Thousand Oaks Garbage Fees to Rise for 2nd Time This Year

Monthly garbage bills for Thousand Oaks residents will go up for the second time this year because of higher dumping costs, but city officials have vowed to keep future fees down by opening a municipal landfill.

Beginning Sept. 1, garbage collection fees for each of the city’s 30,000 single-family households will rise 7.8%, from $10.85 a month to $11.70. In June, the Thousand Oaks City Council raised the monthly fees 17.4%, from $9.85 to $10.85.

Council members said they were forced to approve the rate increases because Ventura County officials are allowing the Simi Valley Landfill, which is operated by Waste Management of California, to raise its dumping fees from $13.57 per ton to $26.50.

Under terms of its contracts with three private waste-disposal companies, Thousand Oaks may not pass on the cost of the fee increases to the trash haulers, said Councilman Frank Schillo. “Our citizens are the ones who have to take on the burden, and yet we have no say in how much the landfill is allowed to charge per ton,” said Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo. “It’s taxation without representation.”

Schillo said that Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Simi Valley, all of which use the Simi Valley Landfill, have contributed $50,000 to search for a municipal landfill site that would serve eastern Ventura County. Schillo said that operating such a landfill would allow the cities to keep rates down.

Paul Spencer, assistant manager of the Simi Valley Landfill, said the dump in the northwest corner of Simi Valley raised its dumping fees primarily because of the rising cost of complying with environmental regulations. The 234-acre landfill, the larger of the two in Ventura County, was a hazardous-waste disposal site until 1983, Spencer said.

Despite the fee increases, Thousand Oaks residents will pay less per month for trash removal than those in Simi Valley. There, residents living in single-family homes pay $12.20 a month for weekly garbage collection.