The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an agreement that permanently privatizes operation of the county’s central landfill west of Cotati but keeps the site in public ownership.

Five months from now, Sonoma County intends to launch its program to become the power supplier to 220,000 local homes and businesses, displacing Pacific Gas and Electric Co. from its position of energy dominance.

Sonoma County supervisors Tuesday voiced support for a move that would expand the county’s central landfill by permanently turning over operations to a national solid waste contractor, starting with a 20-year deal with worth an estimated $547 million.

The latest solution to Sonoma County’s garbage situation is a 20-year contract worth more than half a billion dollars that would outsource operations of the solid waste system.

It would give control of the county’s troubled 42-year-old central landfill west of Cotati to an Arizona company with $8 billion in annual revenue. But it would keep the site, and the county’s five waste transfer stations, in public ownership.

The proposal is being called the largest public-private business deal in county history and is headed to the Board of Supervisors for the first time Tuesday.

Some Sebastopol residents, including a former city councilman, are objecting to a city-sponsored newsletter that urged people to oppose Sonoma County’s consideration of a water fluoridation plan.

A legal fight to protect a program that allows Sonoma County residents to pay for energy-saving retrofits to their homes through property taxes was dealt a significant and possibly final setback last week.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday took its first independent action to rein in pension costs, unanimously approving a pair of deals that lower payroll expenses for more than 60 percent of the county workforce.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday formally approved a local ordinance aimed to make it easier for cyclists and pedestrians to sue those who harass or intimidate them. The ordinance is modeled on similar laws adopted by several cities, including Sebastopol, which passed its ordinance in December. Sonoma County becomes the first county nationwide to adopt such a measure.

Sonoma County’s plans to permanently reopen and expand its central landfill cleared a major hurdle Thursday, receiving a go-ahead from North Coast water regulators.

The decision approving a permit for up to 22 more years of operation at the Mecham Road site west of Cotati came from the same state agency that nearly a decade ago raised pollution concerns that triggered a five-year closure of the landfill.

The decision came over the objections of some neighbors, who voiced concerns about groundwater contamination, noise and traffic.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a proposed ordinance that would make it easier for bicyclists and pedestrians to sue those who harass or intimidate them.