Memorandum
Date: April 14, 2020
To: The Honorable Moke Simon, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Lars Ewing, Public Services Director
Subject: Authorize the closure of the Eastlake Sanitary Landfill until the County of Lake Health Officer rescinds the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order
Executive Summary: (include fiscal and staffing impact narrative):
Currently the Eastlake Sanitary Landfill is open to the public from 7:30am to 3:00pm seven days a week. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff is recommending to close one day a week on Sundays in order to continue providing adequate operations the rest of the week. The reasons are threefold.
First, workforce shortages have hindered our ability to adequately manage landfill operations spread out over a seven day a week period. Fewer County staff are available to work because of voluntary staff isolations/quarantines as well as unexpected recent vacancies. Additionally, the landfill typically benefits from the Lake County Sheriff’s Alternative Work Program and Mendo-Lake Alternative Service, which provides individuals who perform site cleanup work at the landfill as an alternative to court-mandated fines or community service hours. Unfortunately during the COVID-19 crisis these programs have been placed on hold.
Second, the concern of COVID-19 contamination on disposal material has added to the operational tasks at the landfill, thereby exacerbating the aforementioned staffing shortage. South Lake Refuse and Recycling (SLRR) normally accepts recyclables at their recycling drop off center adjacent to the landfill. However, SLRR staff usually hand sorts the material and, in light of the health risk to their staff, they made the decision to discontinue receiving any material. As an alternative, the landfill has been accepting recyclable material for temporary storage and future pickup. It is important to note that landfill staff is NOT hand processing the material like SLRR but rather using mechanical equipment to sort the material and place in storage bins for SLRR to haul off at a later date. Other unique tasks include daily sanitizing of all equipment used at the landfill, inside and out, as well as more direct involvement with social distancing and traffic control measures to minimize the number of people on the landfill tipping area at one time.
Lastly, the amount of vehicle traffic and material coming to the landfill on Sundays has drastically reduced during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order. In comparison to the same time frame from 2019, material amounts have reduced by 30% and vehicle counts are down almost 60%. While this is a relatively brief period of time to use a basis for long-term operational decisions, it may indicate that a temporary Sunday closure could result in only a minor impact to the public. Though on a related note, prior to the shelter-in-place order there was already a significant downward trend in the Sunday use of the landfill in comparison to previous years. This is likely, though not confirmed to be, a result of the City of Clearlake instituting mandatory garbage collection in April 2018; franchise haulers do not haul on weekends so all weekend use is public self-haul.
If your Board approves the request, Sunday closures will go into effect April 19, 2020, and upon rescission of the shelter-in-place order landfill operations would resume to seven days a week as before. In the meantime staff will continue to monitor the daily traffic counts and material quantities and come back to your Board as necessary with any recommended operational changes.
FISCAL IMPACT (Narrative): If the landfill is closed on Sundays for the duration of the COVID-19 shelter-in-place, staff does not anticipate a fiscal impact. However, if the landfill remains open seven days a week, landfill staff will likely be required to work overtime in order to provide operational coverage over a seven day period.
STAFFING IMPACT (if applicable): The staffing impact is described in the executive summary and fiscal impact.
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Estimated Cost: ________ Amount Budgeted: ________ Additional Requested: ________ Future Annual Cost: ________
Consistency with Vision 2028 and/or Fiscal Crisis Management Plan (check all that apply): ☐ Not applicable
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☐ Economic Development ☒ Disaster Recovery ☒ County Workforce ☐ Revenue Generation
☐ Community Collaboration ☒ Business Process Efficiency ☐ Clear Lake ☐ Cost Savings
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Recommended Action: Authorize the closure of the Eastlake Sanitary Landfill until the County of Lake Health Officer rescinds the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order.