04-27-2016 Workshop Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP APRIL 27, 2016 few locations. Ms. Buckley stated that cities receive SCORE funds distributed from the counties for their recycling programs. She explained that the SCORE funds come from a tax on all garbage bills that is collected by the state and passed down to the counties, who then pass some on to their cities. She stated that Ramsey County is pushing all cities, including Little Canada, to increase the multi -family housing recycling tonnages. She noted that in some cases, the multi -family units and businesses may not be getting the city newsletters, so they are probably not getting educated. She is encouraging the City to change their organized collection contract to include more multi -family housing in order to increase tonnage amounts. Ms. Buckley stated that the county will now pay for up to 50% or $100,000, whichever is more, for a city's recycling carts, and will pay for recycling containers in any common areas. The City Administrator noted that currently the haulers pay for the recycling carts, so it's built in to the rate structure. The City Administrator stated that since there is already an organized collection program in Little Canada, only a Request for Proposals (RFP) is required if the Council decides to modify or expand the next contract. Ms. Buckley stated that some cities include more multi -family buildings in their contracts, but limit the size to possibly 8 unit buildings in order to keep it more manageable. The City Administrator noted that we could still try to work with the big apartment complexes individually and get pricing quotes for them, but they would have the option to participate. He stated that our haulers are supposed to tell the City which properties are not recycling, so those people could be targeted to encourage them to start recycling. Ms. Buckley stated that Little Canada is small enough that one hauler could handle the whole city. The City Administrator stated that some smaller companies may need more than one day to complete pickups in the whole city. The City Administrator thinks that the City could get better rates and have more control over services if there was only one hauler. He noted that City Staff is working on a list of specific issues to address in the next contract, and more service requirements and penalties will be added. Ms. Buckley stated that the County is available to help with drafting an RFP or new contract for no charge. The City Administrator stated that right now he is just asking the City Council to consider changing the number of haulers before he starts meeting with the existing haulers. He noted that without doing an RFP, we won't know what else the market can give the City.