Part 1 — Definitions

• A. For the purposes of this chapter, the words, terms and phrases as defined in this section shall be construed as hereinafter set forth, unless it is apparent from the context that a different meaning is intended:

  1. City Manager. "city manager" means the city manager of the city of South Gate ("city") or the city manager's designee.

  2. Collection. "Collection" means the operation of gathering together within the city, and transporting by means of a motor vehicle to the point of disposal or processing, any solid waste or recyclable materials.

  3. Collector. "Collector" means any person who, prior to the effective date of this chapter, has been awarded an exclusive franchise to provide residential or commercial/industrial solid waste or recyclable materials collection services in the city, or who has been awarded a nonexclusive franchise to operate as a commercial/ industrial solid waste collector until the rights thereunder are terminated or revoked, or until such rights expire by virtue of the provisions of Section 49520 of the Public Resources Code.

  4. Commercial/Industrial Business Owner. "Commercial/industrial business owner" means any person, firm, corporation or other enterprise or organization holding or occupying, singly or with others, commercial/industrial premises, whether or not the holder of the title or the owner of record of the commercial/industrial premises.

  5. Commercial/Industrial Collector. "Commercial/industrial collector" means a collector providing solid waste collection services to commercial/industrial premises, including construction or demolition sites.

  6. Commercial/Industrial Premises. "Commercial/industrial premises" means all occupied real property in the city, except property occupied by federal, state or local governmental agencies which do not consent to their inclusion, and except residential premises as defined in subsection 24 of this section, and shall include, without limitation, multiple unit residential complexes containing or consisting of five or more dwelling units (including, but not limited to housing projects, apartment houses, condominiums, mixed condominiums and rental housing, or mobile home parks), wholesale and retail establishments, restaurants and other food establishments, bars, stores, shops, offices, industrial establishments, manufacturing establishments, service stations, repair, research and development establishments, professional, services, sports or recreational facilities, construction and demolition sites, and any other commercial or industrial business facilities, structures, sites or establishments in the city.

  7. Construction Site or Demolition Site. "Construction site" or "demolition site" means any real property in the city in, on or from which a building or structure is being fabricated, assembled, erected or demolished, and which produces construction or demolition solid waste which must be removed from the property, and requires the use of commercial refuse containers (two, three, four, six or eight yard containers) or fifteen, twenty-five or forty yard roll-off boxes.

8. Construction or Demolition Waste. "Construction or demolition waste" means any solid waste or debris generated as the result of construction or demolition, including without limitation, discarded packaging or containers and waste construction materials, whether brought on site for fabrication or used in construction or resulting from demolition, excluding liquid waste and hazardous waste.

9. Exclusive Solid Waste Handling Services. "Exclusive solid waste handling services" means any action by the city council, whether by franchise, contract, license, permit, or otherwise, whereby the city itself, or one or more other local agencies or solid waste enterprises has the exclusive right to provide solid waste handling services of any class or type within all or any part of the territory of the city.

10. Disposal. "Disposal" means the complete operation of treating and disposing of solid waste after the collection thereof.

11. Hazardous Waste. "Hazardous waste" means and includes waste defined as hazardous by Public Resources Code Section 40141, namely, a waste or combination of wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may do either of the following: (i) cause or significantly contribute to, an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness; (ii) pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise managed. "Hazardous waste" includes extremely hazardous waste and acutely hazardous waste, and such other waste as may hereafter from time to time be designated as such by the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") or other agency of the United States Government, or by the California Legislature or any agency of the state of California empowered by law to classify or designate waste as hazardous, extremely hazardous or acutely hazardous.

12. Holiday. "Holiday" means:

New Year's Day;

Memorial Day; Independence Day; Thanksgiving Day; Christmas Day.

"Holiday" also means any other day designated as such in a contract between a collector and the labor union serving as the exclusive representative of said collector's employees, provided such holiday is established or recognized by resolution of the city council.

13. In the city or Within the city. "In the city" or "Within the city" means within the limits of the city as such limits exist on the effective date of this chapter or may thereafter exist by virtue of the annexation of territory to or detachment of territory from the limits of the city as they exist on the effective date of this chapter.

14. Manure. "Manure" means the waste droppings from any animal not disposed of through sewers.

15. Person. "Person" shall mean any individual, association, firm, partnership, corporation, or any other group or combination thereof acting as a unit.

