San Diego officials are again reducing a proposed new trash fee for single-family homes, just as the City Council prepares to vote Monday on the controversial new fee.
The proposed monthly rate for full-service customers is being lowered by about $4 — from $47.59 to $43.60 — thanks to some bureaucratic changes, such as allowing the city’s new trash fund to accumulate reserves more slowly.
The proposed fee has now been reduced by nearly 18% since February, when city officials released an initial proposal to charge full-service customers $53 per month.
But there has still been opposition leading up to Monday’s vote — including from some council .
Councilmember Raul Campillo says he is likely to reject any fee that is higher than the $23-to-$29 estimate included in voter guides for the November 2022 ballot.
City voters in that election amended a 1919 law called the People’s Ordinance that had long guaranteed no-fee trash pickup for single-family homes with street access and for multifamily lots with four or fewer units.
Since then, city officials have spent more than two years analyzing how much they should charge customers now that they have the power to do so.
While city officials have cut the initial proposed fee substantially, San Diego would still have higher monthly trash fees than most cities in Southern California. Long Beach and Los Angeles, however, charge more.
Most cities in Southern California contract out trash service to private haulers such as EDCO or Waste Management.
The median monthly fee in 12 local cities surveyed by San Diego last year was $32, which included monthly fees of $28 in El Cajon, $23 to $35 in Chula Vista, $28 to $31 in Carlsbad and $29 to $33 in Oceanside.
Some critics of San Diego’s plan say the city should consider outsourcing trash service.
But City Attorney Heather Ferbert told The San Diego Union-Tribune in March that the ballot measure that allowed San Diego to start charging for trash at single-family homes also prevents the city from outsourcing the service.
The council vote scheduled for Monday could be divisive. The council struggled to reach consensus in April on even scheduling a vote, eventually voting 6-3 to do so. Campillo, Vivian Moreno and Marni von Wilpert voted in opposition.
Monday’s vote might also get canceled. If more than half of the city’s potential trash customers turn in protest cards they received by mail this spring, the council vote will not take place.
City Clerk Diana Fuentes did not respond to a question about how many protest cards have been turned in so far.
There’s been buzz about protest letters on social media platforms like NextDoor, and some grassroots campaigns have emerged encouraging people to mail in the letters.
But because people who don’t submit their protest letters count as “yes” votes, a protest is considered unlikely to succeed.
It’s not clear how much the latest reduction in the proposal might soften opposition.
That lower price tag was achieved through mostly bureaucratic maneuvers. In addition to building the trash fund’s reserves more slowly, the city plans to allow two separate funds — a recycling fund and a container replacement fund — to keep subsidizing the new trash fund for longer than previously anticipated.
But another change that brought the proposed fee down was the city completing a comprehensive analysis of how many customers it would serve.
One key reason the $23-to-$29 monthly estimate from 2022 was so far off the mark was that city officials had overestimated how many people were already getting free trash pickup — and would therefore have to start paying.
Before any analysis had been done, city officials said they were serving 285,000 trash customers, which was partly based on how many single-family homes there are in the city.
Now, after months of analysis, they have determined that they were actually serving 242,264 customers.
But the story doesn’t end there. About 20,000 of those customers were actually ineligible for no-fee trash services from the city but were getting it anyway.
When city officials proposed the $47.59 monthly fee in April, that was based on an estimate that 222,996 customers would receive the service when the city starts charging for it.
But in recent weeks, that number has been revised upward to 226,495 based on additional analysis. Serving more than 3,000 additional addresses — and spreading costs over more customers — helped lower the fee.
The new proposed fee schedule for full-service customers shows a monthly rate of $43.60 in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and $44.57 the following year, fiscal 2027.
That monthly fee would rise to $55 in fiscal 2028 and $57.55 in fiscal 2029 when the city adds bulky-item pickups and increases weekly recycling pickup to once per week from once every two weeks.
Customers willing to use smaller trash bins — 35 gallons, instead of the normal 95 gallons — would pay $32.82 per month during the first year. That would rise to $33.66 in fiscal 2027, $40.57 in fiscal 2028 and $42.89 in fiscal 2029.
On Monday, city officials also plan to give the council options to lower the proposed fees a bit more.
If the city eliminates a pilot program to shift the city’s fleet of trash trucks to electric vehicles, full-service customers could pay $42.76 instead of $43.60 during the first year — with similar discounts in future years.
If the city also shrinks the bulky-item program to one item per property per year, full-service customers would still pay $42.76 during the first year. But fees would drop from $55 to $48.32 in fiscal 2028 and drop from $57.55 to $50.94 in fiscal 2029.
The council is also likely to consider subsidies for low-income customers and possibly senior citizens.
City officials have set aside $3 million in general fund money for such a program, but they have left the details up to the council.
The money could provide a full subsidy for about 4,500 customers, a 50% subsidy for about 8,000 customers or a 20% subsidy for about 23,000 customers.
City officials have said eligibility will likely be based on enrollment in state or federal financial assistance programs, salary documentation or the inability to pay property taxes.
Monday’s council meeting is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at City Hall, 202 C St.
