City Hall's Pricey Pandering: Sunshine Canyon Fiasco
In a clumsy attempt to pander to people who live near the Sunshine Canyon dump, City Hall has agreed to pay an additional $7.7 million of your money every single year for the privilege of sending 20% of the city's trash to another dump. Result: the Sunshine Canyon dump is still open for business, yet the taxpayers lose millions of dollars a year just so the Mayor and City Council can claim they "did something" about it.Here are the details:
The residents of the City of Los Angeles generate about 3600 tons of waste every single day.
For years, 100% of that waste has gone to the Sunshine Canyon dump.
People who live near the dump, however, want the dump closed down because, well, who wants to live by a dump? Never mind that the legality of the dump was established by litigation in the 1990's. Never mind that the dump has the legal right, through permits, to accept waste from whichever cities want to use it.
The people near Sunshine Canyon dump are angry, so they turned to their elected officials for relief.
What did the Rocket Scientists at City Hall -- the Mayor plus the City Council Members who claim they should serve 12 years rather than eight -- do? They pandered, and they pandered ineffectively: they have managed to waste millions of dollars without coming close to closing the dump!
First, the City Hall Brain Trust renegotiated the City's contract with the operator of the dump, Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI), in February, to obtain the right to divert 20% of the city's trash elsewhere. How much of a discount did the city get for diverting 20% of the trash? None! On the contrary, the city agreed to pay BFI $3.4 million MORE every single year, for the privilege of sending LESS trash!
Next, City Hall negotiated with another company, Waste Management, to take the 20% -- 600 tons per day -- to some other dump. They signed the deal Friday, and guess how much it's going to cost? That's right: an ADDITIONAL $4.3 million EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
Add it up: to ship 20% of our trash to another location, the Mayor and City Council are spending an additional $7.7 million of YOUR money every single year.
Does this close the dump at Sunshine Canyon? Heck no! But it DOES show the people who live near that dump that their elected officials care deeply about them -- deeply enough to squander $7.7 million per year of your money, money that could be used to hire more police, to build "affordable housing," or even, Heaven forbid, cut your taxes.
Oh, and here's a riddle: Do you know what they call the manager of a private company who negotiates a deal to pay vendors $7.7 million more per year than necessary? "Fired." Remember that the next time you vote.
Posted by Walter Moore @ 8/05/2006 07:43:00 AM
25 Comments:
The level of incompetency with this gang of retards at City Hall is beyond belief.
The taxpayers will have their revenge in March at the ballot box!
In the meantime, dump the trash at City Hall where it belongs.
City Council=
"Incompetent Rascals"
Muslim leaders accuse LA mayor of appearing pro-Israel
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Local Muslim leaders accused Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of taking Israel's side in the violence in Lebanon.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/15206003.htm
GEEEEEEEZ! THE MAYOR IS WRONG.
Villaraigosa attended a July 23 pro-Israel rally where he condemned Hezbollah guerrilla rocket attacks on Israel and said that country has an "unassailable" right to exist.
But the mayor never responded to more than a dozen e-mails and letters inviting him to attend Muslim peace vigils, said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Shura Council of Southern California.
"The local city mayor should never be exclusive in any way, form or shape," Syed said Friday during a news conference in front of City Hall.
"The mayor serves all Angelenos, and his public appearances should reflect that," said Edina Lekovic, spokeswoman for the Muslim Affairs Council. "We expect the leader of this city to use his office as a tool for dialogue and mutual cooperation, not divisiveness."
"We're fed up," added Maher Hathout, chairman of the Islamic Center of Southern California.
Great point Walter. It seems that is the only idea North Valley Leaders have for solving the problem. Even the alledged "for the average Joe", Jim Alger called for increased fees to resolve this problem.
Our current crop of leaders only solution to problems is to pick our pocket.
