Sand City Council Meeting - May 19, 2026: Approves RFP for Waste Services, Salary Schedules, and Special Event
Sand City Council Meeting Summary - May 19, 2026
The Sand City Council held a regular meeting on May 19, 2026, at 5:30 PM. Key actions included approving a competitive request for proposal (RFP) process for solid waste collection services, adopting salary schedules, authorizing a special event permit for the annual bicycle race, and renewing a grant-writing contract. The meeting also featured public comments on the general plan and budget priorities, as well as presentations from waste service providers and public works recognition.
Consent Calendar
- Items 5A, 5C, 5D, and 5E were approved unanimously (4-0, with Vice Mayor Blackholder absent). Item 5B (grant writer contract with California Consulting) was pulled for separate discussion and later approved.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Brian Clark (Sand City resident): Urged the city to streamline zoning into two categories (retail/commercial and multi-flex), reconsider the mandate for all-electric vehicles, and rebalance budget spending to prioritize infrastructure and ocean access over public safety. He also praised the city's grant efforts.
- Josh Stratton (California American Water): Presented the company's updated Emergency Response Plan (ERP), outlining procedures for protecting life, environment, and water/wastewater systems during emergencies. He offered continued coordination with the city.
- Manny Gobaya (Green Waste, Vice President): Requested the council to pause the proposed RFP process and instead extend Green Waste's current agreement to 2035. He noted high customer satisfaction (93% in survey) and stated that Green Waste's rates in region member agencies are the lowest in the area—on average $8.89 less per month for residential and $77.12 less for commercial compared to competitors. He emphasized that Green Waste has not sought extraordinary rate increases since 2015.
- Liz Hall (WM/Waste Management): Supported the RFP process, stating that a competitive bid would allow WM to demonstrate value and service. She noted WM's history serving the peninsula and its current operations in Monterey County.
- Emily Hanson (Republic Services): Supported the RFP, highlighting the city's autonomy under the region agreement and the unique ability to compare collection-only costs due to the region-owned facility. She encouraged the council to proceed with the bid process.
- Zoe Jones (Region Monterey): Acknowledged the work of the Technical Advisory Committee and thanked the haulers for their service. She noted the milestone of having an all-female council and expressed support for the RFP recommendation.
Discussion Items
- Item 5B – Grant Writer Contract Renewal: City Manager reported that California Consulting has submitted 19 grant applications, securing approximately $2.6 million in awards. The annual contract fee is $55,000. Council member Diaz inquired about transparency and public awareness of grant terms; staff explained that grant agreements with conditions come to council for approval and that city manager reports list applications monthly. The item was approved.
- Item 8 – Ordinance Prohibiting Offshore Oil and Gas Facilities: Continued to a future meeting as the city was not ready.
- Item 9A – National Public Works Week Proclamation: Council adopted a proclamation recognizing Public Works Week (May 17-23, 2026). Staff praised the public works team, including Mark Fucker, Audrey, Leon Gomez, and others, for their service.
- Item 9B – Solid Waste Franchise Agreement (RFP Process): HF&H Consulting presented results of stakeholder engagement: 93% resident satisfaction with Green Waste; affordability was the top priority by residents; 47% felt rates were "about right" while 29% said too high; 66% very satisfied with service. The subcommittee recommended a competitive RFP process for collection services. Council heard from multiple providers and then approved the recommendation to initiate an RFP, allowing all qualified providers to compete. The process integrity policy was also adopted.
- Item 9C – Special Event Permit for Criterium Bicycle Race: Staff presented the request for the annual race on June 14, 2026, with same-day setup, street closures, and traffic control. Applicant Tom McCola stated that neighboring residents would receive notices. Council approved the permit.
- Item 9D – Salary Schedule and Personnel Actions: City Manager presented proposed updates: 3% COLA for general employees (previously approved), 4% increase for police officers per MOU, 3% COLA for Police Chief, 3.7% increase for Public Works Manager (due to expanded duties as project manager for street improvements and other projects), a minor adjustment for Finance Manager, and addition of one full-time Public Works employee (funded partially by a Community Facilities District (CFD) from the South of Tioga project). Also, the Community Development Director title was removed from the salary schedule as it duplicates the City Manager's current role; no new hiring is contemplated. Council member Diaz questioned the change, but the item was approved.
Key Outcomes
- Approved: Consent calendar items (except 5B).
- Approved: Grant writer contract renewal (California Consulting) for 2025-26.
- Approved: National Public Works Week proclamation.
