After two years of flying solo, SLO County recently asked to rejoin the Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA), a fate that rests with the cities and community services districts it once served alongside on the agency’s board.
“There are a lot of things that have to happen for the county to rejoin the IWMA officially, including a restructuring of the joint powers agreement and unanimous consent from both [the] SLO County Board of Supervisors, the IWMA Board, and the cities themselves,” Atascadero City Councilmember Charles Bourbeau told his council colleagues on April 11. “That’s the first and most important thing we have to consider: Do the cities themselves want the county to rejoin?”
The county withdrew from the IWMA board in a contentious October 2021 decision, following issues some members of the SLO County Board of Supervisors—particularly former 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton—had with former IWMA Director Bill Worrell and board Secretary Carolyn Grace Goodrich following the District Attorney’s Office charging Goodrich with embezzlement and destruction of public records in August 2021.
Since the county went its separate way, rising waste management costs have caused the IWMA and its member agencies, as well as the county, to consider increasing their trash, recycling, and green waste fees—with the county facing the highest potential fee increases in the future. In March, the county sent a letter of intent to the IWMA board asking to explore potential options for the county to rejoin the board.
IWMA board members are now gauging support for that from their respective cities and districts. Former IWMA board President Bourbeau asked for feedback at the Atascadero City Council’s April 11 meeting, stressing that unified city support is crucial to any discussion regarding the rejoining process. A letter that the IWMA sent out to its member agencies highlighted that the county could bring in more revenue to the authority, which means that waste management fees wouldn’t need to increase as much as projected.
“Should the county rejoin, we would see a lowering of the current solid waste management fee,” Bourbeau said. “That has the potential to generate approximately around $662,000 in revenue that could be considered in the 2024 fiscal budget.”
Bourbeau added that the county only represents about 18.5 percent of the population receiving waste management services. Prior to SLO County’s 2021 departure from the authority, every member of the Board of Supervisors served on the IWMA board, making up five of the 13 seats—something Compton also took issue with in 2021, saying that cities were able to ram their policies through even if the county didn’t like them.
“One of the biggest discussion points thus far has been, ‘What is the appropriate level of representation for the county?'” he said.
Atascadero City Councilmember Susan Funk said that regardless of how the IWMA and county decided to go about the rejoining, representation on the authority’s board should be reflective of the actual impact the county coverage has on waste management.
“It would make sense for the county representation on the board of the IWMA to be much less than the five supervisors it was in the past,” Funk said. “Somewhere between its percentage of waste management contributions and percentage of people it represents.”
That sentiment was shared by everyone on Atascadero’s council, as well as the fear that the county might leave again, should Board of Supervisors’ members take issue with the IWMA board’s policy.
“No one would want a situation where the county rejoins then—two years from now, four years from now, eight years from now, 12 years from now, whenever—a different board decides they want to leave,” Bourbeau said. “There shouldn’t be any philosophical disagreements on what needs to be done—maybe how it needs to be done—but I am confident that, should the county rejoin, there won’t be any cities or jurisdictions that feel other members of the board are attempting to push a specific policy down everyone’s throats since we will all have the same objectives.” Δ
This article appears in Apr 20-30, 2023.