Enormous Increases in Garbage Rates Proposed
THE ONLY BIDDER WANTS MUCH MORE MONEY AND THE CITY WANTS RATEPAYERS TO PAY FOR CITY AND SCHOOL WASTE.
Backyard service proposal leaps from $61.08 to $131.43 per month.
While Piedmonters have complained that the current rates for waste collection are too high, Republic Services, Piedmont’s current collector, was the only bidder offering to provide service to Piedmont under a new contract.
The City Council hired a special consultant, Garth Schultz of R3 Consulting, to advise on the expiring contract with Republic, but only Republic responded with a bid.
In the most extensive public outreach seen in years, backyard service was repeatedly pointed out to be a desired service by many Piedmonters.
Piedmont with its significant population of senior residents, lugging carts back and forth to the curb presents issues. The proposed new contract will increase the costs for “backyard” service from the current $61.08 to $131.43 per month. Curbside rates will go from $55.11 per month to $88.65 per month.
Republic Services rejected the City’s RFP request for variable backyard rates. Republic would only consider an additional flat fee for backyard pickup rejecting the notion of individual rates for each home based on distance, terrain, etc. for backyard service.
Reduced rates for seniors or the “handicapped” needing backyard service is not part of the proposed contract unless they qualify under unspecified rules. (See p3 of the staff report linked below.)
Resident Rick Schiller “asked Council by email and the City what is the qualification for the handicapped discount and received no reply (see my Jul 14 letter which I posted in comments). ”
Schiller further states: “Early in the process, I gave the City a list of many regional cities that have this discount, including nine in Marin County. The City’s own consultant on this, Garth Schultz, was quizzed on this by Tim Rood and Garth commented that I was correct and such a discount is common. The City told me such a discount is not legally allowed which is odd when it is “common” and has never been legally challenged elsewhere.”
All Piedmont property owners are required by law to pay for waste services with the contracted service provider. Ratepayers through their service charges will be paying for the waste service for all Piedmont public schools, all City buildings, various authorized special events, all municipal waste in parks and the corporation yard, plus all sidewalk bins.
According to the City’s Request for Proposals, part of the ratepayers fees will be returned to the City for the following City benefits:
- Reimbursement for the Procurement Process
- Transition Payment
- Franchise Fee
- Annual Service Rate Adjustment payment
- Performance Review Payment
Under the proposed new contract Republic will be required to expend $75,000 per year to educate Piedmonters on how to properly dispose of and limit their waste.
Bulk pick ups will be allowed to increase in volume and multi-family dwellings will be newly allowed bulk pick ups. There will be no charge for any recycling waste cans.
Most Council members seemed unimpressed by the increase in the rates being charged. One justified the increase because Piedmonters were stated to be currently receiving a bargain for service. Looking for ways to eliminate the use of the diesel fuel used to power waste trucks, one Council member expressed concern; however, the Council was told refueling stations in the area for other fuels were not available.
In the fall of 2016, resident Rick Schiller commented to the Council:
“In early 2015, I did a rudimentary survey of weekly garbage service cost in surrounding cities. At that time the Alameda three full size bin weekly service was $36.07 monthly. Berkeley’s was $35.93. The Chronicle reported the 3 bin weekly Oakland service as $36.82 monthly. However, a friend living in the windy, hilly streets of Montclair put her service cost closer to $30 monthly. In contrast the current Piedmont charge is about 80% higher. In the past service providers have taken advantage of Piedmont’s lax contract procedures and the false belief that all residents had no financial concerns. I urge you to control the garbage service costs.”
To read other regional comparison rates provided by Schiller, click here.
The matter will be continued to a future meeting following the City’s “consultant’s” attempts to further negotiate with Republic Services on a new contract.
Read the staff report here.
