new online tool in green waste debate

2009-12-12T05:08:12Z

Several residents recently used the city website’s new “eComment” tool to weigh in on the issue of green waste pickup. The City Council is expected to consider in January whether to ask voters to use bins for green waste.

Sacramento voters decided in 1977 that the city could not establish the use of bins for green waste. If the city wants to enact bin use rules, it must ask voters to overturn the 1977 law, according to a Nov. 24 report from the Utilities Department.

More bin opponents are using the eComment tool than proponents. Only one of six recent comments is from a bin supporter. Here are three eComments on the green waste issue. Bakken and Goldberg's comments have been shortened for clarity.

Stephen Bakken, supporter
“I also initiated a verbal comment today stating that I favor green waste bins over loose green waste picked up by the ‘Claw.’ This new e-comment option was mentioned so I thought I would try this out. I recommend that the City Council develop ballot language to repeal the ordinance enacted by voters in 1977 that [prevents] the City from requiring a switch to green waste bin collection.”

Brandie Humphreys, opponent
“If we are forced on containers? It will make sense to cut down our tree. Leaves are the only yard waste we have. We want to keep the claw in downtown.”

Jeremy Goldberg, opponent
“We are opposed to moving from pile pick up to mandatory bins. Our neighborhood features several large trees in excess of 20 ft tall. During the Fall we will simply not have enough space in a bin to fit all of our leaves.”

Photo by Geoff Samek.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council to decide on green waste bins

2009-11-24T06:10:37Z

The Sacramento City Council will decide Tuesday night whether to ask voters to use bins for their green waste.

In a 1977 initiative, Sacramento voters said the city could not establish the use of bins for residents’ green waste. If the city wants to enact bin use rules, it must ask voters to overturn the 1977 law, according to a new report from the Utilities Department.

However, residents in some areas of the city can choose bins instead of on-the-street pickup, according to the department. About 85,000 residents have chosen to use bins, the report notes.

The City Council meeting will be at City Hall, 915 I St., at 6 p.m.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.