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Time Set # 21.
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| Board of Supervisors |
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| Subject |
| Hold a public hearing, adopt a resolution confirming the report of delinquent residential solid waste accounts and direct the Yolo County Tax Collector to collect the amounts described in the report for the affected properties on the tax roll in the same manner as property taxes. (No general fund impact) (Echiburu/Sinderson) |
| Recommended Action |
| Hold a public hearing, adopt a resolution confirming the report of delinquent residential solid waste accounts and direct the Yolo County Tax Collector to collect the amounts described in the report for the affected properties on the tax roll in the same manner as property taxes. |
| Strategic Plan Goal(s) |
Operational Excellence
Sustainable Environment |
| Reason for Recommended Action/Background |
This annual public hearing allows those property owners with delinquent Waste Management, Inc. (WM) and Davis Waste Removal Co., Inc. (DWR) residential solid waste accounts (for services including garbage, recycling, green waste and bulky item collection and disposal) to address the Board of Supervisors prior to the attachment of a lien against their property. Two properties are located in District 1, ten properties are located in District 3 and 56 properties are located in District 5. These three Districts are serviced by WM. No properties are located in District 2, or District 4. Districts 2 and 4 are serviced by DWR.
BACKGROUND
In 2008, the County negotiated Franchise Agreements for solid waste services with WM and DWR. Under Agreements No. 08-177 (WM), and 08-206 (DWR), WM and DWR assume all billing responsibilities for solid waste services to customers in the unincorporated County. The language of these agreements and the corresponding Ordinance No. 1378 grant WM and DWR the ability to file property liens to recover delinquent accounts for any residential customer that has not paid for 365 days or more. Before filing a lien with the County, a Public Hearing must be held to allow protests of the proposed liens. The Public hearing is scheduled for July 18, 2017.
As shown on attachment C, procedures for the lien process are extensive and involve the franchise haulers, the Division of Integrated Waste Management (division),and the Financial Services Department. This process was initiated by the haulers last November, but they won't receive payment from this year's liens until June 2018.
As a requirement under their agreements, WM and DWR must provide regular notice to their customers through billing statements, alerting all customers with overdue accounts. As the billing cycle is every two months for WM, up to six notifications were mailed out to those customers with overdue accounts throughout the year. DWR bills quarterly, so up to four notifications were mailed out to its potential lien customers. In addition, WM and DWR sent final letters in May and June, respectively, via direct mail to the property owners who had not paid. The final letter was to inform them that a lien would be placed on their property if the past due service fees were not paid by the designated date of May 15, 2017.
Division staff responded to numerous customer phone calls. Many of the potential lien customers have unique circumstances and questions, which required staff to follow up with the appropriate hauler regarding each customer's billing, payment and service histories.
Each of the above steps was completed to assure that property owners had received proper notification and were allowed ample opportunities to bring their solid waste accounts current and avoid a lien attachment. As a result, an original list of 214 delinquent accounts was reduced to the 68 properties listed in the Report of Delinquent Accounts that staff is requesting the Board to confirm. From start to finish, the lien process requires an average of four hours of staff time per customer, which equates to over 500 hours a year to collect on these delinquencies. It is important to note that these 68 customers account for less than two percent of the over 4,000 waste franchise customers in unincorporated Yolo County. |
| Collaborations (including Board advisory groups and external partner agencies) |
| County Counsel has reviewed and approved the resolution as to form. Division staff worked with the Yolo County Counsel and Assessors Offices, and the County Financial Services Department as well as WM and DWR, to ensure the process was followed per agreements 08-177 and 08-206, Ordinance 1378 and Government Code Section 25828. |
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| Fiscal Impact |
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| Source of Funds for this Expenditure |
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Explanation (Expenditure and/or Revenue) |
| Further explanation as needed: |
| This resolution authorizes a total of $28,472.98 to be collected through the Yolo County Tax Collector's lien Process with ten percent of the total collected ($2,847.30) allocated to the Sanitation Enterprise Fund. The remaining 90 percent will be remitted to WM as 100% of the lien amounts for this year will be collected from WM customers. |
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