Council: Privatization of trash again postponed, budget update agenized
January 14, 2011
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula City Council
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday will push the regularly scheduled City Council meeting back one day in a session expected to focus on the city’s budget and not touch on the issue of whether or not to privatize refuse services.
The meeting, according to Deputy City Clerk Peggy Higgins, will be held Tuesday, January 18 at City Hall Council Chambers, 970 E. Ventura St.
The sole item on the consent calendar is a request to again postpone possible action on privatizing city refuse services. Staff is asking that the issue be brought back to the council at the February 7 meeting.
At the January 18 meeting the council will have a closed meeting centered on labor negotiation issues before resuming the open session at 6:30 p.m.
Time Warner Cable Channel 10 will broadcast the meeting live which will be rerun according to the playback schedule.
Higgins said presentations will include made by Duane Ashby on behalf of the city’s Economic Development Advisory Committee and Downtown Merchants Association as well as a representative of Bio-Resources, who will update the council on habitat issues related to the city’s new water recycling facility.
The city’s contracted construction manager for the Santa Paula Branch Line Bicycle Trail will also offer a presentation.
The council will also hear an update of the water recycling facility. As of press time the city was waiting for confirmation that a representative of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District would offer a presentation on sludge dumping at the Toland Road Landfill, which nearby residents have told the Board of Supervisors is causing strong odors.
The council has only two business items on the agenda: approval of a storm water implementation agreement and an update on the city’s budget at the fiscal year’s halfway point.
The council was told at the November 15 meeting that the fiscally ailing budget was a little behind projections but city coffers were still projected to end the fiscal year with a General Fund Reserve account of about $1.2 million.
