The Fullerton City Council meets September 15, and the night’s one substantial decision is the city’s first competitive solid waste award in seven decades.

Note the time. The City Clerk moved the 4:00 pm session to 5:15 pm on September 10. Closed session convenes then, with one existing litigation item, Natalie Coyne v. City of Fullerton. The regular session follows at 5:30 pm in the Council Chamber, 303 West Commonwealth.

Presentations: A certificate to the Townley family for 25 years of September 11 remembrance and community service, a certificate to the Fullerton Hills Softball national championship team, and a staff update on Flock cameras.

Council members then make direct appointments to the Youth Advisory Committee for one-year terms. No public hearings are scheduled.

Regular Business: Solid Waste Management Services

Staff will ask Council to name a preferred waste management franchise and authorize negotiation of final contract terms. The tentative forecast places the agreement itself on the October 6 agenda.

Fullerton operates under a CalRecycle Corrective Action Plan issued March 2023 after the city disclosed roughly two dozen SB 1383 violations. It has been amended four times. A June 19, 2026 letter from the state set the terms plainly: final compliance July 1, 2027, no further addendums, and a milestone already missed — the April 2026 deadline to conclude negotiations with a selected hauler. Penalties can reach $10,000 per violation per day. Staff reported in June that citywide diversion sits at 15.81 percent, with multifamily organics compliance at 1.5 percent.

Nine firms answered the September 2025 RFP. A five-member staff committee scored them on fifteen criteria and recommended EDCO, CR&R, and Universal Waste Systems, separated by under a percentage point. On April 14, Council voted 3-2 to advance six, adding Athens, Republic, and Valley Vista on a two-member ad hoc committee’s recommendation. At a June 30 special meeting — called on short notice, and criticized by speakers for limiting public participation — Council cut the field to three: CR&R, Republic, and Valley Vista. Council eliminated EDCO and Universal Waste Systems. Two of the three firms Council added over staff’s recommendation survived; two of the three staff-ranked highest did not.

That meeting also rejected the upfront-payment offers that had dominated debate — EDCO’s $15 million tied to a 20-year term and Republic’s $10 million. Neither was solicited by staff. Council Member Dr. Ahmad Zahra called them a cash advance against future ratepayer billing; Mayor Pro Tem Nicholas Dunlap warned of a Proposition 218 challenge under Zolly v. Oakland. Republic withdrew the offer.

The City of Fullerton hired a consultant, who ranked CR&R first, Valley Vista a close second and Republic third for ethics, facilities, workforce and environmental factors, among other factors. However, on pricing, the ranking changed to Valley Vista, CR&R, and then Republic. 

Valley Vista is lowest in every category — $26.39 standard and $17.05 senior residential, about $3.72 million in monthly billings, roughly $2.2 million a year below CR&R. It holds the only certified high-diversion organics facility in Southern California, which lets it offer a two-container option for space-constrained multifamily sites, and guarantees an all-new fleet by July 2027. The consultant’s reservations are financial: an estimated operating margin under 5 percent, thinned by a no-cost street-sweeping pledge worth about $500,000 a year. It is non-union.

CR&R is recommended on certainty. Its $4 million road payment carries no conditions, and it guarantees 100 percent of the city’s SB 1383 procurement obligation through RNG credits — worth roughly $400,000 annually, and unmatched. It is a Teamsters Local 396 shop nine miles away with seventeen prior transitions. Its residential rate, $30.66 standard and $27.60 senior, is the highest of the three.

Republic, the incumbent since 1955 through predecessor companies, submitted a revised offer September 2 — after the last-and-final window closed. It dropped its request for a higher escalation index, a real gain for ratepayers. But it also cut its payment from $4.5 million to $4.25 million and raised multi-frequency commercial rates about 3 percent, which it disclosed nowhere in the offer letter and which reporters found only through line-by-line review. Those increases hit bin-served apartment properties hardest. Its SB 1383 procurement support, $75,000 a year, covers roughly a fifth of the obligation.

Unsettled. The term is ten years plus two five-year extensions. Current service includes weekly unlimited bulky-item pickup; the RFP sets it quarterly, and residents have pushed back hard. Rate equity is the other open question — Craig Park East HOA treasurer Jeff Otter told Council multifamily residents would pay several times the single-family rate for identical service, and asked for interim two-tier rates pending a cost-of-service study.

And now for the rest of the agenda

Consent Calendar (Items 2–12): August minutes and check register, the Treasurer’s report through June 30, the third-quarter FY 2025-26 financial report, 2027 group insurance renewal, classification updates including the Solid Waste Recycling Specialist position, a $96,565 Alcoholic Beverage Control grant, $175,000 in county funding for Independence Park, an on-call CEQA consultant list, and a $285,285 storm drain contract for Sunny Crest Alley.

Public comment on non-agenda and consent items is capped at 30 minutes total, three minutes each. Speakers on the waste item may address Council when the Mayor calls it.

To participate: Attend in person in the Council Chamber at 303 West Commonwealth Avenue, or join by Zoom (ID 160 256 5242) or by phone at 1-669-254-5252. Written comments go to CouncilMembers@cityoffullerton.com. Meetings stream at fullerton.legistar.com and on Spectrum Channel 3.