- Approved: Initiation of a competitive RFP for solid waste, recycling, and organics collection services, and adoption of a process integrity policy.
- Approved: Special event permit for the 2026 Criterium bicycle race on June 14.
- Approved: Salary schedules for FY 2026-27 (general employees) and FY 2024-27 (POA), including adjustments for specific positions and addition of a maintenance worker. The city manager was authorized to amend the Public Works Manager job description.
- Continued: Ordinance on offshore oil and gas facilities to a future meeting.
- Next Steps: The region will release an RFP in late 2026, with a recommended provider expected in early 2028 and contract transition by 2030.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, well welcome everyone to the Sand City Council successor agency meeting of May 19th, 2026. The time is 5:30. And at this time, Carrie, uh, can you phone roll, please? Council member center. Here's a council member Diaz here. Council member Adams, present. Mayor Carbone. Present. Vice Mayor Blackholder absent. Thank you. And with that, if we could uh have council member scattered later simple agents. Ready, again. I think we have to say some of the republic or individual overlap. Thank you. Okay. And uh we'll move on to at this time we'll move on to announcements by mayor, uh, city attorney and the city manager. And uh on the Diaz council members, I have uh place my uh mayor's report for meetings attended during the month of May, and that is in there for uh for you to look at and to keep you in the know. Uh I did want to mention that um MST, they did purchase a property in Salinas for a new uh bus maintenance yard over on Sun Street. So that's uh great news. So um so they they were uh space was getting limited where they were, so this here gives them an area where they're able to grow. Uh also um there is a uh handout from Green Voice that uh I received in the email. I just I did make copies for everyone so that it's around the DS this may uh be for a uh item we'll be hearing a little later during the council meeting. And then um I did want to mention that uh I also received from our PGE representative a um a make and uh range a uh a letter from PGE that for PG ⁇ E is encouraging Central Coast restaurant owners to apply for a restaurant care resilient grant, and it includes 1.3 million dollars uh to the program this year, and it enables uh anyone to restaurants or commercial caterers to receive a $5,000 grant. And uh I will forward that to the city manager, and there's also this information is all over there on the table at the uh chair for a copy. And lastly, there is uh we do have uh some surf busway uh transit project that's going through, and there is a little um project update. Um so with some of the construction, they're doing some retaining walls over off of California Avenue, and that's it for me. So city manager. Thank you, Mayor. Um yeah, on the MST project, the closure of the Maya between um Bel Monte and California is now being pushed back. They wanted to push it back to August. Um we're working with them because of course we wouldn't want it to coincide with Car Week or the Exotics on Broadway and Seaside, or of course the West Band celebration. So it may be even later than that, but so I'm not sure that still has the June date on it. Okay, it's being pushed back. Okay, um and then as you all know, I attended the ICMA conference last week. Um it was entitled Democracy and the Public Trust and focused on public trust and democracy in light of the 250th year anniversary about democracy. Um and it was really the the conference is always super informative. It had um a particular interest was a talk about social media and what sort of works and doesn't work for some small towns. And it had this sort of satisfaction survey of different platforms showing how people who use Facebook a lot or receive a lot of information over Facebook tend to become quite depressed and negative through studies and information received and the same with Twitter and X. So they had the study had kind of you know rated them, Twitter and X being the worst in terms of negativity, then Facebook and going down to TikTok and YouTube actually being sort of much more positively reinforcing. So a lot of small towns are now or a lot of cities of all over, but this was focused on small towns, of focusing on some of the more Instagram, YouTube videos instead of sort of just flat notices. And so this is really interesting, and it was tied in to trust and government because there were a lot of talks about communication and data and transparency, as we all know, really helping break this sort of trust barrier that has developed in a lot of locations. So fascinating for me at least as city manager. Thank you for um letting me go to it. Um other things, city work we've been working on the fiscal year 26, 27 budget um and the budget committee meeting. You who are on it will be on the 28th and 10 a.m. Um also the audit by the state of the road maintenance and rehabilitation program has concluded and um we do uh the state in order to get these funds, it's a very small amount of funds the city gets. I mean, in the big scheme of things, it's about 14,000 7,000 years, it's 14,000 of the two years that they um found that we had not actually met our maintenance of efforts. So there's a maintenance of effort that's set for how much money you use on streets, basically. Um it got set way back um based on like 2009, 2010 daily before many of us were in the city, and um it's set very, very high. And you may recall we went through this with TAMC and Measure X.
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