PREPARED BY: AMANDA BOOTH DATE OF MEETING: 11/03/2025
SUBJECT:
TITLE
CONSIDER ADOPTING RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN PABLO AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) WITH RICHMOND SANITARY SERVICES, INC. (RSS) FOR A ONE-TIME RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMER CREDIT FOR SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLINGS, AND MULTI-FAMILY DWELLINGS WITH LESS THAN 5 UNITS, TO COMPENSATE RESIDENTS FOR MISSED PICK-UP EVENTS DURING THE RSS WORK STOPPAGE THAT OCCURED IN JULY 2025
CEQA: This proposed action is not a project as defined by CEQA.
Label
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Adopt Resolution
Body
Compliance statements
FY 2023-2025 Council Priority Workplan Compliance Statements:
Item 202: Identify and implement long-term environmental stewardship goals is a major policy goal contained in the FY 2025-27 City Council Priority Workplan, adopted April 7, 2025.
BACKGROUND
The City maintains an exclusive franchise agreement with Richmond Sanitary Services (RSS) to provide solid waste, recycling, and organic material collection services in the City of San Pablo.
On July 8, 2025, without prior notice to RSS, a labor sympathy action involving Teamster Local 315 disrupted RSS collection and transportation operations in the City. The event was not a strike against RSS, rather a sympathy or “solidarity” action in which the union employees refused to cross a picket line established by other Teamsters union locals at RSS’s facilities. This work stoppage halted solid waste, recycling, and organics collection services for all San Pablo residential customers from July 8 through July 21, 2025. During this period, RSS deployed drivers from other service areas to prioritize essential commercial collections in order to mitigate potential public health and safety impacts. All customer services resumed on July 21, 2025; however, it took an additional few days to collect the excess trash around the City.
Following the work stoppage, City staff engaged in good-faith discussions with RSS to identify an equitable resolution for affected customers. Under the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between RSS and the City of San Pablo, a one-time credit will be provided to residential customers and multi-family customers with less than 5 units for missed collection events that occurred during the service disruption period. The service credit amount for residential and multi-family customers with less than 5 units is provided below in Table 1. If approved, the credit will appear on or before the December 1, 2025, billing statement issued by RSS.
Table 1 - Residential Customer Credit
|
Customer Type |
RSS Collection Portion of the Monthly Rate |
Weekly Collection Rate |
Credit for 2 missed pick-ups |
|
20-gallon |
$ 26.47 |
$ 6.11 |
$ 12.23 |
|
20-gallon senior/low-income rate |
$ 21.97 |
$ 5.07 |
$ 10.15 |
|
35-gallon |
$ 28.49 |
$ 6.58 |
$ 13.16 |
|
35-gallon senior/low-income rate |
$ 23.99 |
$ 5.54 |
$ 11.08 |
|
65 gallon |
$ 54.51 |
$ 12.59 |
$ 25.18 |
|
95 gallon |
$ 80.78 |
$ 18.66 |
$ 37.31 |
While large multi-family and commercial customers are not included in the automatic credit program, they may contact RSS directly and request an individual service credit, which will be reviewed and processed by RSS based on service impact during the work stoppage period.
Upon City Council approval of the MOU, City staff will work with RSS to ensure execution of the agreement and implementation of the residential customer credits, including joint outreach to the public, such as coordinated social media releases, language on billing statements, and scripts for the RSS call center representatives.
FISCAL IMPACT
The proposed action has no direct impact on the City of San Pablo's adopted budget. This action will provide a credit to the Republic residential rate payers of San Pablo funded by Richmond Sanitary Services (RSS).
ATTACHMENTS:
Att 1 - Resolution
Att 2 - Letter from Republic
Att 3 - Memorandum of Understanding