UPDATE: In the comments section City Council Member Barbra Williamson says it is not going to be a debate. The email sent to me from the Landfill Taskforce, a group of citizens not affiliated with the city, stated it was going to be a debate. But your input is valuable as a current member of the negotiating team and the city council. Thanks!
The Simi Valley Landfill Landfill Expansion Taskforce, a group unaffiliated with the city government of Simi Valley, is calling on people to help them to limit the plans for growth of the landfill in the area outside of Simi Valley.
The City Council is united in trying to mitigate the negative potential impacts to the surrounding communities but as The Acorn reported the council is divided on how and what to negotiate for.
The landfill will have negative and beneficial impacts on our communities. Simi Valley does not have a direct vote but if our city council was united or opposed to a deal that would be a powerful recommendation to the County Board of Supervisors. Don't believe a local politician that says they are powerless.
So, what could make you support expanding the local landfill?
Here is a recent release from the landfill expansion taskforce. I am intrigued by the announcement of a debate. If this was previously posted I must have been too busy lately to notice.
SAY "NO" TO LOS ANGELES GARBAGE IN SIMI VALLEY
Your help is urgently needed to help Simi Valley stop the Landfill from becoming one of the largest landfills in the Nation in its quest to be the repository for Los Angeles garbage.With your help, we can win this battle.
Two meetings will be held later this month and your attendance at each of them will make a difference.
Meeting 1: a televised debate between Waste Management and the Simi Valley Landfill Expansion Task Force to be held on March 23, Wed., at 6:30 PM at City Hall. Please attend so you can send a message to Waste Management that we are united in our battle to keep Los Angeles garbage out of Simi Valley.
Meeting 2: The Ventura County Planning Commission will hold its Public Hearing in Simi Valley for the first time. The meeting will be at 1:00 PM on March 24, Thursday, at City Hall. Please attend and be prepared to speak. Your testimony can be very short.
"I urge you to recommend the "No Project Option" since expansion of the landfill is not needed to meet the needs of Ventura County."Lastly, we need letters-to-the-editor NOW. Send them to the Ventura County Star and the Simi Valley Acorn. They can be either short or long, but keep the message simple. Our County Supervisor's need to deny the expansion of the landfill because it is not necessary for the needs of Ventura County and it will harm the air quality in Simi Valley and Moorpark to a level that can not be mitigated.
Side Note: I miss Mike Chandler's blog posts and the comments on his entries. Mike, don't give up. We don't always agree but I appreciate your perspective.
First comment here!
As reported by the Simi Valley Acorn, based on the tone, tenor and tympany of the members' comments during the recent City Council meeting free-for-all, it appears that some of the methane released by the slow putrification of municipal garbarge brought-in to the Simi Valley Landfill from all over Southern California has geographically effused over to City Hall, and is now hovering ominously over the City Council Chambers..
Looks like Waste Management's days of "Owning" the Simi Valley City Council lock, stock and barrel are coming to a close. Now the operative political and public policy question is, at what price will they "Rent" the Board of Supervisors??
Doubling Simi Valley Landfill surcharge fee revenues to the County's General Fund by $3 Million? $6 Million? or more each year for 30+ years???
As Deep Throat told Woodward more than forty years ago, "..Follow the money!.."
Unfortunately for the good citizens of Simi Valley, the only thing that is certain this Saint Patrick's Day is there will be no "Pot of Gold," for them at the end of Waste Management's Multi-Billion Revenue Rainbow..
Nostrademus,
Do you think WM and the city could come to a deal that benefits all of us?
You have to admit it's a great spot for WM. With Rocketdyne right down the street it makes a great cover for any environmental mishaps. Any exotic pollutants turns into a whodunit.
I have a friend who lives in Santa Barbara call me and asked for a favor. He asked if I would drive to Simi Valley and clean up some mud running down the gutter from a contruction site that was a client of his. The city of Simi Valley contacted him and said they we're going to fine him $1 million dolars a day. So obviously I ended up driving to Simi Valley to clean up about ten shovel loads of mud and fixed the sand bags.
The city of Simi Valley isn't as demanding with WM as they are with the "little guy" business owners. It is just glaring if you can't pay them up front like WM did they will try and rip you off some other way.
Brian:
That depends entirely on the shrewdness, toughness, and persistence of the City's negotiating team composed of Mayor Huber, Councilwoman Williamson and City Manager Sedell.
