SF WASTE MANAGEMENT AND GARBAGE RATE HIKES

The City and County of San Francisco uses the San Francisco Environment and the Department of Public Works as conduits to regulate Sunset Scavenger Company and Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling Company and act as intermediaries in the proposed waste management rate hikes. I have been attending these dog and pony meetings. I have been attending the meetings and find it very interesting how a few so called mostly White advocates are tying to participate in the proceedings. Many of them are constipated with fixed divisive ideas and that includes the City Accountant that purports to know something about nothing when it comes to workers that work for the garbage company and are prone to severe on going injuries; higher health insurance premiums. The paradox in this discussion is that the fundamental truths are not discussed because the fools have no control over a couple of critical factors that adversely impact Quality of Life standards and put a burden on the garbage companies. In the year 2005 it is very easy for any one to say that we should aim at say 25% going to the land fills or dumps. But how are we going to that when the regulated garbage or waste management companies that have a contract with the City and County of San Francisco deal with less then 50% of the waste that it generated all over the City? Very few know that over 50% of the waste is handled by private companies. Still less know about many private companies that are NOT regulated making direct trips with hazardous material and other waste material like construction material directly to the far away land fills. This is a fact that very few in the City of San Francisco knows much about but cannot control. In the Southeast Sector we have over 60% of home owners. The rest live in apartments and most in what we call Public Housing. The Southeast Sector takes all of the garbage with little mitigation measures in place. In the rest of the City of San Francisco most people live in rental units and many in high rises. In other words very tall buildings that really do not have a mechanism to recycle well and place their waste in the blue, green and black bins so that little waste goes to the landfill. It is not uncommon for these folks who do not share the burden of those that live in the Southeast Sector we call Bayview Hunters Point, Little Hollywood, and the surrounding areas to take in the pollution from the millions of diesel vehicles making trips to the dump site, the added pollution from the cement companies, the tallow company, the power plants and of course the old polluted Phelps Raw Sewage Plant that is operated by Susan Leal and the San Francisco Pubic Utilities Commission. No one is looking at the Cumulate Pollution Factors. In the next couple of years thousands of new housing units will come into operation. None of the developers are talking to the Waste Management Companies about sending next to nothing waste from their many high rise buildings. No one is talking good recycling and the present discussions accommodate these crooks that are lynching upon the good old rate payers that are really not part of any meaningful dialog or discussion and will be adversely impacted because they are NOT at the table. San Francisco is a Racist City and those that purport that they know about the Operations of any Waste Management Company are kidding themselves. I know for a fact the City Accountant at the table, the so called woman waste management appointee, and the few Whites know dilly nothing about any Waste Management Operations. I challenge them for example to know the amount of particulates that bombard any garbage worker during the short span the worker works for the garbage company? Or if they have every talked to some one suffering from back pains or paralysis due to injury and part of the Workers Compensation that safe guard the right of the garbage workers? The high insurance rates that I got tangled with the last around with the stupid City Accountant and the baffled in the audience. All new high rises in San Francisco should pay more and should have a special permit where the Waste Companies have input. San Francisco Environment and the SF Department of Public Works want money linked to Recycling and Waste Management but have NOT contributed to regulating impact fees on new high rises that adversely impact Quality of Life issues in San Francisco. I challenge SFE and DPW to prove me wrong on these issues and find it difficult to see these individuals sit through the work shops and wait for the moment behind close doors to beg the Waste Management Companies for money for administrative uses. This is totally wrong. The residents from the Western part of the City have had it good and it is time they pay more for sending more garbage to the Southeast. There should be a tier system with the residents from the Southeast paying the least. Those that exceed the base quota in the Western part of the City should pay more. Those residents and entities living at the Presidio of San Francisco should pay the highest. Second in line Pacific Height, Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, and we can gauge the increase rates by income generated and crossing over the base line. For too long have some Whites with constipated ideas tried to have some work shops and discussion and have NOT heard the TRUTH linked to Waste Management. If the folks in the Western part of the City want it good; let them set aside a site and the garbage company can then take their garbage and process it right in their back yards. Let them inhale the particulates, the perfum de Paree, and all the necessities that go with garbage and what the residents of the Southeast Sector have been tolerating for decades. Again, all new units and especially high rise units as proposed on the Natoma Site should pay greater impact fees to the garbage company. If they appoint me I can handle this situation very easily. The folks in the Western part of the City that cross the base line pay more. The filthy rich on Federal Land at the Presidio pay more; the filthy rich at Pacific Heights pay way more, Nob Hill and Telegraph Hill more. The folks in the Southeast Sector get a break. If the City Accountant and the fake person anointed to help the citizens and rate increases cannot understand or comprehend what I am saying; I am prepared to explain these facts free of charge. The Waste Management Company would be well advised to put out some reading material on Workers' Compensation and the increase in rates linked to Health Insurance. Our dumb City Officials cannot understand injuries because most of them sit on their assess and do nothing. That is why they have the audacity to prey upon grants and money that is well earn in the first place by the garbage companies and mostly by the hard working employees that toil so hard. These grants and money should be spent on those directly impacted. It would serve well to take the City Accountant and make him lift one or two garbage bins on a route that is on a steep hill an have him write a short description of the wear and tear on his anatomy so that this can be part of the deliberation when we sit and think about the hard working employees working for the Waste Management Company having it easy. As a Union Worker I will not tolerate nonsense and any nonsense coming out of the mouth of some one that I have witnessed before talking utter nonsense when deliberating the rates increases linked to waste water, clean drinking water and now the proposed waste management rate hikes at San Francisco City Hall. As part of the current discussion I want to know how many millions are given to San Francisco Department of Public Works. How many millions of dollars to the San Francisco Environment. I want to know how many constructive person hours are contributed by these leaching entities that prey upon the Waste Management Companies and have not cared to talk to the employees that work so hard for these companies. I have attended two work shops and the tone set at both these work shops from the City Officials and few mostly White advocates is pathetic. This of course is my subjective opinion. I have been involved with real recycling since 1988 at the Presidio of San Francisco. I have been involved with Environmental Issues all over the world since 1963. I am now the Director of Environmental Justice Advocacy. I have written a couple of articles on this site. I have attend the Solar Conferences held in our City and did not cross the Union Lines because of the strike at the time of the conference. I attended the Waste Management Conference held at Moscone Center and learned something. I have NOT been impressed by the small tiny exhibit by San Francisco Environment. I saw nothing there by SF Department of Public Works. It is critical that some Standard Operation Procedures and Rates be set to apply to SF Department of Public Works and San Francisco Environment. Also under the Brown Act the number of secret meetings is available to the Public for review. We have been discussing about some goals that we hope to have in place by the year 2010. I am monitoring the work shops and have been reporting honestly. I see some that walk the walk and I see many at the meeting that talk the talk. Good leaders know the way, show the way and go the way. I also believe in everyone sharing the adverse impacts especially the filthy rich and mostly Whites that have had it good for too long.

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