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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-24-12-WS It - IzEN�HILLS Approved: October 29, 2012 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS,MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MEETING SEPTEMBER 24,2012 IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING - CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, Mayor Grant called to order the City Council Work Session meeting at 8:47 p.m. Present: Mayor David Grant; Councilmembers Brenda Holden, Fran Holmes, Nick Tamble, and Ed Werner Absent: None Also present: City Administrator Patrick Klaers; and City Planner Meagan Beekman 1. AGENDA ITEMS A. Residential Curbside Recycling—Contract Discussion City Planner Beekman stated that the Council packet of background information includes the Recycling Performance Report received from Ramsey County and the current Eureka Recycling contract. She noted that the City has contracted with Eureka Recycling since March of 2008 and that in 2010, the contract was extended for two years. The current contract is set to expire on March 1, 2013. City Planner Beekman explained that she would like direction from the Council whether they are interested in renegotiating an extension with Eureka Recycling or if they would like to start the process of soliciting proposals for a new recycling curbside service provider through a request for proposal (RFP)process. She noted that the RFP process can take three to six months. City Planner Beekman indicated that Ramsey County has a contract with Foth Infrastructure & Environment, LLC which is a consulting firm that specializes in recycling contracts. She said that their services are available to the City free of charge. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION— SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 2 City Planner Beekman noted that even if we do go out for an RFP process, she has been told by Foth Infrastructure & Environment, LLC, that the City should extend the contract with Eureka Recycling for six months in order to ensure a thorough RFP process. City Planner Beekman explained that one of the biggest issues that has changed since 2008 is how cities deal with plastics. In 2008, most haulers were just collecting plastic types #1 and #2. Now they are accepting all types of plastics. Eureka Recycling is different, however, than other companies. They are a non-profit organization whose mission is zero-waste, which means they do not collect materials that they cannot sell to a market that can certify that the materials are being recycled. For-profit commercial recycling providers are more driven by customer service. They will collect a broader mix of materials because the materials that do not have a post- consumer market can be discarded in the regular waste system (i.e. landfills, incinerators). The advantage of for-profit recycling haulers is convenience to the resident. Often, they will collect using a single-stream system, which means residents have one container for all recycling materials. The container can be picked up mechanically by the truck. Eureka Recycling uses a dual-sort approach and hand-picks recycling materials, which means the driver is visually inspecting materials and removing the items that do not have a post-consumer market. It should be noted that Eureka Recycling is working on a system that will broaden the materials they will pick up. Councilmember Holmes questioned which option offers the lowest cost. Eureka Recycling offers revenue sharing, but she is unsure if any of the other companies have revenue sharing. She knows that people have a tendency to get upset with Eureka Recycling because they do not take as many plastics and are not concerned about the reasons why certain plastics are unacceptable. Her priority is cost. Councilmember Holden stated that the graph that Ramsey County provided shows that the recycling tonnage numbers in the City were down in 2011. She questioned if they do weighted averages. She noted that people may not be producing as much waste or that the packaging is not producing as much waste. City Planner Beekman pointed out that page three of the Recycling Performance Report depicts that the City of Arden Hills has the highest pounds of recycling when ranked among other communities. She believes that the decline in the overall recycling tonnage numbers that Councilmember Holden inquired about is due to the decline in newspaper, which affects all of the surrounding communities. Councilmember Holden indicated that the lowest cost is not as important to her as ensuring that materials are actually being recycled. She stated that with the single sort system, when glass breaks and mixes in with the newspaper, it prevents the newspaper from being recycled because it is difficult to get the glass out of the paper and it breaks the equipment. City Administrator Klaers noted that with the current hauler, Eureka Recycling, everything they take is 100% recycled. As far as cost, he thinks the best price will come from renegotiating the current contract rather than going out for RFP's. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION— SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 3 Mayor Grant stated that at $1.88 per month per household, he felt that Eureka Recycling's fees were reasonable. Councilmember Tamble noted that he has no complaints about Eureka Recycling. The proof is in the average revenue share per month as to how much we are recycling in the City. If we maintain the same path, we will likely see $20,000 in revenue for the City, and he likes the idea of the dividend. He does not see a point in seeking out RFP's. Councilmember Werner noted that his experience with Eureka Recycling has not been positive. He used to put out aluminum cans in plastic bags, and Eureka would not take it because of the plastic bag. Also, for years, he would put his recycling in a regular garbage can until he received a note stating that the container was too large. Mayor Grant stated that Eureka Recycling recycles 100% of what he puts out and he likes that. He said that something to note with single sort is that a bin that is roughly the size of a regular garbage container is used for recycling