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2015-12-07 CC Minutes1 1 1 FARMER S BRANCH Monday, December 7, 2015 City of Farmers Branch Meeting Minutes City Council Farmers Branch City Hall 13000 Wm Dodson Pkwy Farmers Branch, Texas 75234 4:00 PM Council Chambers Special Called Meeting Presiding: 1 - Mayor Bob Phelps Present: 5 - Mayor Pro Tem Kirk Connally, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Harold Froehlich, Council Member Ana Reyes, Council Member John Norwood, Council Member Mike Bomgardner Staff: 18 - Gary D. Greer City Manager, Amy Piukana City Secretary, Charles Cox Managing Director Administration, John Land Managing Director Operations, Pete Smith City Attorney, Brian Beasley Human Resource Director, Allison Cook Economic Development Manager, Shane Davis Environmental Services & Solid Waste Manager, Andy Gillies Director of Community Services, Jeff Harting Parks & Recreation Director, Steve Parker Fire Chief, Randy Walhood Public Works Director, Alexis Jackson Planning Manager; Sid Fuller Police Chief; Brian Beasley Director of Human Resources A. CALL TO ORDER A.1 15 -181 Mayor Phelps called the meeting to order at 4 p.m., noting City Council will not be accepting public comments tonight. Consider and discuss an agreement with Community Waste Disposal for residential, city facility solid waste collection services and recycling collection services; and take appropriate action. Council Member Reyes asked if citizen comments would be allowed. Mayor Phelps explained he spoke to four (4) City Council Members who chose not to have citizen participation. Council Member Bomgardner explained City Council has received an enormous amount of comments and wants to discuss a process. Council Member Norwood noted City Council will invite citizen comments only if necessary. 1 1 1 1 Council Member Bomgardner stated he attended a citizen's group meeting, stating the group raised questions regarding trash service. He further stated trash service needs to be reviewed. He further stated, he has changed his position on this issue, after speaking with the General Manager of CWD. Council Member Bomgardner stated for trash pickup, the best method for CWD pickup is using plastic bags. He further stated, the solid waste company have had issues with paper bags tearing noting it slows the pickup cycle down, which drives up the cost of service. Council Member Bomgardner explained in order to keep cost down, he supports citizens providing their own plastic bags. Council Member Bomgardner spoke regarding recycling, stating plastic and paper bags for recycling is an issue and recommends bins for the recycling program. He further stated residents that don't have storage for a bin, depository sites could be used for resident use. Council Member Bomgardner noted the approximate cost to use bins is approximately $30.00 per year, noting the City of Farmers Branch is the only city that does not charge for trash pickup. Council Member Norwood, explained fiscally Option 1 in his opinion is the best interest. He further stated that after meeting with a group of citizens, and noted as a government representative body, and after hearing citizen feedback regarding the 50 % reduction of trash pickup, the number of times per week, and the change of a long time system. Council Member Norwood states based on this information, Option 2 (once per week trash in bags with once per week bin recycling) or Option 3 (twice a week trash in bags with once per week bin recycling) should be considered. He further stated based on sustainability trash and bags verses trash and bins is an option. He further stated curbside recycling program needs to be easy to collect, put out and recovered. This would be doable under Option 3, however, he noted Option 3 stating this is a more costly option, and would need budget amendments to cover cost. Need to start looking at cost of service, which costs $25 per household per month and keep the option open for the future to change from plastic bags to bins for trash services. Council Member Reyes stated need to base it on best practice and quality of life for residents. She noted past leadership had approached her regarding this issue. She asked for conversation and dialogue regarding Option 4 (twice a week garbage in bags with once a week recycling in blue plastic bags). Ms. Reyes explained there are two major issues, 1) eliminating 50% of trash service, 2) possibility of green carts having an adverse effect on neighborhoods and code enforcement. Council Member Reyes asked CWD to speak at the podium to provide input regarding the discussion. Mayor Phelps asked that any CWD presentations be conducted after all City Council members complete their discussions. 2 1 1 Council Member Connally spoke stating, in his opinion, this is setting a terrible precedence to have to meet again on a topic that has already been discussed and decided upon, noting he voted against, at the last meeting. He further stated, he has had 2 -1 citizens stating the city has done the right thing. He stated he wants curbside recycling. Need the best compromise cost wise, looks wise, and ecology wise. He supports twice a week trash in plastic bags, and once per week recyclables. He further stated if residents purchase their own plastic trash bags, this will offset the funds to pay for recycling. He explained recycling materials should be placed in a bin. He further stated residents could potentially opt out of the program if they do not wish to recycle. He recommends Option 3, as the best choice for the city long term. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich states, he has not changed his position, and read an article published by the City regarding guiding principles and innovated ideas. He further stated Option 1, in his opinion, does not enhance city services. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich noted that Study Session minutes from January 30, 2015, noted consensus from City Council was to implement a recycling program. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich asked why the budget did not include costs for recycling. Finance Director Charles Cox explained the city held a budget workshop with City Council members, noting Council provided direction to allow staff to bid for services. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich stated staff did a great job preparing the budget and agreed the City Council approved the budget, but noted the budget number does not include recycling. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich expressed concerns with using the same budget numbers. City Manager Gary Greer explained at the City Council retreat held, staff administration was directed to obtain bid amounts based on, once per week garbage and recycling in carts and remain within budget. Mr. Greer further noted the bid option received for this service was within budget. