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# Santa Monica City Council talking trash
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-city-council-talking-trash/
- Published: 2003-08-28T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:50:30.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*What to do with city’s rubbish is a multi-million dollar query*

How to sort Santa Monica’s trash is an $8 million question city officials are pondering.

A plan to construct a transfer station for solid waste and recyclables in Santa Monica was put on hold Tuesday so that officials can decide whether to pay a private company to sort the city’s rubbish or let City Hall do it.

If the city runs the operation, it will require $8 million to build a new facility. But officials from Southern California Disposal, a private Santa Monica transfer facility, said City Hall’s proposal is a monumental waste of money.

SCD officials said they will take care of Santa Monica’s waste at a competitive rate and eliminate the need to spend money on a new facility.

“It doesn’t make any sense to build a facility and spend millions of dollars when exactly the same type of services exist right across the street,” said Mike Matosian, son-in-law of SCD owner Sam Kardashian. “It’s like buying a semi-truck to drive yourself from home to work in the same community. The magnitude of overkill on this project is ridiculous. It really is.”

> “It doesn’t make any sense to build a facility and spend millions of dollars when exactly the same type of services exist right across the street.” — — MIKE MATOSIAN Southern California Disposal

After three-and-a-half hours of public comment and debate, the City Council decided on Tuesday to wait on approving a new transfer station. City Council members said more information and analysis is needed before they can make a decision.

But more analysis will come at a price. Councilman Mike Feinstein, who told his colleagues he was ready to make a decision, said City Hall has already spent thousands of dollars on consultants for the project. And more analysis will only cost City Hall more, he added.

Since the City Council first directed staff to get more information on the project in December, City Hall has spent more than $160,000 in consultant fees, said environmental and public works director Craig Perkins, who is overseeing the proposal.

Perkins said a new facility could generate revenue for the city, but more importantly it would retain City Hall’s control of waste operations, which would allow it to adapt more quickly to fluctuations in the market, as well as new regulations and policies, he said.

Transfer stations consolidate trash, recyclables, construction debris and other waste, and then haul them to landfills and processors throughout the region.

Perkins said he wasn’t discouraged the project was put on hold.

“I don’t see it as a set back,” Perkins said. “I see it as a necessary step in the process to get to a decision. What you have to realize is that we’ve been working on this proposal for now over two years and this is only the second public hearing council has held.”

> “I don’t see it as a set back. I see it as a necessary step in the process to get to a decision. What you have to realize is that we’ve been working on this proposal for now over two years and this is only the second public hearing council has held.” — — KEVIN McKEOWN Santa Monica City Councilman

City Hall’s existing transfer station is out of compliance with code requirements and sometimes goes over capacity, officials said. The proposed station would be part of the first phase of a $50 million project to improve the city yards, which are located east of Cloverfield Boulevard and north of Interstate 10 on Santa Monica’s eastside.

Though city staff had previously discussed partnering with SCD to handle waste management, staff ultimately decided it would be better if City Hall was in control of Santa Monica’s garbage.

Currently, construction workers, land-scapers and the general public pay a “gate rate” of $60 per ton to drop off their waste at the city station and $58 at SCD. Those rates reflect both the cost of sorting the waste and sending it on to its final destination.

SCD offered to charge City Hall $15 per ton just to sort the waste. City Hall will then decide where the waste ultimately ends up. The additional cost of hauling and dumping garbage can range from $18 to $40 per ton, depending on where the trash goes, SCD’s Matosian said. That fee would be billed to City Hall on top of the sorting charge.

The proposed 125,000-square-foot station would be able to process 600 tons of waste each day, Perkins said. The current city station, which is situated on about 45,000 square feet of land, can process 400 tons of waste each day. SCD can handle a little more than 1,000 tons. But Matosian said the facility receives an average of 300 tons per day, meaning the facilities could process another 700-plus tons.

Councilman Ken Genser said the math on the city’s proposal doesn’t add up. Councilman Herb Katz said there are too many variables to make a decision right now. And Councilman Kevin McKeown said he thinks that maybe the land could be better used by the public.

“It’s rare that we have a contiguous parcel large enough for play fields,” McKeown said. “And we need play fields. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have redundant, duplicate uses sitting adjacent to each other.”

More than a dozen people spoke to the City Council on the issue, some praising the work of Perkins and city staff and others saying City Hall needs to explore the possibility of partnering with a private contractor.

In its study sessions, which may take place in October, the City Council will be armed with a new analysis from city staff with clearer information and an accounting of the legal issues posed by contracting with a private company.

Katz, who requested a study session in the past, said he was glad that the City Council agreed the station deserves a closer look.

“All of us were kind of confused because they said, ‘It’s going to work if, if, if.’And what do you do if ‘if if if’does-n’t happen?”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 28, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/082803.pdf?ref=smdp.com)