Agenda - Council Work Session - 09/27/2016

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garbage service must also offer recycling service and that each licensed hauler shall provide detailed monthly tonnage reports to the City. It would also likely increase staff time on administrative tasks and educational awareness. As a reminder, the City's recycling program is funded through the Select Committee on Recycling and the Environment (SCORE). Each community in Anoka County receives a base of $10,000.00 plus another $5.00 per household and has the ability to apply for additional enhancement funds to make improvements to their recycling program. Ramsey's allocation for 2016 is $61,000.00. Additionally, the Anoka County Board of Commissioners also sets a tonnage goal for each community (based on 195 pounds per person per year per single family home and 170 pounds per person per year for multifamily buildings of five [5] units or more) and Ramsey's current goal is set at 2,399 tons. Ramsey has now achieved its recycling goal for twelve (12) consecutive years. The City has had a contract with ACE Solid Waste since approximately 1998. ACE Solid Waste calls Ramsey home and has provided good service over the course of almost twenty (20) years. The City and ACE continue to have a good working relationship and ACE continues to be actively engaged in the community. However, it should be noted that ACE Solid Waste is no longer locally owned; Waste Connections Inc., headquartered in Texas, purchased ACE late in 2013. But, ACE continues to provide great service. There were some initial customer complaints submitted to City Staff during the transition in ownership and conversion to a new software system (mostly due to long wait times on the phone and lack of returned calls), but it appears that these issues have been resolved. Section 4.5 of the City's Purchasing Policy states that an RFP will generally be used to solicit proposals for professional services every three (3) years (unless specifically extended by City Council) . It should be noted though that cities are not required to follow the competitive bidding process (RFPs) for professional services. The EPB reviewed this topic at their June and July meetings. As part of their initial review in June, the EPB requested that goals of the recycling program be developed to assist in their decision making process. These goals were reviewed and approved by the EPB at their July meeting (attached). The consensus of the EPB was that the City should continue the recycling program through a contracted service, and after some discussion, the EPB recommended that the City initiate negotiations with its current hauler on a new contract as they have provided good service and are based in Ramsey. Timeframe: 30 minutes Funding Source: Funding for the administration of the City's curbside recycling program is provided through the State of Minnesota's Select Committee on Recycling and the Environment (SCORE). With the current contract, the City pays the hauler a monthly fee ($2.95 per household) and then collects that charge on a quarterly basis through the City's utility billing ($8.85 per quarter). Responsible Party(ies): City Planner Chris Anderson Outcome: Provide direction to Staff on the future status of the recycling program in terms of continuing it as a contracted service or moving to an open hauling system and, if it is to continue as a contracted service, whether to directly negotiate with the current hauler or to prepare an RFP for City Council consideration. Attachments Current Recycling Contract Program Goals