San Anselmo Garbage Rates Increase by 31 Percent

Following approval by the San Anselmo Town Council Tuesday night, residents in town will see their garbage rates increase by 31.48 percent.

Though the percentage sounds daunting, Patty Garbarino of Marin Sanitary Service emphasized it amounts to just $1.60 per week on average. The cost for a 32-gallon can in San Anselmo will increase from $23.19 to $30.41; and for houses in the hills that have to be serviced by smaller trucks that rate will increase to $33.45.

In addition to making up for money Marin Sanitary has been losing in town, the increase will also pay for a return to weekly green waste pick-up and for f in the green waste bin.

The council passed the increase 4-1, with Council Member Tom McInerney asking the town to consider putting off the return to weekly green waste and food composting in order to save money. Those two service increases accounted for about seven of the 31 percent increase.

McInerney also asked if the town could phase the increase over two years, something Garbarino had suggested at a meeting in March. But, Tuesday night, Garbarino said she could no longer make that offer because of the money Marin Sanitary was losing in San Anselmo.

Helene Robertson said she would be more than willing to pay a few dollars a week for additional green waste pick-up. "I'll give it to you right now," she said.

The decision, though, came after months of negotiations and discussions with Marin Sanitary - in the hopes that the council wouldn't have to approve such a large increase.

"We recognize it's a huge increase. It's very difficult to recommend in this time, but we feel we have to," said Town Manager Debbie Stutsman.

San Anselmo approved an 18 percent hike in garbage rates in December 2010 and hoped that would be the end of large increases.

The town hoped to join a franchiser's group, made up of Marin Sanitary service areas besides San Anselmo and Fairfax. Being in the group allows all the members to utilize a joint third-party rate reviewer and keeps their rates relatively low from year-to-year. By adopting the 18 percent increase, San Anselmo hoped that would bring their rates level enough to join the group. However, that increase was determined using a partially-allocated cost methodology, meaning that not all Marin Sanitary's costs were recovered under that rate.

In order to Marin Sanitary to break even within town, a fully-allocated cost methodology was used this year, resulting in another large increase -- to the surprise of the council.

"When we signed the contract, we thought we understood what the rate review process would be and found out we didn’t really understand it. And I’m feeling a similar concern with this one," said Council Member Barbara Thornton.

Marin Sanitary has lost $1.2 million in the eight years since taking the contract for San Anselmo, said Garbarino. The company continues to lost $50,000 monthly, she said.

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The Board of Supervisors just approved a 31.48 percent hike in Sleepy Hollow and a 26.31 percent increase in Oak Manor, as well.

Even with the large increase for San Anselmo, however, the franchiser's group said they won't allow the town in unless they adopt an "evergreen" contract with Marin Sanitary, said Stutsman, so that they're all on the same foot. 

The council felt it could no longer pursue entry into the franchiser's group. Future rate reviews, however, will take advantage of the group's third-party rate reviewer and should ensure that increases are kept low, unless San Anselmo has drastic changes, said Garbarino.

That rate review process will begin with a smaller, yearly increase in January 2012.

San Anselmo's new rate will be 4.4 percent higher than the average rate in Marin Sanitary territory, but 7.2 percent lower than the average Marin County rate.