Cudahy Municipal Code Art. XII Hauler Requirements and Enforcement

(1) Requirements for Franchise Haulers.

(a) The franchise hauler providing residential, commercial, and organic waste collection services to generators within the city’s boundaries satisfies the following procedural requirements pursuant to the franchise agreement which satisfies these conditions:

(i) By written notice to the city annually on or before July 1st, identify the facilities to which they will transport organic waste including facilities for source separated recyclable materials and source separated green container organic waste.

(ii) Transport source separated recyclable materials, source separated green container organic waste, and mixed waste to a permitted facility that recovers organic waste as defined in 14 CCR Division 7, Chapter 12, Article 2.

(iii) Obtain approval from the city to haul organic waste, unless it is transporting source separated organic waste to a community composting site or lawfully transporting C&D in a manner that complies with 14 CCR Section 18989.1, and/or this section.

(2) Requirements for Facility Operators and Community Composting Operations.

(a) Owners of permitted facilities located within the city that recover organic waste, including, but not limited to, compost facilities, in-vessel digestion facilities, and publicly owned treatment works, shall, upon the city’s request, provide information regarding permits and approvals for the facility, including land use approvals and compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, available and potential new or expanded capacity at their facilities, operations, and activities, including information about throughput and permitted capacity necessary for planning purposes. Entities contacted by the city shall respond within 60 days.

(b) Community composting operators within the city, upon the city’s request, shall provide information to the city to support organic waste capacity planning, including, but not limited to, permits and approvals for the facility, including land use approvals and compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, an estimate of the amount of organic waste anticipated to be handled at the community composting operation. Entities contacted by the city shall respond within 60 days. (Ord. 716 § 2, 2021).

(1) Commercial self-haulers shall:

(a) Register as self-haulers with the city on forms prescribed by the city.

(b) Source separate all organic waste (materials that the city otherwise requires generators to separate for collection in the city’s organics and recycling collection program) and haul such materials using the self-hauler’s own vehicles, equipment and employees to a permitted solid waste processing facility or shall haul organic waste to a permitted high diversion organic waste processing facility as specified in 14 CCR Section 18984.3.

(c) Shall haul their source separated recyclable materials to an authorized recycling center that recovers those materials and provide the city with delivery receipts and weight tickets from the recycling facility accepting the materials; and haul their source separated green container organic waste to a solid waste facility, operation, activity, or property that processes or recovers source separated organic waste. Alternatively, self-haulers may haul organic waste to a high diversion organic waste processing facility.

(2) Self-haulers that are commercial businesses (including multifamily residential dwellings) shall keep a record of the amount of organic waste delivered to each permitted solid waste processing facility that processes or recovers organic waste; this record shall be subject to inspection by the city. The records shall include the following information:

(a) Delivery receipts and weight tickets from the entity accepting the waste.

(b) The amount of material in cubic yards or tons transported by the generator to each entity.

(c) If the material is transported to an entity that does not have scales on site, or employs scales incapable of weighing the self-hauler’s vehicle in a manner that allows it to determine the weight of materials received, the self-hauler is not required to record the weight of material but shall keep a record of the facilities that received the organic waste.

(3) Self-haulers that are commercial businesses (including multifamily self-haulers) shall report its self-haul source separated recyclable materials and/or organic waste tonnage hauled to the city on the first day of each month covering the tonnage for the preceding month.

(4) Any registered commercial self-hauler of source separated recyclable materials and/or organic waste found to be in violation of the provisions of this chapter, upon issuance of a first notice of violation, at the discretion of the city enforcement official, may have its self-hauler registration revoked and will be required to subscribe to solid waste and recycling services from the city’s franchise waste hauler within five days of the issuance of the notice of violation. Failure to subscribe to solid waste and recycling services may result in penalties prescribed in CMC 8.12.930 et seq. (Ord. 716 § 2, 2021).

(1) City representatives and/or its designated entity, including designees, and the franchise hauler are authorized to conduct inspections and investigations, at random or otherwise, of any collection container, collection vehicle loads, or transfer, processing, or disposal facility for materials collected from generators, or source separated materials to confirm compliance with this chapter by organic waste generators, commercial businesses (including multifamily residential dwellings), property owners, commercial edible food generators, haulers, self-haulers, food recovery services, and food recovery organizations, subject to applicable laws. This section does not allow the city, or its designee, to enter the interior of a private residential property for inspection. For the purposes of inspecting commercial business containers for compliance with this chapter, the city may conduct container inspections for prohibited container contaminants using remote monitoring, and commercial businesses shall accommodate and cooperate with the remote monitoring.

(2) Generators shall provide or arrange for access during all inspections (with the exception of residential property interiors) and shall cooperate with the city’s employee or its designated entity/designee or the franchise hauler during such inspections and investigations. Such inspections and investigations may include confirmation of proper placement of materials in containers, edible food recovery activities, records, or any other requirement of this chapter described herein. Failure to provide or arrange for: (a) access to an entity’s premises; (b) installation and operation of remote monitoring equipment; or (c) access to records for any inspection or investigation is a violation of this section and may result in and NOV or penalties.

(3) Any records obtained by the city during its inspections, remote monitoring, and other reviews shall be subject to the requirements and applicable disclosure exemptions of the Public Records Act as set forth in Government Code Section 6250 et seq.

(4) The city shall receive written complaints, by regular mail or electronic mail, from persons regarding an entity that may be potentially noncompliant with SB 1383 regulations, including receipt of anonymous complaints. Written complaints should be addressed to the public works department. Written complaints should include the following information:

(a) If the complaint is not anonymous, the name and contact information of the complainant.

