City of Dublin v. County of Alameda

• Decision Date: 18 March 1993
• Docket Number: No. A055667,A055667
• Citation: 14 Cal.App.4th 264,17 Cal.Rptr.2d 845
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: CITY OF DUBLIN, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. COUNTY OF ALAMEDA, et al., Defendants, Cross-defendants and Respondents; City of Pleasanton, et al., Defendants, Cross-complainants and Respondents; Sierra Club, et al., Defendants and Appellants.

Page 845

17 Cal.Rptr.2d 845

14 Cal.App.4th 264

CITY OF DUBLIN, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. COUNTY OF ALAMEDA, et al., Defendants, Cross-defendants and Respondents City of Pleasanton, et al., Defendants, Cross-complainants and Respondents Sierra Club, et al., Defendants and Appellants.

No. A055667.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 1, California.

March 18, 1993.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing April 19, 1993.

Review Denied June 3, 1993.

Manuela Albuquerque, Jylana Collins, Office of the City Atty., Berkeley, Deborah S. Reames, Laurens H. Silver, San Francisco, for defendants and appellants.

Louise H. Renne, City Atty. (San Francisco), Elaine C. Warren, Noreen Ambrose, Deputy City Attys., Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, San Francisco, Daniel Frankston, Sean H. Gallagher, Lynda D. Williams, Sacramento, for amici curiae on behalf of defendants and appellants.

Elizabeth H. Silver, City Atty., Andrea J. Saltzman, Meyers, Nave, Riback & Silver, San Leandro, for plaintiff and respondent.

Michael H. Roush, City Atty., City of Pleasanton, Pleasanton, for defendants, cross-complainants and respondents.

No appearance for defendants, cross-defendants and respondents.

STRANKMAN, Presiding Justice.

Voters in Alameda County (the County) approved by majority vote an initiative measure adding the Alameda County Waste Reduction and Recycling Act of 1990 (Measure D) to the County charter. The trial court granted a petition for writ of mandate invalidating Measure D on several grounds: (1) a surcharge on waste disposal imposed by the initiative is a special tax which required a two-thirds vote according to article XIII A, section 4 of the California Constitution; (2) Measure D conflicts with the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 (the Act) (Pub. Resources Code, § 40000 et seq.) in several respects and is therefore preempted; (3) the Act precludes local action by initiative; and (4) Measure D conflicts with a joint powers agreement entered into by the County and its cities and sanitary districts. ¹

We conclude that the court erred. Except for an overinclusive definition, which is severable, Measure D is a valid exercise of the initiative power, and its surcharge is not a special tax.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. The Act

The Act is prefaced with a declaration of legislative findings, including that the "amount of solid waste generated in the state coupled with diminishing landfill space and potential adverse environmental impacts from landfilling constitutes an urgent need for state and local agencies to enact and implement an aggressive new The Act's stated purposes are "to reduce, recycle, and reuse solid waste ... to the maximum extent feasible to conserve water, energy and other natural resources, to protect air and water quality, to improve regulation of existing solid waste landfills, to ensure that new solid waste landfills are environmentally sound, to improve permitting procedures for solid waste management facilities, and to specify the responsibilities of local governments to develop and implement integrated waste management programs." (§ 40052, emphasis added.) The Act explicitly contemplates state and local cooperation, describing solid waste management as a "shared responsibility between the state and local governments." (§ 40001.)

integrated waste management program." (§ 40000, subd. (d).) ²

Cities and counties have detailed statutory obligations which must be satisfied within specified time limits. The Act sets ambitious waste reduction goals; cities and counties must divert 25 percent of all solid waste from landfills and transformation facilities through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities by January 1, 1995, and 50 percent by January 1, 2000. ³ (§ 41780, subd. (a).) To accomplish those goals, each city must prepare and adopt a "source reduction and recycling element" (SRRE), a plan for the management and reduction of solid waste; each county must prepare a similar county SRRE for its unincorporated area. (§§ 41000, 41300.)

Each SRRE must include components on waste characterization, source reduction, recycling, composting, solid waste facility capacity, education and public information, funding, and special waste. (§§ 41003, 41030-41260.) Each SRRE must also be "consistent with the waste management hierarchy" provided by the Act, i.e., source reduction first, then recycling and composting, followed by environmentally safe transformation and land disposal, "at the discretion of the city or county." (§§ 41001, 41301, 40051, subd. (a).) The city and county SRRE's must be incorporated by each county into a "countywide integrated waste management plan" (countywide plan), which must also include city and county hazardous waste elements and a countywide siting element. (§§ 41750, 41791.)

