The City Council did not contract with MRI for an additional five year period. The Council did direct David Sonnenberg, Director of Public Works-City Engineer, to negotiate with MRI for an additional five year period. Mr. Sonnenberg did this, and the draft contract was extensively discussed at both Transportation and Public Works Committee and Ways and Means Committee meetings. On September 28th the Council directed Public Works to report on the potential cost savings and rate effect if City workers were to provide solid waste management services to the entire City. That report will be heard by the Transportation and Public Works Committee on Wednesday, November 28. The cover letter for the Committee report is copied below. If folks wish to have a copy of the report, please e-mail me.
To: Transportation and Public Works Committee Referral to: Ways and Means Committee Subject: Report on Potential Savings if City Employees Provide Solid Waste Management and Collection Services to the Entire City. Since 1971, Minneapolis Refuse Inc (MRI), a consortium of solid waste haulers, has collected residential solid waste under a contract with the City. The contract with MRI has always been renegotiated, usually before the term of the existing contract has been due. MRI has been the only entity to hold this contract. The current contract began in 1997, expires December 31, 2002 and is for one half of the City's households (about 54,000 dwelling units). Since 1997, the contract fee paid to MRI has been $8.25 per dwelling unit per month (about $5,346,000 annually) for the collection of solid waste, recyclables, problem materials and yard waste. The current contract was the result of many deliberations by the Council with several discussions of alternatives to contracting with MRI. including collection of the whole City by City forces and issuance of a Request for Proposals for the services. The current contract, in fact, was of such interest to the Council that it was the primary subject of the second longest Council meeting in City history. On March 23, 2001, at the request of MRI, the City Council directed staff to negotiate a new 5-year contract with MRI. In late September, staff distributed to Council a draft MRI contract that, if approved, would start in January 2002. In addition to the increased prices for MRI service, the draft contract was also revised to be more specific with respect to service expectations and consequences and to comply with the City's contract standards. On September 28, 2001, the Council directed the Department of Public Works to prepare a report within 60 days with "estimates of cost savings and residential rates for solid waste services provided for the entire City by the City's own crews, commencing January 2003." The Finance Department was also directed to assist in "analyzing these costs and the capital costs associated with the necessary equipment purchases for a service provided entirely by the City's crews." A multi-department project team produced this report in response to these Council directives. Business representatives from the four unions affected by the potential service changes were invited to all team meetings, and representatives actively participated in most meetings. The Report is attached and states that there are operational cost savings to the City, and secondary social and personnel benefits, that can be achieved by deciding to provide service to the entire City using only City forces. In order to accomplish this, a significant amount of the cash balance that has been achieved by the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund would be used to purchase capital equipment (trucks). This expenditure would not jeopardize the health of the Fund. Since these are Enterprise Funds, they are restricted for use for capital or operation expenses in the Fund, or to lower rates to our customers. The Council has adopted a Pro Forma for the Division, which projected service rates to our customers and expenditures by the Division of Solid Waste and Recycling for a 5-year period. The Report finds that neither contracting with MRI nor providing service to the entire City with City personnel would require a change to the Pro Forma, and therefore there would be no effect on rates to our customers under either condition. _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
