City Council OKs 5-year contract with Republic Waste

After a lengthy discussion on Monday, the Belleville City Council unanimously approved a five-year contract with Republic Waste for refuse, recycling, and yard-waste pickups at the approximate 1,100 stops in the city.
DPW Director Rick Rutherford and City Manager Diana Kollmeyer had reviewed the four bids for the service and recommended the city stick with Republic, which has been providing pick-up services to the city for 15 years.
Rutherford said Republic’s bid is a savings over the other bids and there will be upgrades to fall services.
He also pointed out that Belleville has a lot of nooks and crannies, including its alleys, and if there was a new provider the old carts would have to be picked up, new ones distributed, and pickup-dates changed, which “would make this a nightmare.”
He recommended staying with the services the city is used to having. He said the citizens would have to be informed before any changes are made.
Republic’s present contract expires at the end of the year and it was stated the other bidders wouldn’t be able to start for 30 days, leaving a gap in pickup.
Rutherford noted that some education has to be done in the city since, “The face of recycling is changing.”
Republic’s bid was $14.85 per stop per month for the first year, $15.30 for the second year, $15.75 for the third year, $16.22 for the fourth year, and $16.71 for the fifth year. Currently the cost is $12.43.
Councilman Tom Fielder said he sat in on the review of the bids by city officials and after some comments about the changing face of recycling said he agreed with Rutherford’s recommendation.
Scott Cabauatan, Republic’s Municipal Manager for Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio, was present to answer questions – and there were a lot of questions about service. One of the problems seems to be with the calls to request pick up of bulk items which go to a regional service. If people don’t say their street address and then specify Belleville, Michigan 48111, the call center might think the customers are in another state.
“We have a responsibility to better describe where we’re at and when items will be put out,” Rutherford said.
Councilman Jesse Marcotte said he doesn’t have a garage and his recycling container is out in the rain and items get wet and soggy.
Cabauatan said that makes him cringe because they need clean, empty, and dry recycled items. Wet paper, especially, when bound into bundles for reuse get moldy if wet and useless.
“We’re kinda reeling from the China piece,” Cabauatan said, referring to China refusing to take contaminated recycling. He said for the last 24 months, changes have been great in recycling. In the past, he said, they could present recycled items that were 3-5% contaminated and the new benchmark is half a percent.
“That’s a substantial jump,” Cabauatan said. “We’re making it, but at a cost. Our price has gone up.”
Marcotte asked if they could get a different container to keep the items dry.
“I hesitate to say sure,” said Cabauatan, saying he hesitates to put a bigger cart, similar to a trash container, without being sure they had the equipment to lift it up. He said they can’t have it physically lifted up to the truck because of strains and pains. He suggested working something out with the city manager.
“Maybe we need to get covered containers,” said Becky Hasen who said she was in a condo with 79 units and they’ve been told to put out their items at 7 a.m. and they get rained on. She also outlined her condos’ problem with bulk item pickup.
Councilwoman Kelly Bates, who was just sworn in, wanted more information on the contract with prices for different size containers since this is for five years. She said she was given the information on the contract just before the meeting started and she didn’t like to vote on things she hadn’t studied.
City Manager Kollmeyer said the city usually did a three-year contract, and then extended it two years.
“These prices are based on five years,” Cabauatan said.
She asked if Cabauatan could find out if larger containers could be given out and suggested they not approve the contract until the next meeting, so he could get the answer.
He said the earliest he could get the answer would be the end of January or beginning of February and then there would be a pricing change.
Cabauatan suggested if the city wants to go with carts for recycling they could wait until two years into the contract and then renegotiate to get recycling pickup every other week or weekly with carts.
“Would everybody go to carts?” Kollmeyer asked and Cabauatan said it would be “ala carte and billing one on one.”
Kollmeyer said the city has an ordinance about where the carts can be and aren’t allowed in front yards, so that might be a problem for some.
