07/21/07 10:40 PDT
OAKLAND (BCN)
Bay Area politicians this afternoon introduced legislation that would enable a city to declare a public health emergency when a contractor fails to provide adequate garbage collection services.

The legislation comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed by the city of Oakland against its garbage hauler, Waste Management of Alameda County, which claims the company's 20-day lockout of garbage workers has left trash uncollected in many area neighborhoods.

One of the bill's co-authors, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley/Oakland, said today that the uncollected garbage is creating a public nuisance and health hazard.

"Enough is enough. I find it completely unacceptable for trash to remain uncollected and left to rot in the streets," Hancock said in a statement. "This is creating a public health crisis and it's time to take out the trash."

Co-authors for the new legislation include Assemblymembers Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland; Mark DeSaulnier, D-Martinez; Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward; Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City; Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco; and Senator Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro.

Talks aimed at ending a lockout of nearly 500 East Bay garbage workers that began July 2 will resume at 10 a.m. Sunday, according to union officials and a spokeswoman for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

Representatives from Waste Management of Alameda County and Teamsters Local 70 met with federal mediator Jerry Allen and Dellums for eight hours Thursday before going home about 9 p.m.

Waste Management locked out 481 drivers who belong to Teamsters Local 70, as well as an additional 360 employees who belong to machinists and longshore and warehouse workers unions, after four months of negotiations for a new contract were unsuccessful.

Erica Harrold, the spokeswoman for Oakland City Attorney John Russo, said the city will go back to court Tuesday to try to convince Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller that Waste Management is in contempt of his ruling earlier this week that ordered the company to collect all the trash it is required to under its contract with the city.

Harrold said the agreement between the city and Waste Management allows an error rate of only 0.1 percent, which is equivalent to 20 missed collections per day in Oakland.

Harrold said the city has gathered more than 2,000 complaints about missed collections from Waste Management customers, including 280 complaints Wednesday and 279 gripes Thursday.

"We can't wait any longer for full garbage service because if the weather is warm this weekend as predicted there will be a public health crisis," Harrold said.

Harrold said Oakland is in the process of hiring an outside contractor to collect the backlog of garbage, which she said has been rotting for three weeks in some neighborhoods.

She said the contractor could start work as soon as tonight or Saturday morning.

If the city hires an outside contractor, it will then send the bill to Waste Management, Harrold said.

After it locked out its union employees, Waste Management then hired replacement workers to collect garbage in the communities it serves in the East Bay.

In addition to Oakland, they are Albany, Emeryville, Hayward, Newark, Livermore, the Castro Valley Sanitary District, Oro Loma Sanitary District in parts of San Leandro and San Lorenzo, San Ramon and unincorporated Alameda County.