If one predicates that the public interest is served by the Landfill Expansion being approved as proposed, then the bottom-line is this. What's a fair price required to recompense the good citizens and taxpayers of the City of Simi Valley for their continued willingness to put-up with the adverse impacts on their community resulting from hosting a landfill in their midst?
Particularly when that Simi Valley Landfill, if expanded, could see daily truck trips coming through the landfill gate increase by up to 125%; and daily trash load throughput volumes increase by up to 100%, with an ever-increasing proportion of that waste coming from all over Southern California and beyond.
And once that price is determined by the City, how will the City's negotiating team convince Supervisor Foy to lobby his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to agree that the County should either pay the City's price out of the County's existing Surcharge Revenue fees [NOT!], or boost the County's Surcharge fee sufficiently to cover the City's price, and remit that incremental revenue to the City of Simi Valley.
Failing that, then Bob, Barbara and Mike will have to jawbone Mike Smith to contact his corporate masters back in Houston, Texas and urge them to pay the City's price as a good business decision, in spite of the fact that the Simi Valley Landfill is just outside of the city’s limits.
And since he’ll be calling the WMI Big Boys back in Texas, he’ll just have to muster up his courage, put on his best britches and cowboy boots, and remind them of what old Lyndon Johnson used to say about developing consensus with difficult stakeholders. He should tell them that it is better to have the City on the inside of Waste's tent p&)*)*sn-out, then it is to have them outside Waste's tent p%&)&sn-in.
We shall see who blinks first, and how all this plays-out, very soon...
It's also a convienent spot for WM because It's easy for trucks to get to and the citizens have a history of being asleep at the wheel.
Is WM trying to avoid building a facility somewhere else at the citizen's of Simi Valley's expense?
Isn't it more advantages for Simi Valley to wait until landfills in the area are full?
It's obvious this is a better deal for WM than the citizens who live around it.
In real estate location is everything. People pay a premium for a good location. The city council of Simi Valley folded it's hand not for the citizens but for themselves.
Whose the go to person who is asking the questions of what's best for Simi Valley and the surrounding area?
Just more lies from the task force gang: "Your help is urgently needed to help Simi Valley stop the Landfill from becoming one of the largest landfills in the Nation ..."
One of the largest in the nation? What nation? There are two in CA that are over 2000 acres, which proves that the task force gang is lying in their presentation (on their website) in which they claim that if approved it would be the largest in the Western United States. Due to this, you can't trust a single word that they say.
I really have to wonder what their agenda and goals are. Williamson has said conflicting things about who is supporting the task force with money, specifically Wayne Fishback. Do a search of some of the people involved, quite interesting.
So Sandberg, when we all have cancer from the toxics oozing out of the dump and all the children in Simi have asthma from the thousands of garbage trucks spewing poisen into the air are you gonna pay the medical bills because we all know your good buddies at WM ain't gonna pay them. What proof do we have that Sandberg isn't making a buck off of WM turning Simi into L.A.'s dumping ground?!
As usual, NostraDemus hits the nail on the head in a precise, factual manner.
As for Sandberg, praise the Lord he came in last place in the recent City Council election. One weirdo for the weird book, to be sure.
Moondoggie, Ken,
The dump is either going to be among the largest or it is not. That should be a verifiable fact. Do either of you have a resource where I can verify your claims?
Big Five Landfills United States
1. Apex, Las Vegas, Nevada. 3,824,814 tons.
2. Puente Hills, Whittier, California. 3,756,718 tons.
3. Newton County Landfill Partnership, Brook, Indiana. 2,692,455 tons.
4. Atlantic Waste, Waverly, Virginia. 2,669,423 tons.
5. Okeechobee, Okeechobee, Florida. 2,640,000 tons
So if we multiply the max. capacity of the Simi Valley landfill times two taking into consideration a metric ton is about 10% more than a regular ton we'll have our answer.
Looks like 2,870,000 tons per year for Simi if the expansion is approved which includes garbage and alternative daily cover, all which ends up in the ground, making in No. 3 in the Nation.
Metric tons are 2,205 pounds. I think Simi Valley can be a contender if that's the way they want to go.
Brian
The meeting on the 23rd is not,I repeat not a debate. Never has been
It's a forum.
Please make a correction so your reader aren't mislead
Thanks
All roads lead to WM. When in WM do as WM. Give to WM which is WM's...
It's a forum Brian... and guess who the entertainment is?