Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tribune article on trash hauler contracts:
Contracts handle same trash for less cash
By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune
September 14, 2012
Hillsborough County residents will get the same or better garbage collection at a lower price by putting trash pickup out for bid.
At least that’s what county officials are promising after eight months of working on the new bid documents that will be published late next week.
Companies will be asked to bid on a range of garbage collection options, including keeping the current twice-a-week manual pickup or changing to once-a-week automated collection that uses 95-gallon rolling bins for garbage and 65-gallon bins for recyclables.
Commissioners approved the bid documents on a 6-0 vote, with Chairman Ken Hagan absent.
County Administrator Mike Merrill said the contracts were developed to achieve goals commissioners set in December when they voted to put garbage collection out to bid: lower prices, quality service and control over the solid waste stream.
Commissioner Sandy Murman, who tried and failed to delay the vote until next week, warned Merrill that he and the county staff would be on the hook if the bid process resulted in worse service than residents have now.
“You’re taking a big risk, staff, because the onus will be on you,” Murman said. “If we don’t deliver the same service at less cost, people will be picketing the county center.”
Three to five vendors will be awarded contracts to begin service starting Oct. 1, 2013, but they won’t necessarily be the companies that now pick up garbage in Hillsborough’s unincorporated areas. Those haulers — Waste Management, Republic Services and Waste Services Inc. — will have to bid along with up to eight others on the new contracts commissioners approved Thursday.
All of the vendors have to prove their qualifications, including length of time in business, ability to handle sizable contracts, senior management experience and guarantees of financial stability.
“It ensures the government that we get the lowest possible rates offered by qualified service providers,” said Mitch Kessler, a private consultant who worked with the county on the bid specification.
Here’s how the new process will work: The companies will bid on five collection zones, each with about 50,000 households. No company can get more than two zones, and they will be chosen on a complicated rotational process that Kessler said will ensure the best value for county taxpayers.
The companies also will bid on four service options:
Keeping the model of twice-a-week manual garbage pickup and once-a-week manual collection of recyclables and yard trash.
Twice-a-week automated garbage pickup and once-a-week recyclables collection, using rolling bins provided by the county, and once-a-week yard waste collection.
Once-a-week automated garbage and recycling collection and once-a-week yard waste pickup.
Once-a-week automated garbage pickup, every-other-week recyclables collection and once-a-week manual trash pickup.
If an automated service option is chosen, all waste receptacles will be fitted with radio transmitters. That way, haulers will be able to keep track of when and where garbage is collected to better manage the service and avoid missing houses.
Commercial receptacles also will have transmitters so the county can make sure the waste goes either to the waste-to-energy plant or a recycling center.
Controlling the amount of waste is important because the county must pay a penalty to Covanta, the company that runs the waste-to-energy plant, if waste collections dumped at the incinerator don’t total 546,000 tons a year.
John Lyons, Hillsborough’s director of utilities, said the county doesn’t know whether haulers who pick up commercial waste are taking it to the incinerator. They could be taking the waste out of county or to processers who remove recyclables.
The county makes no money off recycling, but that will change under whatever system is adopted. A separate bid will go out for companies that want to process recyclables. They would pay the county a percentage of the money they make selling the recyclables, based on commodity prices.
“Under recycling right now, the hauler picks it up and it goes away; they retain the money from selling it,” Lyons said.
Kessler said under current commodity prices, the county could make $1.5 million a year off recycling under the new system.
Merrill promised that after the bids go out, a massive outreach will be used to educate residents on the changes. The program will use online surveys, social media and video town hall meetings.