“I don’t see not awarding this to Republic … assuming if we change everybody to a cart it would be renegotiated,” Fielder said.
A woman asked if there were lids for the recycling bins and Cabauatan said a few communities went to lids and found they blow away and they stopped using them.
Fielder said he’s ready to approve the contract, since the discussion is over details. He said he didn’t want to make the motion if the two new council members don’t want to vote on it.
Councilman Ken Voigt, also newly sworn in, asked if he could get answers on the carts by Dec. 16 and Cabauatan said he couldn’t. Specialized carts are outside the contract and it could be offered to specific residents.
Councilman Voigt said he didn’t like voting on something he hadn’t seen before, either. He noted that the recycling truck that comes by his house doesn’t have any arms to lift a cart.
Mike Renaud said from the audience that nothing’s going to change in two weeks. Some people want carts and some probably don’t. He said if they take two weeks to look at this and change the details it’s unfair to the competitors.
“Be happy with what you have,” said Fire Chief Brian Loranger, who has chiropractic offices in Belleville and Dexter. “In Dexter we never know when something’s going to be picked up.”
“I just got the information,” Bates said.
Voigt said if there is biweekly cart pickup there would be less participation since people wouldn’t remember when to put them out.
Fielder said the water problems could be solved with city education.
“We’ll save $50,000 yearly over the other bids,” Fielder said. “It needs to be approved at the next meeting or we’ve got big problems.”
“I’m ready to vote on this tonight, but it’s another instance of waiting until the last minute,” Marcotte said.
Fielder made the motion to approve the contract, seconded by Marcotte. The votes heard were all ayes, with no nays cast, but Bates didn’t say anything.
In other business at the almost two-hour meeting, the council:
• Held a public hearing with no public comments on the ordinance amendment to opt out of marijuana businesses in the city and then voted unanimously to approve the ordinance. “It would put us where we would want to be,” Fielder said of the move to join 1,400 communities in Michigan opting out of the businesses;
• Approved city council meeting dates for 2020, with Bates seeking to change the time of the meeting from 7:30 to 7 p.m. Mayor Kerreen Conley told her the time is in the city charter and can’t be changed without a charter amendment. Most meetings are on the first and third Mondays, with January dates changed to Jan. 13 and Jan. 27 to avoid a conflict with the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting;
• Heard Bates ask that an item – “Building next door” — be added to the council follow-up list. When asked by Marcotte about information on the veterans’ memorial upgrades needed, that is on the follow-up list, Kollmeyer said there were no updates;
• Agreed to post the city manager position on websites with a Jan. 3 deadline and hold a special meeting on Jan. 6 to consider the applicants publicly and Saturday, Jan. 25, for interviews. A Feb. 3 meet and greet with the candidates will be held so council members can see how candidates react to the public. The council is scheduled to select a city manager the next day, Feb. 4. No salary was set, but Kollmeyer gets $68,000, according to the Council of Western Wayne information presented at the meeting; and
• Approved accounts payable of $107,869.84 and the following purchases in excess of $500: to Morton Salt, $4,478.05 for road salt; to Dearborn Heights F.D., $3,262.24 for the 10% match for the fire department radio grant from FEMA; to Great Lakes Towing, $2,000 from the auto auction; to EGLA (formerly DEQ), $1,339.40 for drinking water monitoring fee; to Biomedical Solution, $1,190 for medical equipment and maintenance; to R&R Fire Truck, $1,186 for repair to truck #453; to Wise Technologies, $1,088.44 for tech support; and to Stoney Creek Motorsports, $698.49 for four-wheeler plow repair. Rutherford commented on the price of the salt: “They’re not joking around about hiking the price on that stuff”;
• Heard Mayor Conley say the council will be judging the house lighting contest on Monday, Dec. 9, and she will be assigning categories to council members; and
• Heard Chad Viers, delivery superintendent for the post office, say the mail carriers are out in the dark and if residents would keep their porch lights on it would help them tremendously.