At its September 16, 2025, City Council meeting, following Staff’s recommendation, the Council approved a two-year extension to Recology’s solid waste collection franchise. The City is proposing a 15% solid waste rate increase in 2026, followed by a maximum annual increase of 6.5% from 2026 through 2029 and a maximum increase of 3% in 2030.
The rationale for that extension was based on misleading information presented by Staff to the City Council and ratepayers as to how Davis’ rates compare to surrounding communities. Staff’s rate comparison found that the City of Davis’ solid waste rates are lower than our surrounding communities when just the opposite is true. The City of Davis’ solid waste rates are among the highest in Yolo, Solano, and Sacramento Counties.
That two-year extension will cost ratepayers millions of dollars that they would not otherwise have had to pay had Staff provided objective information on how our rates compare to our surrounding communities. Had Staff done that, the proper recommendation to Council should have been to not extend the contract with Recology and immediately begin a competitive procurement process to secure a private sector hauler for our solid waste collection franchise. This course of action is exactly what the City of West Sacramento is currently doing. If as a result of that competitive process, we select Recology that would be fine, but it would bring competitive forces to bear on controlling rates.
Staff’s rate survey to determine how our rates compare to our “surrounding communities” (Staff’s words), included Berkeley, San Francisco and Santa Barbara—all geographically distant and very different—and all with rates much higher than Davis. Santa Barbara is 399 miles away! At the same time, they left out our actual surrounding communities including West Sacramento, Winters, Dixon, Vacaville, Fairfield, Rancho Cordova and any of the other jurisdictions in Sacramento County that have private haulers like Davis. All of which have lower rates than Davis. Figure 1 shows how these local rates compare to those chosen for Staff’s survey. The local average rate is $39.37 per month compared to $66.88 in the Staff presentation.
Figure 1
While there are many legitimate reasons for differences in rates, the fact that our rates are significantly higher than current market rates is primarily due to the simple fact that the City of Davis has not allowed our solid waste rates to be subject to the pressure of the marketplace through a competitive procurement process. Starting with Davis Waste Removal through Recology rates have been set through a “cost plus” mechanism without any market competition. That has led to our current rates being significantly higher than the market.
On February 1, 2026 when the proposed 15% rate increase goes into effect the City of Davis’ 60-gallon rate will be $14 dollars more than the City of Woodland’s 60-gallon rate for largely similar services. In fact, one could argue that Woodland now has more service than Davis with its new “At-Your-Door” curbside collection of household hazardous waste and difficult to recycle materials.
Rather than undertake a process to secure market rates for the ratepayers, the City Council just extended our much higher than local market rates for two more years. Staff’s explanation for why Recology’s agreement needed to be extended two years is just as flawed as its survey. If it takes two years to do the things that Staff listed they needed to do, they should have started two years ago (i.e., review current service levels, survey residents on their preferences, allow careful negotiation of a successful hauling contract).
City Council will conduct a Public Hearing on January 6, 2026, to approve the proposed 5-year rate schedule that includes the 15% proposed first-year rate increase, and maximum rate increases over the following four years. While every residential and commercial ratepayer has the opportunity to protest those rate increases, accomplishing that task is difficult and has only happened in small communities. It takes 50% of property owners plus one (1) to submit written protests to stop the increase. That does not mean residents and businesses in Davis have to live with higher-than-market solid waste rates for one day more than we need to.
If you agree, on January 6, 2026, you should protest any City Council action to approve a rate increase that does not include a “rock solid” assurance from the Council that our solid waste collection franchise with Recology will not be extended one-day-more. The Council should also commit to competitively procuring a private sector service provider for our solid waste collection franchise, be that Recology, Waste Management, Republic Services, Atlas Disposal or another qualified party. The City’s competitive procurement process should begin no later than 24-months (December 2027) before the end of the now current term in December 2029. That would provide sufficient time to successfully complete the procurement process and for the selected contractor to order and receive all necessary equipment (e.g., garbage trucks).
Sincerely:
- William Schoen
- Richard McCann
- Anya McCann
- Chuck Belk
- David Copp
- Andrew Newman
- Elaine Roberts Musser
- Johannes Troost
- Jacques Franco
- Larry Guenther
- Jim Hill
- Lorenzo Kristov
- Michael Kluk
“immediately begin a competitive procurement process”
Yes, it’s called capitalism and it works.
Well sort of, it’s actually a private-public contract paid with taxpayer money, which by definition is mixed, rather than purely capitalism.
I think it works if you replace ‘capitalism’ with ‘competition’
In 2017, the Utilities Rates Advisory Commission called for further study on acquiring the facilities from Davis Waste Removal and then going to competitive bid to use those facilities. The City staff rejected that as infeasible although other cities were already doing that. Then the City jumped the gun on that process by when DWR went to negotiate with Recology. The next round of the franchise agreement with Recology was erroneously done in secret under the claim that it was a real estate transaction, yet the City had already rejected the opportunity to acquire the parcel under the right of first refusal provision.
Now the staff appears to have cherry picked a set of comparable rates to make the rate increase look favorable rather than looking at what other cities in Yolo and Solano are paying. And this was proposed the day after the new city manager took the helm so he had no opportunity to have any input. This analysis has fallen in the gaps of the administrative transition. It’s time to revisit this and plan for what we should have done in 2018.
Just curious as to why you’re interested in generating citizen input and advocacy regarding waste fees (which isn’t necessarily limited to residents), while simultaneously advocating to disenfranchise Davis voters (regarding your opposition to Measure J).
Thanks very much to the signatories for activating on this…
It seems to be beyond the scope of this sequence of events, but do I have this correct? We pay the same rates no matter the level of waste diversion?
Some materials unfortunately go to landfill, organic waste is processed and sold, I trust that all of the paper and cardboard is recycled… Recology gets paid for some of it, only some of it. Does any kind of financial equalization, etc. only get sorted out when it’s time for a new contract?
Recology just backed into my cactus on the corner and broke off a section. Like 10 minutes ago. Guy did like a nine-point turn and my neighbor said he hit it twice. “Sh*t company” he said. “Sh*t company”, I said, and told my neighbor about the rate increase.
Hey, where are the other comments I made on this article? I didn’t break any rules.
Ha, following the rules doesn’t always get your comments posted.
Believe me, I know.