16. Processing. "Processing" means the reduction, separation, recovery and conversion of solid waste.

17. Public Agency. "Public agency" means any governmental agency or department thereof, whether federal, state, or local.

18. Recyclable Materials. "Recyclable materials" means the following materials generated on or emanating from residential or commercial/industrial premises and no longer useful or wanted thereon: glass bottles and jars—any food or beverage container (excluding ceramics and chemical containers); aluminum—cans, foil, pie tins and similar items (excluding dirt or organic material); steel or bi-metal cans not to exceed one gallon size; PET—plastic soda bottles or other bottles with the designated "PET" symbol; HDPE—plastic milk and water bottles with the designated "PET" symbol (excluding detergent or bleach bottles and other plastic products); newspaper; cardboard—separated and not having waxed surfaces; computer printout (excluding carbon); and white ledger—white bond paper, office paper, white envelopes (excluding coated paper); and such additional materials as the city council may designate from time to time.

19. Recycling. "Recycling" means the process of collecting, sorting, cleansing, treating, and reconstituting materials that would otherwise become solid waste, and returning them to the economic mainstream in the form of raw material for new, reused, or reconstituted products which meet the quality standards necessary to be used in the marketplace. Recycling does not include transformation as defined in Public Resources Code Section 40201.

20. Recycling Container. "Recycling container" shall mean a container, having a capacity of approximately eighteen gallons, which is provided to residential premises for use in collecting and moving recyclable materials to curbside for collection by the collector.

21. Residential Collector. "Residential collector" means the collector which collects solid waste and recyclable materials from residential premises under an exclusive contract or franchise.

22. Residential Householder. "Residential householder" shall mean any person holding or occupying residential premises, whether or not the owner, singly or with his or her family, in the city.

23. Residential Owner. "Residential owner" means the owner of any residential premises within the city.

24. Residential Premises. "Residential premises" means any residential dwelling unit within the city, except units within multiple unit residential complexes that contain five or more dwelling units, such as rental housing projects, condominiums, and apartment houses. Such multiple unit residential complexes shall be included in the definition of "commercial/industrial premises" as set forth in subsection 6 of this section.

25. Resource Recovery. "Resource recovery" means any use of refuse or solid waste collected pursuant to this chapter, except for land disposal or transfer for land disposal. Resource recovery includes, but is not limited to, transformation, composting and multimaterial recycling.

26. Solid Waste. "Solid waste" means all putrescible and nonputrescible solid and semisolid wastes, generated in or upon, related to the occupancy of, remaining in or emanating from residential premises or commercial/industrial premises, including garbage, trash, refuse, paper, rubbish, ashes, industrial wastes, demolition and construction wastes, discarded home and industrial appliances, manure, vegetable or animal solid or semisolid wastes, and other solid and semisolid wastes, as defined in Public Resources Code Section 49503, excluding liquid wastes and abandoned vehicles; provided, however, that solid waste shall not include hazardous waste.

27. Solid Waste Container. "Solid waste container" means any vessel, tank, receptacle, box, bin, barrel or wheeled cart used or intended to be used for the purpose of holding solid waste for collection.

28. Solid Waste Enterprise. "Solid waste enterprise" means any individual, partnership, joint venture, unincorporated private organization, or private corporation regularly engaged in the business of providing solid waste handling services.

29. Solid Waste Handling Services. "Solid waste handling services" means the collection, transportation, storage, transfer, or processing of solid wastes for residential, commercial, institutional, or industrial users or customers.

30. Special Collection Services. "Special collection services" shall mean the removal by a collector of oversized or overweight household articles placed curbside by a residential householder or owner, which oversized or overweight household articles have weights, volumes or dimensions which cannot be accommodated by standard residential solid waste containers, such as stoves, refrigerators, water heaters, washing machines, furniture, sofas, mattresses, box springs, and large rugs.

31. Standard Commercial/Industrial Solid Waste Container. "Standard commercial/ industrial solid waste container" means a state-of-the-art bin or refuse container used in connection with commercial/industrial premises with a two, three, four, six or eight cubic yard capacity, designed for mechanical pick-up by collection vehicles and equipped with a lid, or where appropriate for the commercial/industrial premises being served, a fifteen, twenty-five or forty cubic yard roll-off box or compactor, and shall include other types of containers suitable for the storage and collection of commercial/industrial refuse if approved in writing by the city manager.