OK for the 100th time. My plan would have gotten LA completely out of Sunshine Canyon immediately by diverting 100% of the trash to cities who actually wanted it. The cost to pay for this was a whopping $1.50 which was really a $1.50 cut in the subsidy currently provided. Now you can disagree with me and say our trash should be subsidised and that is an argument that could be made but at least my proposal drew a straight line from the fee to the service.
Why didn't this happen? Political gymnastics, campaign contributions and mass dis-information.
The big argument against doing anything is "the landfill will be open anyway". That is akin to saying "someine was going to rob the bank anyway might as well be me who does it." Not to mention part of the plan called for forcing BFI to close all or part of Sunshine by rapidly removing their largest revenue stream, the City of LA... so in return the City negotiated a "scale back" so that Walters predictions will come true as BFI can back fill the contracts over the next 5-10 years.
This contract was an opportunity missed and the cost Walter is much greater than $7 Million. What good are safe streets if the air is killing us?
This City has it's lowest crime rate since the 50's and we still are scared of that boogey-man while the pollution from the hundreds of Diesel trucks going down Balboa all day, and the blowing dust from the landfill, costs and kills us.
It isn't as sexy as protecting us from the rapist axe murderer lurking in the shaddows waiting to commit a series of home invasions... but just as deadly.
EXCELLENT point Jim. I am glad to see someone gets it.
$700 mil in increased revenue to the city and Alger still defends his proposal to increase trash fees to close Sunshine Canyon.
His big idea, your money.
Oh SHUT the FUCK up already with your lame ass attacks on Alger. The campaign is over and you still can't quit it.
Why are you not attacking the City Council for tripling trash fees to hire more cops when we don't have enough recruits now?
Jim Alger came up with a way to pay for our own trash by having the people using the service pay a fraction of the actual cost for that service and all you can do is spin spin spin.
What is the cost to the city in medical bills, lost productivity, damaged roadways etc due to the effects both health and otherwise, caused by Sunshine Canyon?
At least Alger had a plan that didn't give BFI money for nothing.
Alger is 100% on point here. This Sunshine Canyon boondoggle, and his failure to go along with it, is what got him in trouble with Smith and Company.
I would have gladly paid a buck more to close that damn dump, now I am paying 7 bucks more and I got ZIP! Think we're ever going to see those cops in Granada Hills? NO!
If your going to attack Jim Alger on Sunshine, your barking up the wrong tree and speaking out of the incorrect orifice.
Alger's original idea, spend your money.
Antonio's original idea, spend your money.
The gang of 15's original idea,
spend your money.
Get it! Alger is no different then the rest of these original thinkers.
Walter Moore for Mayor of
Sunshine Canyon!
Moore AND Alger both make good points. The outcome was a fiasco that cost more City money for, at best, the same service and only a symbolic improvement for the north Valley crankpots.
The reality was that former mayor Hahn's administration failed to crack the whip on the Bureau of Sanitation and make them come through with a plan to keep his promise to get out of Sunshine Canyon and by the time Villaraigosa showed up, it really was too late.
Greig Smith, whose chief of staff's dad I hear lobbies for BFI, wasn't motivated to do anything serious to deal with the imagination vacuum, instead spent his energy on a Big Plan that may or may not ever be feasible. That way he could look like he was doing Sanitation's work for it while Sanitation recommended business as usual with BFI.
When it came time to renew the BFI/Sunshine contract or cancel it, years of inaction made it inevitable that it would be renewed in some form. But the pressure to stop appearing feckless and unable to deal with the issue led the Council (Smith) to cut the stupid deal you're complaining about while Villaraigosa and his executive staff cowered in a corner trying to keep their fingerprints off the whole situation. He didn't want another broken promise (the same idiotic one Hahn had made) to further stain his first year in office.
There's plenty of blame and embarrassing behavior to go around here and it will be interesting to see if someone in City Hall can figure out how to do something constructive and stop wasting money on symbolic non-solutions before the five year contract extension expires .