materials. He said that complaints are already received from residents regarding neighbors that do not screen in their garbage cans. If we give residents another large can it will exacerbate the problem. Also, if the recycler doesn't like the mixture of recyclables, they will take the load to the dump. The cottage cheese containers that people get upset about Eureka Recycling not accepting is far less waste in the landfill than a whole garbage truck of recyclables that are rejected and placed in the dump. For these reasons, added to the fact that Eureka Recycling is lower in price than the other haulers, makes him lean toward keeping Eureka Recycling. Councilmember Holden noted that if we negotiate a contract with Eureka Recycling, maybe we can add more educational stuff within the contract. Councilmember Holmes questioned if Eureka Recycling is the lowest priced. City Planner Beekman explained that Foth Infrastructure & Environment, LLC completed an analysis of recycling haulers. She cautioned that it is difficult to compare contract-to-contract simply by looking at cost per household because some contain processing fees, some have revenue shares, and some have fuel surcharges that are not included in the per monthly household cost and are billed separately. We are on the low end price-wise compared to other cities, and that speaks highly of our contract with Eureka Recycling because of the relative small size of the community. She stated that increasing education is a priority of hers, which also includes offering more information about revenue sharing. She is interested in the Council's feelings regarding broadening the program to include multi-family properties. Mayor Grant stated that he is in favor of more people recycling because it is more environmentally conscientious. Councilmember Holden stated that she thought that some multi-family properties already had their own recycling haulers, so she would be concerned about"stepping on toes". ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 4 City Planner Beekman explained that the ordinance states that the City will provide curbside recycling services to single family households and townhome communities. Multi-family communities such as Arden Manor, Hunters Park, Park Shore, and Cottage Villas supply their own recycling services. She noted that Ramsey County is encouraging all multi-family properties to use the same recycling hauler as the single family properties in an effort to better track recycling statistics. When other multi-family communities recycle independently, it is harder for the County to track those numbers. Councilmember Holden stated that she is cautious of asking those multi-family communities to switch haulers because if they are happy with their recycling services, she does not want to force the issue. The Council consensus is to negotiate an extension of the existing contract with Eureka Recycling for residential curbside recycling services. B. City Attorney RFP Update City Administrator Klaers stated that earlier in the evening, the Council had an opportunity to meet Mr. Patrick Kelly and Mr. Chad Lemmons, the partners of the Kelly & Lemmons law firm that City Attorney Jerry Filla joined. He indicated that the City is pursuing going out for RFP for legal services. He stated that he has met with individuals from the three law firms that the City would be seeking RFP's from for legal services. He met with Mr. Kelly and Mr. Lemmons, Mr. Joel Jamnik from Campbell Knutson, and Mr. Michael Norton from Kennedy& Graven. City Administrator Klaers noted that in August, City Attorney Jerry Filla brought out most of the partners from Kelly & Lemmons. At that time, he learned about their prosecuting team, which consists of Mr. Kevin Beck and Mr. Joseph Kelly, who is the son of Patrick Kelly. He stated that he thinks Kelly& Lemmons really shines with regard to their prosecuting services. City Administrator Klaers explained that Mr. Filla has been providing prosecution services at $75 per hour, and no qualified firm can match that price. He discussed with Kelly & Lemmons that if they could commit to continue with the $75 per hour, he would recommend to the Council that we not seek an RFP for prosecuting services. Kelly & Lemmons agreed on that price in a letter dated September 24, 2012. Therefore, it is his recommendation to modify the RFP approach and only go out for general civil municipal services, and seek RFP's from only these three firms. He stated that if we are not happy with the three proposals, we can go out for a few others. However, he is convinced that any of these three could serve our needs. City Administrator Klaers stated that another item to discuss is the selection committee. Staff is comfortable with either taking the lead role or having the Council take an active role in the selection. The consensus among the Council is for City staff to act as the selection committee once the RFP proposals are submitted. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 5 Additionally, the Council consensus is to accept the proposal from Kelly & Lemmons for their prosecuting services proposal and to put it on the consent agenda for the October 8, 2012 City Council meeting for formal approval. ADJOURN Mayor Grran�t- adjourned the Closed City Council Work Ses 'on meeti at 9:26 p.m. Patrick Klaers David Grant City Administrator Mayor It' ,--S EN HILLS Request for Special Meeting A special meeting may be called by the Committee, Commission, or Authority Chair or by any two Committee, Commission, or Authority Members. Reason for meeting: Discuss Recycling Contract and City Attorney RFP Proposal Requested Date: 09/24/12 Requested time: Immediately following Regular City Council meeting Open meeting X Closed meeting Signat of persons) king request: (Q� 09/17/12 Chair or Member Date Member Date -This section to be completed by City staff- Date received: 09/17/12 Date meeting to be held: 09/24/12 Time of meeting: Immediately following Regular City Council Meeting Location: Council Chambers, City Hall All necessary posting and notices have been completed. Signature of Deputf Clerk Date City of Arden Hills 1245 West Highway 96 Arden Hills,MN 55112-5743 Phone 651.792.7800 * Fax 651.634.5137 www.ci.arden-hills.mn.us