Score: +1 (7/18/6)
Orange County Grand Jury • 2023-2024 • Agency Response
Response to: Use of Artificial Intelligence in Public Schools (K-12), It’s Not Elementary

City of Yorba Linda August 20, 2024 Maria Hernandez Presiding Judge of the Superior Court*

Published: August 20, 2024 5 pages
View Original PDF

Findings and Recommendations 10 findings

F1
"The Majority of Orange County jurisdictions have not yet required their haulers to distribute residential containers that meet the CalRecycle standardized colors, leaving legacy and often incorrect or illegible labeling and embossing in place." The City disagrees partially with this finding. SB 1383 does not require the replacement of functional containers that were purchased prior to January 1, 2022 until to the end of their useful life, or until January 1, 2036, whichever comes first. The City of Yorba Linda and its hauler, Republic Services, mailed new labels with updated pictures identifying what materials can be disposed of in each container. Republic is also now distributing carts that meet state-mandated colors whenever carts are replaced.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
"All jurisdictions should expedite the acquisition and distribution of residential containers that meet the CalRecycle standardized colors. Additionally, until the compliant containers can be distributed, all jurisdictions should ensure the distribution of labeling for non-compliant containers that explain the current SB 1383 requirements applicable to their jurisdiction by June 30, 2025." The recommendation will not be implemented in full because it is not reasonable. Jurisdictions and waste haulers across California have been given until 2036 to fully implement the required cart color configuration. For cities like Yorba Linda with a three-container system that utilized brown carts for yard waste prior to 2022 that were reassigned as organic collections carts, replacing carts with the new colors will do little on its own to educate generators. The City has already mailed new cart labels to all generators in the City in addition to an extensive public education program.
F2
"While a jurisdiction may not delegate its overall responsibility for compliance with State requirements to a hauler, some jurisdictions have designated the task of imposing and collecting fines from residents to the hauler in accordance with State law. However, not all jurisdictions are clear who ultimately receives and retains the collected fines." 4845 Casa Loma Avenue, Yorba Linda, CA 92886 714-961-7100 | www.yorbalindaca.gov The City disagrees partially with this finding. In Yorba Linda, Republic Services is entitled to assess and collect fines for contamination. However, the City of Yorba Linda is entitled to keep civil penalties that are assessed on violations of the municipal code.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
By December 31, 2024, all jurisdictions should ensure their waste hauling agreements are in compliance with State statute so that haulers may be designated to perform certain required tasks but are not improperly delegated overall responsibility for compliance. Additionally, all jurisdictions should ensure that any fines collected by a hauler are forwarded to the jurisdiction." CITY of YORBA LINDA Portions of this recommendation are already implemented in the City of Yorba Linda. However, the full recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted. Per the City's franchise agreement with Republic Services and the third amendment to the agreement, Republic Services must conduct contamination monitoring and collect fines. These fines are kept by Republic and help pay for the sustainability advisor and route auditor positions serving our jurisdiction. However, the City collects its own fees for violations of municipal code.
F3
"All jurisdictions will eventually start collecting fines from residents for noncompliance, but some have not yet determined whether the revenues will go into a waste and recycling enterprise fund or into the jurisdiction's general fund." The City disagrees wholly with this finding. The City of Yorba Linda will account for this revenue in the general fund.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
"The OCGJ recommends that all jurisdictions utilize a dedicated waste and recycling enterprise fund for collection of fines for non-compliance with SB 1383 by December 31, 2024." This recommendation will not be implemented as it is not warranted. The City does not expect to collect an appreciable amount of fees for violation of municipal code. The City plans to work with and educate generators, using citations as a last resort for compliance. Any fines collected can be adequately accounted for in the general fund.
F4
"In most jurisdictions, education and outreach is a joint effort between jurisdiction, hauler, and sometimes consultants, with the jurisdiction reviewing the materials before publication. The methods of dissemination vary by jurisdiction and hauler but frequently rely on a resident actively seeking the information, which requires the resident to have some awareness of the new mandates in the first place. Most efforts primarily revolve around intermittent hard-copy paper mailings." The City disagrees wholly with this finding. In addition to maintaining the City's website and Republic Services municipal website for Yorba Linda residents, the City and Republic Services have made several proactive outreach efforts. These efforts have included social media posts, a PSA video, quarterly print newsletters mailed to every customer in the City, updates in the City's e-newsletter, and direct contact with residents at City events.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
"By December 31, 2024, all jurisdictions should diversify the methods and media used for education and outreach to include, among others, various social media platforms, emails to residents, newspaper, television, flyer mailings, community events, and appearances at other public gatherings." This recommendation has already been implemented in the City of Yorba Linda. The City has used every media at our disposal to regularly communicate the requirements of SB 1383 since before July 1, 2022.
F5
"Most jurisdictions currently have no way to accurately determine the effectiveness of their respective education and outreach efforts other than the eventual inspections or audits that will take place." The City agrees with this finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
By December 31, 2024, and in order to gauge the effectiveness of their education and outreach: efforts, all jurisdictions should develop new methods to engage residents directly to help determine their awareness of the requirements associated with SB 1383, such as surveys, online quizzes, and door-to-door polling." This recommendation will be implemented by December 31, 2024. The City will conduct an online poll to assess awareness.
F6
"There is some concern that there are not enough composting facilities in Orange County to process all organic waste, forcing some jurisdictions/haulers to transport it long distances for processing." The City agrees with this finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
By June 30, 2025, the OCGJ recommends that all jurisdictions participate in the OCW&R-led“ efforts to develop a coordinated county-wide approach to the organics recycling infrastructure and programs as well as procurement requirements associated with SB 1383, working towards creating circular economy as a long-term goal." This recommendation has already been implemented. Yorba Linda is working closely with OCW&R and has already taken over 1,000 tons of compost and mulch from OCW&R. The materials have been given away for free at our self-serve compost site which has been extremely popular. CITY of YORBA LINDA
F7
"There is currently no infrastructure in the county that is a State-approved source of Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) and energy from organic waste. Jurisdictions that use vehicles running on RNG procured from non-approved sources cannot count that RNG towards fulfillment of their procurement requirement." CITY of YORBA LINDA The City agrees with this finding. The City of Yorba Linda does not use any vehicles that use RNG.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
"By December 31, 2024, the Orange County Board of Supervisors and all Orange County cities should lobby appropriate members of the State Legislature and/or CalRecycle to revise the organic waste diversion targets to better reflect Orange County's waste amounts, revise the jurisdictions' procurement requirements to better represent the limited options currently available for procurement, the jurisdictions' varying populations, population densities, and geographic size, and to delay associated enforcement actions by the State." This recommendation will be implemented by December 31, 2024. Should you have any questions or require any further information from the City of Yorba Linda, please feel free to contact our Principal Management Analyst, Geoff Spencer at (714)961-7114 or [email protected]. Sincerely, Tara Campbell Mayor of Yorba Linda
F8
"The formula used by the State to calculate a jurisdiction's procurement target does not account for a jurisdiction's population density or geographic size (square miles). As such, meeting the annual procurement target presents a significant challenge for most jurisdictions." The City agrees with this finding.
No recommendations for this finding
F9
"Many Orange County jurisdictions were unable to meet the requirement in SB 1383 to reduce organic waste sent to landfills by the 2020 deadline. It is unlikely the required seventy-five percent reduction will be achieved by the 2025 deadline." The City agrees with this finding.
No recommendations for this finding
F10
"The current procurement requirements mandated by SB 1383 are unrealistic and likely unachievable by most jurisdictions." The City agrees with this finding.
No recommendations for this finding

Agency Responses 13

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.