On May 2, 2000, the Board of Supervisors approved a resolution authorizing the Community Development Director or his designee to take the actions necessary to secure annual payments from the State through the City & County Payment Program authorized under the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act (see attached Resolution No. 2000/13). Resolution No. 2000/13 delegated signature authority for any documents necessary to secure City & County Payment Program funding from the State as well as implement the associated eligible beverage container recycling and litter reduction activities in the name of Contra Costa County. Since that time, the names of the County Department (now Conservation and Development) as well as the State Agency responsible for this Payment Program (now CalRecycle) have both changed. CalRecycle also administers the State’s Used Oil Payment Program, for which a resolution delegating similar authority to the Conservation and Development Director was approved by the Board of Supervisors on July 13, 2010.
CalRecycle provided new template Resolutions to all agencies currently receiving City and County Payment Program funding pursuant to the Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act. CalRecycle has advised that copies of new approved Resolutions meeting the payment program requirements must be submitted with funding requests for the 2015-16 funding cycle. For the sake of efficiency, staff used the template resolution language provided by CalRecycle, avoiding the need to obtain pre-approval from CalRecycle.
The law governing California's Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Program was modified to include appropriation of funding to provide payments to cities and counties for specific activities effective in January 2000. This resulted in the establishment of the City and County Payment Program which provides funds to cities and counties for certain beverage container recycling and litter cleanup activities. This is not a grant program and is not competitive, cities and counties only need to submit annual Funding Request Forms. The funding amount available to each jurisdiction is based on its population.
DCD has consistently been responsible for securing funding and coordinating the implementation of approved activities since this Payment Program was established 15 years ago. Although the amount of funding allocated to the County varies from year to year, the County's allocation generally ranges between $41,000 and $44,000 per year. Funding is primarily used to offset costs associated with beverage container recycling at numerous County buildings and parks, however, it also helps pay for eligible recycling outreach and recycling receptacles/supplies intended to help increase the amount of beverage containers being recycled by the public.
According to CalRecycle, failure to provide an approved Resolution may result in funding requests that are submitted by Contra Costa County in the future being either delayed or not approved.