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. FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES _~_ January 26, 2005 Organized Refuse Collection (continued) Council member Lindstrom said that putting the City smack dab between the customer and the hauler is not in the best interest of the City, the hauler or the customer. Former Mayor Tom Baldwin put it well back in March, at the first public hearing, when he said that when he changed haulers it took a 30 second phone call to his current hauler and a 30 second phone call to his future hauler. No phone calls to City staff. No investigation into why service was poor or costs went up. Just a simple transaction between a business and a customer. Overwhelmingly, the people who contacted him recognized that the ability to choose a hauler should be in their hands and not governments. We ought to respect that. He was surprised and disappointed a few weeks ago when he read about a recent study that concluded that Minnesotans are cynical about government. Fully half said that government, in general, has a negative impact on their lives. That is a shame. He believes that most people in Falcon Heights have a positive feeling towards City Hall. But, he can't help but believe that if the City goes with organized collection with 80% of the responding households against it, the • number of cynics will grow. A year ago the Council voted unanimously to set goals for solid waste. There are ways to meet many of these goals while maintaining an individual's ability to choose their own hauler. He said he would like to lay out an alternative proposal that does just that. Over the past couple of weeks, he has sat down with the haulers and discussed these issues. After a few compromises by himself and the haulers, they identified eight areas where they can reduce wear and tear on the City's streets and alleys, improve service to customers, encourage environmentally friendly activity, and educate customers on solid waste, household hazardous waste and recycling issues. Every hauler has agreed to abide by each one of these items. This proposal makes very modest improvement to the open system the City has today. These are not radical changes. In fact, some of these items are already being done by the haulers. His proposal would incorporate these items into a Memorandum of Understanding with the haulers, as outlined below. Wear and Tear 1. Haulers shall bring trucks in the City empty. • An empty truck means a lighter truck which means less wear and tear. 2. Haulers shall train drivers to enter alleys with left turns. • By turning left, the driver will have much better vision and be able to avoid curbs and • other objects they can't see when turning right 8