Agenda Packets - 2024/12/09 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council November 25, 2024 Regular Meeting Page 3 1 Mayor Lindstrom commented he believed the action the City Council was taking would encourage 2 capitalism and competition that the haulers say they love so much. 3 4 Council Member Gunn asked how residents would know what the rates were. City Administrator 5 Zikmund reported this information would be posted on the City's website. 6 7 Mayor Lindstrom recommended that once the rate information was known by the City that a mailer 8 also be sent to residents with this information. 9 10 MOTION/SECOND: Gunn/Meehlhause. To Approve the Solid Waste Standards and directing 11 staff to communicate the price maximums to residents. 12 13 Council Member Clark stated she was surprised to see this coming forward noting the Options 14 Committee had twenty recommendations for the Solid Waste Standards. She supported these 15 recommendations being taken into consideration before a mailer is sent out to residents. 16 17 City Administrator Zikmund indicated the proposed mailer would have pricing information with 18 directions on where to find the information on the City's website. He indicated there would be 19 time to further discuss the recommendations from the Options Committee in February. 20 21 Council Member Clark supported the Council further discussing the recommendations from the 22 Options Committee in February. 23 24 Mayor Lindstrom commented for far too long the waste companies in Mounds View have been 25 utilizing the subscription market to take advantage of residents by charging junk fees to impact 26 their bottom line. He reported the Council sought to address this though organized collection by 27 having long term contracts in place with fixed pricing. He stated his intent was to see this through 28 the end while respecting how residents vote. He understood the residents have spoken loud and 29 clear about wanting to retain the subscription market. He indicated it was not his intent to cast a 30 vote in favor of organized collection, but wanted to be clear that other councilmembers feel the 31 same way or may want to pursue organized collection at some future point. However,the City still 32 has this problem of looming price transparency within the subscription market, which led the 33 Council to pursue the proposed standards and license transparency ordinance. He believed the 34 inequality in the current market was disturbing,noting bills ranged from$20 to $70 per month. He 35 indicated residents were being taken advantage of and he wanted residents to be able to make 36 educated decisions without rates being raised over and over again. He called attention to how 37 haulers were not loyal to their customers and discussed how the "Vote No" campaign was 38 impacting residents. He discussed how profitable it was for haulers to have an open market versus 39 being locked into an organized contract. He was of the opinion price transparency was extremely 40 important for residents and stated he was proud to say today would mark a new chapter for waste 41 collection standards in Mounds View. He stated the City would not go another year with residents 42 being exploited by subjective billing,but rather all trash hauler pricing would be published on the 43 City's website if haulers wanted to work in Mounds View. 44 45 Ayes—5 Nays—0 Motion carried. 46