LETTER TO THE EDITOR
BY TERI JOHNSTON
Key West City Commissioner
Many of you, including me, were stunned when the Commission on May 6 ignored the recommendations of our City Staff, our independent Solid Waste Consulting firm, Kessler Consulting, and our Commission appointed Sustainability Board by voting to award Waste Management a 7-year $53,775,211 contract for the City of Key West.
Credit needs to go to Greg Sullivan and his team who filled Old City Hall with ardent supporters to represent Waste Management. However, it was not the reputation of Waste Management that was to be debated or voted on by your elected officials. Our job was to award the contract to either Advanced Disposal or Waste Management for solid waste collection and processing that would provide our Community with efficient service at the best value. Seems straight forward.
Advanced Disposal’s bid submission represented an average of 26% savings for our commercial customers. Our business community is paying some of the highest commercial rates in South Florida.
This 26% savings from Advanced was inaccurately portrayed during public comment as a savings associated with only 42 compactors. The facts are that both Kessler and City Staff conducted an extensive analysis of 1,918 current commercial collections using both Waste Management’s and Advanced Disposal’s actual pricing. 1,825 of these commercial collections would save money with the Advanced bid while 93 current commercial collections would save money with Waste Management’s pricing, but let’s not let the facts cloud a good spin.
The Chamber of Commerce, representing over 650 community business members, endorsed the Waste Management bid which virtually eliminated the 26% average potential savings to their membership. This endorsement included:
- Return to a 2-1-1 residential pick up schedule representing a $3,686,756 (7) year increase over our staff/consultant recommendation.
2. Waste Management operation of our transfer station at a (7) year increase to taxpayers of approximately $2,100,000 above our current operational budget.
I would hope that the Chamber representative would have the good graces to skip their annual appearance at our budget session this year to chastise our “wasteful” spending of city taxpayer monies. Seems a touch hypocritical.
It is our obligation as your elected officials to solicit competitive bids for this city to assure that you, our tax and rate payers, are receiving quality services at the most competitive pricing. After all, we’re spending your money!
Relinquishing our Transfer Station was the most baffling move although in retrospect it was the only option that would make it appear that Waste Management was low bidder. Operation of our Transfer station is a budgeted line item for the City. We currently run our facility (excluding the scale house) for an annual cost of $550,292. Our Invitation to Bid stated that you “may” wish to bid on this option. Kessler Consulting recommended that we privatize our transfer station only if it made good business sense to do so. Waste Management submitted a bid of $853,464 to run our Transfer Station — a $303,000 annual increase over our current operational costs. Does that seem like a common sense move to you?
With our vote on May 6 we have created a monopoly for Waste Management in Key West, impacting our future bargaining strength? After this vote, Waste Management now controls the following contracts with the City of Key West:
- Curbside collection contract originally signed on 1/1/2000 now extended to 1/1/2022 with (2) 4-year extensions available beyond 2022. Approximate value of this contact is $3,182,000 annually.
- Transfer station management (part of curbside collection contract) to be signed on 1/1/2015 for 7 years with (2) 4-year extensions available. Approximate value of this contract is $853,464 annually.
- Haul out and disposal contract originally signed in 2004 for 7 years with (1) 7-year extension and (1) 6-year extension. Approximate value of this contract is $3,708,232 annually.
Unlike the County, we have one vendor!
Over the past (7) years this Commission has taken a number of steps towards becoming a sustainable community with the support of dedicated staff and many environmentally conscience citizens. Our Solid Waste Master Plan provides us with a glide path to move towards a zero waste community. The one positive aspect of this contract is our yard waste disposition but on the whole we have taken a giant leap backwards.
This vote was unconscionable. Are we working for the citizens of Key West or for Waste Management? We saved Waste Management but threw you under the bus to the tune of $14,000,000.
You have a voice. Please use it.
This information is a matter of public record and is accessible via Legistar at www.keywestcity.com or through city staff.
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Since one of the biggest family recycling issues today is disposable plastic bags, and Waste Management refuses to recycle them because their machinery cannot process lightweight plastic, shouldn’t the extra $14 million be enough to improve and upgrade their system to accommodate this one item?