(b) The identity of the alleged violator, if known.

(c) A description of the alleged violation including location(s) and all other relevant facts known to the complainant.

(d) Any relevant photographic or documentary evidence to support the allegations in the complaint.

(e) The identity of any witnesses, if known. (Ord. 716 § 2, 2021).

(1) Violation of any provision of this chapter may constitute grounds for issuance of a notice of violation and assessment of a fine in the discretion of a city enforcement official or representative. Enforcement actions under this chapter are issuance of an administrative citation, and assessment of a fine pursuant to subsection (5) of this section. The city’s procedures on imposition of administrative fines are hereby incorporated in their entirety, as modified from time to time, and shall govern the imposition, enforcement, collection, and review of administrative citations issued to enforce this chapter and any rule or regulation adopted pursuant to this chapter, except as otherwise indicated in this chapter.

(2) Other remedies allowed by law may be used, including civil action or prosecution as misdemeanor or infraction. The city may pursue civil actions in the California courts to seek recovery of unpaid administrative citations.

(3) Responsible Entity for Enforcement. Enforcement pursuant to this chapter may be undertaken by the city enforcement official, which may be the city manager or his or her designated entity, legal counsel, or combination thereof.

(4) Process for Enforcement.

(a) The city enforcement official and/or their designee will monitor compliance with this chapter randomly and through compliance reviews, route reviews, investigation of complaints, and an inspection program that may include remote monitoring. CMC 8.12.920 establishes the city’s right to conduct inspections and investigations.

(b) The city may issue an official notification to notify regulated entities of its obligations under this chapter.

(c) For incidences of prohibited container contaminants found in containers, the city may issue a notice of violation to any generator found to have prohibited container contaminants in a container. Such notice may be provided via a cart tag, a tag at the premises’s door or gate, or other written or electronic communication immediately upon identification of the prohibited container contaminants after determining that a violation has occurred. If the city observes prohibited container contaminants in a generator’s containers on more than one occasion within a year, the city may assess contamination processing fees or contamination penalties on the generator pursuant to subsection (5) of this section. In addition to city assessed penalties, the city’s franchise solid waste hauler may also assess a contamination fee for each instance of prohibited container contaminants pursuant to the city’s solid waste franchise agreement. With the exception of violations of generator contamination of container contents addressed under this subsection, the city shall issue a notice of violation requiring compliance within 60 days of issuance of the notice. If the respondent is still not in compliance after 60 days of the issuance of the notice, a final notice of violation will be issued which will specify a compliance timeline with a minimum of 48 hours, if the initial process service was performed in person, up to a maximum of five days if the initial process service was performed via electronic communication or postal mail delivery to the respondent.

(d) Absent compliance by the respondent within the deadline set forth in the notice of violation, the city may commence an action to impose penalties, via an administrative citation and fine, pursuant to subsection (5) of this section.

Notices shall be sent to “owner” at the official address of the owner maintained by the tax collector for the city or, if no such address is available, to the owner at the address of the dwelling or commercial property or to the party responsible for paying for the collection services, depending upon available information.

(5) Penalty Amounts for Types of Violations. After a final notice of violation has been issued and the respondent is noncompliant, the penalty levels for a violation are as follows:

(a) For a first violation within a year, the amount of the base penalty shall be $50.00 per violation.

(b) For a second violation within a year, the amount of the base penalty shall be $100.00 per violation.

(c) For a third or subsequent violation within a year, the amount of the base penalty shall be $250.00 per violation.

(6) Compliance Deadline Extension Considerations. The city may extend the compliance deadlines set forth in a notice of violation issued in accordance with this section if it finds that there are extenuating circumstances beyond the control of the respondent that make compliance within the deadlines impracticable, including the following:

(a) Acts of God such as earthquakes, wildfires, flooding, and other emergencies or natural disasters;

(b) Delays in obtaining discretionary permits or other government agency approvals; or

(c) Deficiencies in organic waste recycling infrastructure or edible food recovery capacity and the city is under a corrective action plan with CalRecycle pursuant to 14 CCR Section 18996.2 due to those deficiencies.

(7) Appeals Process. Persons receiving an administrative citation containing a penalty for an uncorrected violation may request a hearing to appeal the citation. A hearing will be held only if it is requested within the time prescribed and consistent with the city’s procedures in the city’s code for appeals of administrative citations. Evidence may be presented at the hearing. The city will appoint a hearing officer who shall conduct the hearing and issue a final written order.

(8) Education Period for Noncompliance. Beginning January 1, 2022, and through December 31, 2023, the city will conduct inspections, remote monitoring, route reviews or waste evaluations, and compliance reviews, depending upon the type of regulated entity, to determine compliance, and if the city determines that organic waste generator, self-hauler, hauler, tier one commercial edible food generator, food recovery organization, food recovery service, or other entity is not in compliance, it shall provide educational materials to the entity describing its obligations under this chapter and a notice that compliance is required by January 1, 2022, and that violations may be subject to administrative civil penalties starting on January 1, 2022.

(9) Civil Penalties for Noncompliance. Beginning January 1, 2022, if the city determines that an organic waste generator, self-hauler, hauler, tier one or tier two commercial edible food generator, food recovery organization, food recovery service, or other entity is not in compliance with this chapter, it shall document the noncompliance or violation, issue a notice of violation, and take enforcement action pursuant to this section, as needed. (Ord. 716 § 2, 2021).