Troy officials discuss changing trash haulers

He said after Republic took over Sanders Waste Systems out of Alton, Keeven said some residents complained about pick-up times and issues with getting new trash cans.

“Our contract with them comes due next April or July,” he said. “They asked if we would like to do a long-term contract. I spoke with the mayor about that and I spoke to other city administrators with who they’re using and are they satisfied with the service?”

In this area, Keeven said there are two options for trash hauling, Waste Management of Houston, Texas, and Republic Services, based out of Phoenix, Arizona. No votes were made during this meeting.

“After talking to the mayor, I think we would recommend making a one-year agreement with Republic,” he said. He asked her to work on numbers for a 12-month contract, mentioning that they had experienced some issues. She agreed unless the city wanted to go out for bids for long-term contracts. If that were the case, they would not provide data for the year-long contract.

Keeven said he told Breslin he would want the data by the end of December to give him time to get competitive bids.

“I don’t necessarily want to go in a different direction but after we signed the last deal with them, I looked into what other communities paid and we paid more than some others,” said Councilman Nathan Henderson. “I’d be interested to know what other communities are paying and I see no harm in making them compete for it.”

Councilman Troy Turner jumped in next.

“We were getting a big savings because they were also going to do yard service,” he said. “I know there was a lot of heartburn about that. Right after we passed the contract, we took it back and re-passed it. They only reduced the rate 25 cents a billing period to take out yard service. We were all paying for yard service and not getting it.”

Keeven said Republic offers yard service but that is something the city doesn’t bill for; the customer has to work directly with Republic to get it.

“But they folded part of that price into the contract and didn’t take out the full price when we re-negotiated [it], so we are still paying for it,” Henderson said.

“The big push on that was we were doing the billing in-house and that would keep our rates flat,” Turner added. “And how much money are we losing by doing the billing?”

Councilman Tim Flint agreed.

“I don’t know that we’re losing it,” Keeven said. “I can tell you that the billing piece of it is pretty easy for us; we add it to the water bill. Whatever comes in is what goes out. If somebody has a complaint that their trash didn’t get picked up, and they want a credit, we give them the credit because if we don’t collect it, we don’t pay it out to them.”

While it costs some time, Keeven said the water clerks work in city hall anyway doing billing so he was unsure how to put a dollar figure on it. He said it would be easier to put a dollar figure on what it saves them doing the billing since another person does not need to be hired.

Turner said he wants to see the price differences between Republic doing the billing and the city doing it. Keeven said they already added billing structure to the city’s computer system.

“That seems to be a point of contention with our water clerks because when somebody has a billing issue, they call us. We tell them, ‘You need to get a hold of Republic Services and here’s the number.’ Republic, in turn, tells the customer to work with the city on that, he said.

Turner said another issue is that Republic only lets customers who create an account on the website have information and he claims 90% of customers aren’t doing that, it’s coming through the city.

“I will let Rhonda know not to work on numbers for a one-year contract; we will do a request for proposal (RFP), with it bid out as the company does all billing and to have it priced out as if we did the billing for the company,” Keeven said.

Turner suggested a three-year contract with a right to extend it for two more years. It would be every week for trash, every other week for recyclables. Yard waste would be optional at residents’ request by the week.

The next Troy City Council meeting is Nov. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in city hall, 116 E. Market St.

Troy officials discuss changing trash haulers

Comments