Amador County – The Ione City Council directed staff to prepare for an ordinance change to allow signing a franchise agreement for trash hauling services, with a majority of the council preferring a non-exclusive agreement. The council also selected a new mayor and vice mayor, in split votes. Skip Schaufel took over as mayor for 2010, on a 3-2 vote supported by council members Andrea Bonham, Jim Ulm and Schaufel. Mayor Lee Ard was nominated to remain in the position this year, but his nomination lost on a 2-3 vote, supported by Councilman David Plank and Ard. Voting no were Bonham, Ulm and Schaufel. Plank was selected as vice mayor for 2010 on a 5-0 vote. Later, the council gave staff direction to modify the city health ordinance from a permit to a franchise system for garbage hauling services. Kerr said the council on a 3-2 majority wanted to go with a non-exclusive franchise agreement, thinking that “they would like competition.” She said they “won’t know until they make the final vote on the ordinance.” She did “expect it will be a franchise” because it gives the city “more leverage.” In a report to the council, Kerr said the ordinance change will allow a franchise, and those “revisions could also include particular franchise terms that the city would require be included in a franchise agreement.” She said the “revisions may provide that a franchise be exclusive or non-exclusive.” Kerr said the council could “set the standard on whether they wanted to do an exclusive,” when it decides the ordinance amendment. Paul Molinelli Junior of ACES Waste Service said he was disappointed with the council’s vote, with Schaufel, Bonham and Ulm opposing an exclusive franchise without a bid, but the company would continue to work with Ione and has “never walked away from a contract.” Molinelli said they would prefer an exclusive contract, which “allows us to borrow money to buy equipment through capital leases.” ACES spent nearly $500,000 to take over service of Ione, after Waste Connections ended its operations there last year. In related developments, Molinelli said Wednesday that ACES recently made a “handshake agreement” to work toward taking over Waste Connections’ 3 remaining contracts in Amador County, including operation of the Buena Vista material recovery facility, Amador County Franchise Area 1, and the city of Plymouth. Molinelli said ACES is in the process of doing “due diligence” toward “final sale of their local assets to us.” He said those acquisitions would first have to be approved by the Amador County Board of Supervisors and the Plymouth City Council, which signed the franchise agreements with Waste Connections. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.