24 Jan ‘Council Is Fed Up,’ Says Veolia Leaves a ‘Bad Taste’

(Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

The Richmond City Council left its meeting Tuesday again interested in parting ways with Veolia.

The council unanimously voted to move forward with discussing its options regarding Veolia moving forward. One potential option is replacing Veolia with a different facility operator.

“Council is fed up and we are tired,” Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez said. “We want to have alternatives.”

After the council hosted Veolia to explain the company’s handling of foul odors emitting from the wastewater facility it operates in the city at the Dec. 12 meeting, council members left dissatisfied with those explanations and asked the company to improve communication with the community and provide a report about the initial incident. The council also asked city staff to see if the company breached its contract in any way.

An overview of that report was presented at Tuesday’s meeting but didn’t provide answers to everything the council requested. Mayor Eduardo Martinez said he was frustrated after looking for the answers to questions he had asked at the Dec. 12 meeting only to find they weren’t there. He said another report is needed and Veolia should provide it despite the talks of terminating the company’s contract to “prove they are interested in serving this community.”

Most council members mentioned the long and poor history between the company and city when discussing the presentation. Council member Gayle McLaughlin, who first began her time on council in 2005, recalled allegations of fraud against Veolia.

Those allegations first came to a head in December 2009 when the company and city reached a settlement agreement that required Veolia to pay $1.9 million to Richmond. Veolia was accused of accepting payments but not performing services.

McLaughlin, in her first term as mayor at the time, said Tuesday that there had been talks of finding an alternative to Veolia after the two agreed to phase out their contact.

“There is a bad taste in the mouths of us as a council and the community because of this history,” McLaughlin said.

Some operations at the facility also had to be shut down in 2010 after releases of hydrogen sulfide gas, the same gas that was emitted on the Dec. 4 incident last year, caused vomiting and trouble breathing in Point Richmond residents.

A majority of the council voted against ending the contract at the time, she said, and the phasing out didn’t happen.

Council members also asked the company to reach out to neighborhood councils in the Point Richmond and Santa Fe neighborhoods to increase communication. The council previously asked this at the Dec. 12 meeting. However, Veolia representatives said those organizations weren’t sought out and instead reached out to individuals who may be a part of them.

Melissa Sandvold, a regional vice president of operations at Veolia, said tours at the facility can help give the community information regarding the facility.

As part of increasing communication with the community, council member Cesar Zepeda asked to be included in emails between the city’s emergency services manager Richard Diaz and the company. He also offered to provide contact information for both neighborhood councils near the facility.

“We want to be able to build that trust again,” Zepeda said. “Until we build that trust, we have to over communicate with them.”

Council members are expected to begin talking about how to move forward with Veolia and its contract during a closed session Feb. 20.

The next Richmond City Council meeting is Feb. 6.