Windsor chooses new garbage company, rejecting its current hauler

Clark Mason, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
After months of back and forth, political opposition, a lawsuit and threats of more lawsuits, Windsor once has again chosen a garbage hauler — for the third time since May.
The saga represents a grueling first example of the process that other local cities, including Santa Rosa, are embarking on as they renew or re-evaluate curbside garbage contracts, most of which are with the same hauler, the Santa-Rosa-based Ratto Group, which is up for sale to a San Francisco company.
For many communities, the garbage contracts are among the most lucrative deals they hand out.
In Windsor, the deal is worth more than $56 million in revenue over 10 years to the company that came out on top Wednesday night.
The Town Council voted 4-1 to award the contract to a different hauler, Sonoma County Resource Recovery, owned by the San Rafael-based Garden City Group, Marin Sanitary Service Group and its president, Kevin Walbridge.
The decision dealt another rejection to the town’s current hauler, Windsor Refuse and Recycling — co-owned by the Ratto Group — which recently sued the town and claimed the bidding process was unfair.
Read more at: Windsor chooses new garbage company, rejecting its current hauler | The Press Democrat