8:14 a.m. talks about Villaraigosa and his team cowering in a corner while the City Council screwed things up. What a crock! Whatever you think of the mayor, his team is earning a special place in hell for their "brilliance."
Mayor Tony goes around talking about being bold and thinking outside of the box. But the people he's surrounded himself are so far INSIDE the box that they don't know what the outside looks like. Their idea of political acumen is solely about preparing Villaraigosa for his next run for office, hoping that image and spin can substitute for imagination when it comes to running the city.
The Daily News editorial today is right: Mr. Mayor, figure out how to run the city before presenting yourself as God's gift to public education. Otherwise, I hear the applications are stilla available for Romer's job. If that's what you want to do, go do it. But get some different advisors, because the ones you have now, from top to bottom, don't have a clue.
August 05, 2006 10:49 PM,
The only time I would vote for Wacko. I would walk precincts for that campaign!
Oh please, what suggestions do have have for getting rid of the trash. Maybe we should leave it on everyones doorstep and let them fiure it out on their own. Your average person has a hard time walking to the trash can, much less figuring out how there going to get rid of it, just the thought of what they would come up with could be disasterous. We are just pulling at straws here. If 7.7 million needs to be spend for trash, until we find another solution it will just have to be spent. We are complaining about the money we spent now, not spending the money would bring even more complaints. Maybe we should just stop making trash altoghter!
You forgot that nothing prohibits Sunshine Canyon from accepting SOMEONE ELSE's TRASH to fill the 20% LA's not using! Want to take bets?
So we pay extra to ship our trash out and someone else pays to ship their trash in. Net result? Lot's more trash on trucks and no change at Sunshine Canyon.
12:27 - Not true -- If the Alger/NVC plan had been implemented, Sunshine would have been hard pressed to continue let alone expand because they can not accept trash from outside the county and most other municipalities already had contracts.
In other words "everyone else" wouldn't have been able to dump there and the dump would have been in the red.
BFI spent millions on a liner for the expanded side before the contract was extended... good sign that the ix was already in.
fix
Would someone please provide backup documentation for this statement: "Sunshine Canyon dump causes health problems"
If you think this is a trashy deal, you should see all the wasteful spending in Washington! $7.7 million is just a drop in the Congressional bucket -- though it would be a grand accomplishment if my opponent, Brad Sherman, could bring that kind of money back to our district.
Walter,
I would like you to come over to my house in Granada Hills and look at my office. I would like to drive you to the dump and give you an unofficial tour. I would like to show you what I have and what I know about Sunshine Canyon and the operators.
I don't have time to fight this immense problem out on a blog, but since you wrote the story and it's been forwarded to me - I would like you to hear my side.
I suppose I must be one of the crackpots from the North Valley that I just read about here. I don't mind though because I know that I'm right and I know how to solve the problem. There have been greater people than me accused of worse things than being a crackpot.
I think you should at least listen to my side of the trash story. You tell me where you live and I'll tell you what your waste shed is and then we can further discuss L.A.'s waste problem in depth.
I'm easy enough to find..
Kim
12:40
That was Alger's plan, but what I said is true with what the city council enacted.
The citizens of LA can lay the blame on this fiasco on the steps of Councilman Smith. This was his great idea: pay more and get less. Kinda like a kid holding his breath until he passes out.
Kudo's to Walter for calling this as it is... Smith cow-towed to Kim Thompson and her jihadist North Valley folks..and it costs all of us ---BIG TIME
Greig Smith kow towed to Kim Thompson and her Jihadist neighbors? You obviously know nothing about Sunshine Canyon or CD 12.
I'd like to hear if Walter asks her for information.
Kim Thompson isn't the kind of grass roots expert Walter goes to for information because she's too methodical and does her homework. Walter likes to ask people like the animal nuts for help because he relates better to their hystrionics than he does to real knowledge.
It will indeed be interesting to see if he tracks her down.
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