The Act includes several provisions on funding. Each city or county must demonstrate funding sources available to pay for preparing, adopting, and implementing its SRRE or plan; projected costs, revenues, and revenue sources must be identified in the SRRE funding component. (§§ 41900, 41230, 41430.) A city or county "may impose fees in amounts sufficient to pay the costs of preparing, adopting, and implementing an integrated waste management plan" prepared pursuant to the Act. In determining the amounts of the fees, a city or county "shall include only those costs directly related to the preparation, adoption, and implementation of the plan and the setting and collection of the local fees." (§ 41901.)

To carry out the state's responsibility to oversee the design and implementation of local plans, the Act establishes the California Integrated Waste Management Board (the Board). (§§ 40001, 40400 et seq.) Among its duties, the Board must review and approve or disapprove city and county SRRE's and countywide plans. The Act establishes deadlines for submission of SRRE's and countywide plans to the Board, depending on the local entity's remaining landfill capacity. (§§ 40400, 41790, 41791, 41800.) Failure to submit an adequate or timely plan may result in the imposition of substantial fines. (§§ 41810-41813.)

At the same time that the Act imposes statutory obligations on cities and counties, it also explicitly recognizes their reserved powers. According to section 40059, "Notwithstanding The Act is supplemented with administrative regulations which have been promulgated by the Board. (See Cal.Code Regs., tit. 14, § 18720 et seq.)

                any other provision of law, each county, city, district, or other local governmental agency may determine ... [a]spects of solid waste handling which are of local concern, including, but not limited to, frequency of collection, means of collection and transportation, level of services, charges and fees, and nature, location, and extent of providing solid waste handling services.  [ (Italics added.) ]" 4  A city or county is not prohibited from "implementing source reduction, recycling, and composting activities designed to exceed" the minimum goals set by the Act.  (§ 41780, subd.  (b).)  Section 41792 communicates the urgency of the state's solid waste problems;  it provides, "It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this part, that cities and counties shall commence efforts to implement source reduction, recycling, or composting activities immediately upon enactment of this part, in order to achieve the deadlines specified under this chapter."
                

B. Measure D

Measure D, which added section 64 to the County's charter, was approved by majority vote in November 1990. Its stated purposes include providing for an Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Plan (the Recycling Plan) "in conformance with new state law," meeting state-mandated refuse reduction goals, and setting "longer-term goals starting at seventy-five percent." (Measure D, County Charter, § 64.020.)

The Recycling Plan is to include several essential programs: a countywide source reduction program to minimize the generation of refuse, residential and commercial recycling programs, and recycled product market development and purchase preference programs. (Measure D, County Charter, § 64.020.) Administration and coordination of the Recycling Plan is to be carried out by an 11-member appointed board, the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board (the local board). (Measure D, County Charter, § 64.130.)

The Recycling Plan is to be funded from a Recycling Fund created by a $6 per ton surcharge on materials deposited in County landfills. ⁵ (Measure D, County Charter, §§ 64.020 D, 64.050 A-E.) For approximately two years, 80 percent of Recycling Fund monies are to be disbursed to municipalities within the County for planning, implementation, or expansion of residential and commercial recycling programs and for preparation of city SRRE's under the Act; the remainder is to be used for development of the other programs, the Board's administrative expenses, and preparation of the County's SRRE. Thereafter, half the funds are to be disbursed on a per capita basis to cities for recycling programs; the remaining funds are to be applied to a grant program for nonprofit organizations engaged in maximizing recycling, composting, and reducing waste within the County, the source reduction program, the recycled products programs, and otherwise in the local board's discretion. (Measure D, County Charter, § 64.060 A, B.)

To be eligible for Recycling Fund monies, cities must provide full reimbursement to local refuse haulers for the surcharge, either by adjusting local collection rates or by a product disposal fee. (Measure D, County Charter, § 64.070.) Within two years, cities receiving Recycling Fund monies must provide residential and commercial recycling programs. (Measure D, County Charter, §§ 64.090, 64.100.)

Finally, Measure D prohibits the operation of incinerators within the County. (Measure D, County Charter, § 64.140.)

C. The Lawsuit

The City of Dublin (D...