32. Standard Residential Solid Waste Container. "Standard residential solid waste container" means a standardized container made of metal, hard rubber or plastic with an approximate capacity of either ninety gallons or sixty gallons, and of a design, color and durability as approved by the city manager.

• B. Nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to preclude the city and any solid waste enterprise from incorporating into any agreement for exclusive solid waste handling services definitions relating to their respective contractual rights and obligations which may differ from or augment those set forth herein. (Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

Part 2.

Franchises, Fees And Rates

No person shall collect or dispose of solid waste in the city unless such person has been awarded a solid waste collector franchise and has entered into a franchise agreement with the city, except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter. No person shall collect recyclable materials generated on or emanating from residential premises in the city unless such person has been awarded a residential recycling franchise and has entered into a franchise agreement with the city. Any such solid waste or residential recycling franchise shall be in addition to any business license or permit otherwise required by this code. No permit issued by any other governmental agency authorizing collection of solid waste or residential recycling materials shall be valid in the city. Commercial/industrial collectors operating in the city on the effective date of this chapter under a nonexclusive franchise agreement may continue to operate only until the rights thereunder are terminated or revoked, or until such rights expire by virtue of the provisions of Section 49520 of the Public Resources Code.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

Each collector shall pay a franchise fee in an amount determined by resolution of the city council or established in the franchise agreement authorizing the collection of solid waste or recyclable materials.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

No solid waste collector franchise which is authorized by, subject to, or issued under the provisions of this chapter shall be transferred, delegated, sublet, subcontracted to or assigned to another person without the prior approval of the city council. This restriction includes the transfer of ownership or the majority of the ownership or control of the franchisee, or the transfer of a majority of the franchisers stock to another person. (Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

After a hearing as provided in this chapter, the city manager may revoke or suspend any solid waste collector franchise for violation of a provision of this chapter or any other applicable law, ordinance, or regulation of any public agency.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

The city manager, without a hearing, may suspend a franchise for not more than sixty days, if the city manager finds that continued operation by the franchisee will constitute a threat to the public health, safety or general welfare.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

The city manager shall mail notice of a hearing to revoke a solid waste franchise to the collector not less than fifteen days prior to such hearing. In the event of the revocation of a franchise, the city manager shall notify the collector in writing of the reasons therefor. Such notification may be made in person or by mail.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

Within fifteen calendar days after notice by the city manager of revocation of a solid waste franchise has been sent to the collector, the collector may file with the city clerk an appeal of such decision to the city council.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

The city council may either affirm the action of the city manager, send the matter back to the city manager for further consideration, or set the matter for hearing by the city council. If the city council sets the matter for hearing, it shall base its action upon the standards delineated in Section 13.100.070. Notice of such hearing shall be sent to the collector not less than fifteen days prior to the hearing.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

The city council may, by resolution, establish rates to be charged to residential owners and to commercial/industrial business owners for the collection of solid waste and recyclable materials. The city council may, by resolution, establish or adjust the rates charged by those commercial/ industrial collectors which, upon the effective date of this chapter, are operating in the city pursuant to nonexclusive franchise agreements. No collector shall charge any rate or fee which is greater than the rate established by the city council, unless otherwise authorized in this chapter. Every commercial/industrial business owner and residential householder or owner shall pay the rates established from time to time by the city council for collection services rendered pursuant to this chapter in the manner set forth in Section 13.100.130. The city council shall establish such rate categories as may be appropriate for collection services provided by any commercial/ industrial collector.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

• A. The city shall collect rates, fees and charges for residential solid waste collection services by including the amounts therefor in the statements rendered for water service provided by the South Gate municipal water system, where such service exists, or by direct periodic billings in all other instances. All rates, fees and charges so imposed shall be payable in advance.

• B. No charge shall be made directly to a residential householder by the franchised residential collector, except as otherwise specifically authorized by the city council.

• C. Every commercial/industrial collector shall be solely responsible for collecting the charges for such collector's services for providing commercial/ industrial collections pursuant to this chapter, and the city shall have no liability or responsibility therefor.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

All claims for refunds for rates, fees or charges paid to the city pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall be submitted to the city's director of finance not later than six months after payment of any disputed amount referenced in the claim for refund. Any such claim for refund shall be received and processed in accordance with the city's established policies and procedures. (Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)

Every collector shall obtain and maintain at all times during the collector's operations a business license issued by the city, and all applicable permits and licenses required by any public agency having jurisdiction.

(Ord. 1905 § 1 (part), 8-11-1992)