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich explained he supports recycling however; does not support bins. He further stated this will be a code enforcement issue. Council Member Reyes asked for a transition to bins over a future one year or two year plan. Council Member Reyes asked if Council Member Bomgardner would support this. Council member Bomgardner explained that based on his conversation with CWD and his research, the bins are more efficient for the recycling program. He further stated he is not opposed to having residents opt out, but does not want to compromise on pricing and best practices. Council Member Reyes stated residents should be allowed to opt out of using recycling bins and asks for a transition. Council Member Reyes explained Option 1, is a cheaper option. Council Member Bomgardner advised the cost has been amended to $1,402,660.00. Council Member 3 1 1 Reyes explained this number is still less than the number being proposed with Option 3. Council Member Reyes noted Code Enforcement staffing will be affected by Option 3. She further stated there are higher costs associated with adding additional Code Enforcement staff to comply with Option 3. Council Member Reyes asked City Manager Gary Greer if he had numbers to add additional code enforcement personnel. City Manager Gary Greer stated that in order to provide a quality level of service, Staff Administration will be recommending and asking City Council to consider 4 new Code Enforcement Officers. Council Member Norwood asked Shane Davis to provide bid pricing numbers for Options 1, 3, and 4. Mr. Davis stated CWD pricing for the Option 1 is $960,960.00, CWD pricing for Option 3 is $1,440,840.00, CWD pricing for Option 4 is $1,402,260.00. Council Member Bomgardner asked why two companies did not bid on Option 3. Mr. Davis explained the companies didn't bid on this option due to issues with manually sorting through the blue plastic bags at the material recovery facility and sometimes causing machines to malfunction. Council Member Bomgardner asked if other cities are moving away from the plastic bags. Mr. Davis explained City of Irving is moving away from blue bags and switching to bins, noting they are facing similar issues we are facing. He noted the bins allow more material to be collected and recycled. Council Member Reyes asked if the vendor would be willing to allow a transition of one to two years switching to the bins. Mayor Phelps asked Mr. Davis to explain why City of Irving and City of Richardson are moving away from blue bags. Mr. Davis explained City of Richardson is not moving away from it yet, noting City of Irving has expressed interest in moving away from the blue bags due to inefficiency and increased costs of having to sort through the blue bag materials, and noted the bins offer more recyclables to be collected and easier to process at the materials recovery facility. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich asked the City Manager what the cost and how many bins the city is plans to purchase. City Manager Greer explained the . current bid pricing for Option 3 would be $.46 cents per month which totals $38.46. Mr. Davis explained CWD would be purchasing the bins since they are able to purchase in bulk at a cheaper rate. Mr. Paul Hansen with CWD clarified and explained there are two numbers being discussed. He explained the cost at $40's per bin is based on the purchase and participation from all residents. The cost is increased to $64.00's per cart if residents opt out and CWD has to come back and pickup unwanted carts. 4 1 1 1 Council Member Connally stated in order to answer Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich's question regarding the number of bins, what percentage of residents would participate in this program. Council Member Reyes asked how many bins will be purchased in the contract. Mr. Davis explained that number has not yet been determined. Council Member Bomgardner stated there could be savings if some residents opted out of the program, since they will not require a cart to be purchased. Council Member Reyes asked Mr. Hansen if he has worked with other cities that have transitioned from blue bags to carts. He explained he has worked with other cities, and noted many cities enjoy the convenience of a cart verses using a container which is what some other cities use. He noted the blue bags are more costly to process at the recovery material facility. He further stated numbers increase with recycling material when using a bin verses bag recycling. He explained there could be a transition and the city would not have to purchase bins until they are necessary to begin the prog ram. Council Member Bomgardner asked Mr. Hansen if what he just explained was another option to use a smaller 18 gallon recycling container asking if this what Town of Addison used. Mr. Hansen explained Town of Addison just switched from the smaller 18 gallon recycling container, and further stated the containers are harder to move to the curb instead of a rolling cart. Mr. Hansen stated the measurement used to collect recycling is based on pounds collected per home per month. Council Member Bomgardner asked Mr. Hansen if he could share other cities numbers of pounds per year recycling. Mr. Hansen replied using an example with a blue bag program, it might be 15 lbs. per home per month, as opposed to a city that does 200 lbs. per home per year of trash. He further stated that City of Allen uses carts and does about 60 lbs. per home. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich stated he has not seen a plan that proposes an option of how this process will work. Council Member Norwood explained we have until March to work out the details. Council Member Norwood moved that the contract with CWD for which the City Manager was previously authorized to negotiate and execute include the following services: Twice per week garbage in bags and once per week recyclables in 95 gallon rollout carts. Motion seconded Council Member Bomgardner. 5 1 1 Council Member Norwood asked that the City Manager, at a January Study Session meeting, bring forward a plan and process of allowing residents to opt in or opt out of a recycling program. City Manager Gary Greer asked for a point of clarification regarding paper bags, asking City Council if the city needs to continue purchasing paper bags or residents purchase their own paper or plastic bags. Council Member Norwood replied stating the citizens can have the choice without city involvement, which would reduce costs. After discussion, the motion prevailed by the following vote: Aye: 4 - Mayor Pro Tem Connally, Council Member Reyes, Council Member Norwood and Council Member Bomgardner No: 1 - Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich B. ADJOURNMENT — Motion to adjourn made by Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich. Motion seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Connally. Motion prevailed by the following vote Aye: 5 - Mayor Pro Tem Connally, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Froehlich, Council Member Reyes, Council Member Norwood and Council Member Bomgardner The meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m. Bob Phelps, Mayor viNIEFIs �o .6,4y� • Amy M. Piuk 1 a, TRMC; City Secreta ' . 'Cy: I o 0 t I a' l/ 6