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Exit Interview: Rita Robinson, L.A. City Bureau of Sanitation

While the timing of Rita Robinson’s jump from managing the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation to the L.A. Department of Transportation may have been a surprise, it was no surprise that Mayor Villaraigosa would select Ms. Robinson to head a department that handles one of the most politically sensitive and challenging services in the region. Soon after her position change, Rita Robinson spoke with TPR for the first installment of a two-part feature, in which she details the numerous accomplishments of Sanitation under her leadership and the challenges that remain to be tackled by her successor.

Published Thursday December 20, 2007

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Rita Robinson

What shape was the Bureau of Sanitation in when Mayor Villaraigosa asked you to lead LA DOT? How challenging will it be for your successor to meet expectations?

The great thing about where Sanitation is now is that Enrique Zaldivar, who will be taking over, and I were joined at the hip from the very beginning. We came in with Sunshine Canyon attached to us like a ball and chain. Not only did we get a chance to get the ball and chain taken off, but now they are just moving us to the stratosphere of all the great things that can take place when we work together.

Enrique sat at that table and took that heat along with me. He and the staff were the ones that provided the technical information that helped us to inform the City Council and Councilmember Smith of some of the things that we really wanted to change. We embraced Renew L.A. We didn’t fight. And out of that came the Solid Waste Integrated Resource Plan (SWIRP). Enrique was really the one who came up with the SWIRP idea—the idea to use his wastewater experience and bring that into the solid waste side.

By raising expectations, we made the department better. The patient was dead on arrival and is now revived. It has come back from the dead. Councilmember Smith, the City Council, and the mayor have been so pleased. Enrique will carry that into the future.

What were the goals of the Bureau of Sanitation while you were there? What goals did you accomplish, and what is left for your successor, Enrique Zaldivar, to finish?