Readers may send comments to the City Council, as follows:
Jeff Wieler, Mayor jwieler@ci.piedmont.ca.u (510) 428-1648
Robert McBain, Vice Mayor rmcbain@ci.piedmont.ca.us (510) 547-0597
Jennifer Cavenaugh jcavenaugh@ci.piedmont.ca.u (510) 428-1442
Teddy Gray King tking@ci.piedmont.ca.us (510) 450-0890
Tim Rood trood@ci.piedmont.ca.us (510) 239-7663
Or to:
citycouncil@ci.piedmont.ca.us.
To send via U.S. Mail, please use the following address:
City Council
City of Piedmont
120 Vista Avenue
Piedmont, CA 94611
*Article updated July 23.
July 14, 2017
Piedmont City Council
c/o John Tulloch, City Clerk
July 17 Agenda: New Republic Services refuse contract.
Dear Mayor Wieler and Council,
It is what it is: one bid from Republic Services. Regrettably the preliminary cost estimates are for substantial increases of 60% for curbside service and 120% for backyard service. Considering the considerable increases, it is most unfortunate there will be no accommodation for seniors over 70. Staff indicated such an accommodation leaves the City vulnerable to legal challenge yet, perplexingly, this specific accommodation is common elsewhere and has not been legally challenged.
The Staff Report states “backyard service would be available to disabled residents at curbsides rates.” What is the mechanism for disabled qualification?
Mr. Benoit indicated, when we spoke at the Linda Triangle opening, that the new contract would include unlimited curbside green waste. This is most appropriate in lush, expansive Piedmont with its many large lots. Unlimited curbside recycling also seems appropriate and is in harmony with Piedmont’s embrace of ecological concerns.
Respectfully,
Rick Schiller
Piedmont resident
Rick Schiller is to be commended for the extensive research and persuasive recommendations that he made.
I hope that the shocked ratepayers will remember this when City Council election time comes around again. As a reminder: “Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: Should you not fear me?”
Politics tends to be forgotten. Writing those quarterly checks is the “gift” that keeps on giving, and giving, and giving.
Those are enormous rate increases – did Republic provide a quantifiable basis? They admitted they blew the last bid – you have to wonder how good this estimate is. And their flat rate for backyard makes no sense – all Piedmont backyards are not created equal. Staff’s formula may have been too complex for Republic, so make it simple – scale backyard service to lot size.
Bad month for ratepayers – sewer, garbage and water rates all go up.
Maybe the problem is that Piedmont is too small to generate competitive bids or economies of scale. Given that Piedmont is completely surrounded by Oakland, and many of our streets cross the boundary into Oakland, has the city considered talking to Oakland about joining their contract and consolidating services to improve efficiency and lower our cost? It would be the height of negligence if our City Council simply rolled over and accepted this non-competitive bid.
Are the City’s requirements asking for something that is far too expensive? Maybe relaxing some of the requirements would result in lower prices, and more competitors for the contract.
As a contracts and procurement professional, from what I have read in Mr. Benoit’s report may be indicative of inappropriate discussions by the proposers. In some industries such as sanitation/waste disposal where there is limited to no competition, the eligible participants will divide territories/cities. Periodically these territories/cities will be redistributed in an RFP re-bid process. It seems odd that 2 proposers declined to bid altogether while of the remaining 2 proposers (Waste Management and Republic), there was a formal “no bid” citing safety.
Perhaps a re-procurement should be enacted with a qualifier that a non-responsive proposal will penalize/disqualify that party from future contract award considerations. Or implement a more stringent annual renewal cap (no greater than a legitimate index + X%, annually…and tie the contractor into a 5-10 year term contract with a stringent termination clause).
However this is resolved, the seemingly damaged party will be the residents of the City of Piedmont. There are easy answers to this situation.
What the City has left out in its online explanation of the process and in response to Mike Rancer’s thoughtful comment, is that Waste Management, which services many Oakland streets right next to Piedmont, wanted to use a different type of cart that matched to a lift on the trucks which would reduce their concern about worker injury. Piedmont did not want to investigate this thinking backyard service would not be possible. The Jan. 17 2017 staff report included my letter and research material; that material has Oakland provider Waste Management’s rate sheet which clearly shows Waste Management providing both curbside and backyard service.