Recycling policy brings bats from belfry
| Monday, Aug 31 2009 06:09 PM
Last Updated Monday, Aug 31 2009 06:11 PM
You couldn't blame Ken Weir if he felt he'd fallen down a rabbit hole Monday during a committee meeting about Bakersfield's recycling policy.
The city councilmember at times seemed the only sane person for miles when trying to point out the task he'd been assigned to do -- represent Bakersfield on a group drafting a recycling plan for the metro area -- is at odds with existing policy and therefore a wasted exercise unless that changes.
"If we're not going to adopt a policy," Weir said, "there's no point going forward with the metro plan as we've been doing."
Bakersfield's "policy," by the way, is an unwritten assumption the city will comply with state mandates as they happen. The county-run group Weir serves on is working up something more proactive.
City Councilmember Irma Carson, also on the city's three-member Budget and Finance Committee, didn't grasp the difference between a policy and a plan.
"Why wouldn't a policy include a plan?" she asked.
"A plan is totally different," Weir explained to Carson, who was elected to the council in 1994. A plan comes later, with specific ways to meet policy goals.
Committee Chair Harold Hanson, meanwhile, wondered whether the Metropolitan Area Planning Group, the subgroup of the county's Solid Waste Management Advisory Committee that is working on the policy, might be "somewhat self-serving" because refuse haulers sit on the committee.
"I'm not suggesting anything improper or illegal," Hanson said, but maybe there was a conflict there?
Hanson's musing prompted an outburst from attendee Larry Moxley of Kern Refuse, who represents haulers on the waste committee.
"I resent everything you just said," Moxley told Hanson, reminding him "haulers have contributed to your campaign in the past...maybe that's a conflict!"
Moxley stormed out of the room.
The word "MADNESS" was written in capital letters on one attendee's meeting notes.
Bakersfield currently complies with a 1992 state mandate requiring a 50 percent reduction in landfill disposal by the year 2000.
More mandated reductions are likely, but it's not yet clear what those will be.
Weir said the planning subcommittee, which includes county Supervisor Don Maben and has meetings attended by city and county staffers, is considering various options that could include a 75 percent reduction goal.
Yes, carrying out such a plan would cost money, Weir said. But that would be years down the road if it happens at all.
To even consider the idea, the city needs a policy. Policy is set only by the full City Council, typically after committees send along items.
Whether Weir's policy request ever makes it to the full council remains to be seen. He'd asked for a policy statement at the last meeting, but city staff instead supplied a report outlining why they didn't want to do more than comply with state mandates.
When Carson and Hanson continued to wonder why they should even consider a recycling policy, Weir soldiered on.
"You guys can humor me," he said.
