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Local community organizer Mike Tompkins will represent the public on the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority board if the city and county agree.

After interviewing Tompkins and Ellery West, CEO of Organic Essence and Eco Vision Packaging, commissioners on the joint powers authority Tuesday voted 4-1 in favor of Tompkins. Crescent City Councilor Jason Greenough dissented.

A third applicant for the DNSWMA’s public seat, Jesse Salisbury, didn’t attend the interview. Authority Director Tedd Ward said he sent an email to all three candidates informing them when the board would hold interviews. Though Salisbury could have been appointed to the board if he had the votes, commissioners said they would only consider the two candidates who showed up.

“I certainly appreciate Mr. Salisbury turning in an application and I’m sorry he’s not here to be interviewed,” said Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore. “Out of respect to the two who are (here), that would be my condition that we only deliberate on those two.”

During his interview, West said he wanted to serve on the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Board because he wanted to learn how the community manages its waste.

West said he became concerned about the proliferation of plastics in the environment after a whale washed ashore in Del Norte County in 2008 and was found with a stomach full of plastic fishing gear. He said he realized his business was contributing to the problem and began packaging Organic Essence products in post-consumer paper tubes and jars.

West also passed out an article he wrote about plastics, titled “Plastics Deconstructed,” asking commissioners to read it even if they don’t appoint him to the DNSWMA board.

“We make purchasing decisions based on price,” he said. “Plastics are not giving the proper economic signals to consumers because it’s unnaturally cheap. We pay for the price of production, but we don’t pay for the cost of disposal.”

In making his case for serving on the DNSWMA board, Tompkins drew on his 25 years with his church’s business committee, the 12 years he’s been a facilities director and the roughly 5 years he’s been active in True North Organizing Network.

“You all know me well enough to have an idea of who and what I’m about,” he said. “My part is bringing the citizen into the decision-making process. I think I’ll be fairly good at that because I am engaged citizen.”

During their deliberation, DNSWMA commissioners noted that both applicants were good candidates for the public seat. They called the previous public representative, Eli Naffah, a great asset that was able to bring his financial background to bear when the joint powers authority made decisions.

District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard said he would welcome having an entrepreneur on the board to look for solutions, but community outreach was also important.

“One thing that we strive for is to get feedback from the community before we make any decisions moving forward as a board,” Howard said. “Both of you offer something to this board and both of you will be very useful to this board. Right now I’m leaning towards the community position.”

Howard’s colleague, District 2 Supervisor Lori Cowan, brought up the challenges the Solid Waste board has faced trying to get Del Norte County to reduce the amount of contamination in its recycling stream.

This was a struggle for about three years after Julindra, which had processed the community’s recycling, terminated its contract with Recology Del Norte in late 2016. Faced with having to find another processor to accept Del Norte’s recycling, Recology General Manager Jeremy Herber told commissioners that the amount of trash in the community’s recycling stream was significantly greater than the industry standard.

Herber told commissioners that for a new recycler to accept Del Norte’s materials, the amount of contamination had to be below 10 percent. The Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority began sending the community’s recyclables to Recology’s new processing plant in Samoa, but curtailing the contamination continued to be a challenge.

On Tuesday, Cowan said the Solid Waste Management Authority board has “horrible community outreach.” A business leader isn’t the joint powers authority’s greatest need currently, she argued, it’s someone who can generate community involvement.

“We need somebody who knows the community and is willing to go out and fight for that and make it better,” Cowan said. “Mr. Tompkins, you knew all of our areas, you know what we do. I felt like Mr. Tompkins has a little bit more, I don’t want to say boots on the ground, but I feel community engagement. To me, looking for a community member, that’s what I’m looking for.”

Though he appreciated both candidates’ backgrounds and Tompkins’ community activism, Greenough said he favored West and the “entrepreneurial side of things.”

“You run a business, Mr. West,” Greenough said. “I think that you’re solutions-based. Your ability to look at a problem and actually come up with a solution would be very beneficial.”

Inscore praised West’s background, but agreed with Cowan that the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority continues to struggle with community outreach. He said West’s expertise with plastics and Tompkins’ expertise with community engagement would both be valuable, but the authority hasn’t figured out how to “truly engage with the community to get the results we’re looking for.”

Before Tompkins can take his seat on the DNSWMA board, his appointment must be approved by the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors and the Crescent City Council, Ward said. Tompkins will serve through September 2021.

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