Augusta’s solid waste collection contract remains on hold after a commission committee voted Tuesday to seek new proposals from a single vendor to serve the entire county.
The decision, which goes for full commission OK next week, means a proposed rate hike as well as a proposed recycling program run by the vendor also remain on hold.
Garbage pickup will continue with the current vendors under month-to-month contracts. But commissioners have postponed approving new agreements for months, with some questioning why a city procurement came back with two vendors to serve three Augusta garbage zones rather than a single vendor, accompanied by a rate increase expected to raise millions for additional services such as street sweeping, mosquito control and blight removal.
Pretending to recycle
Commissioner Alvin Mason said additional “devils in the details,” those surrounding the city’s provision of recycling, raised more questions about the process. While many residents have been putting recyclables in the second container assigned for them, the materials have apparently gone in the garbage for years.
“Whether the citizens know it or not, there’s been no recycling done for years, but we have two cans sitting out there as if it has been,” Mason said. “Why are the vendors pretending? You bring in one truck to get the trash and then here comes another truck to get recycling but it’s all being dumped in the same place.”
City Engineering Director Hameed Malik said under the new contracts, the city won’t be responsible for recycling but selected vendors are required to offer it to customers by request.
“Recycling is not included in the city provided services. It is mandatory as a part of the contract. If I want to recycle I have to call that respective hauler and hauler has to provide the service,” he said.
City officials “suspended” recycling at the time of the hurricane, although many residents still put recyclables at the curb. At some point before the current procurement process, the commission voted to remove recycling and the requirement that vendors run their hauler trucks on compressed natural gas from bid requirements, Malik said.
New terms include a single vendor, recycling option
Commissioner Don Clark made a motion to reject the two chosen vendors, Georgia Waste System LLC and Coastal Waste Recycling Inc., and seek new proposals under new terms.
The decision will further extend the contract extension the commission gave itself to decide a path forward, which already has cost taxpayers about $1 million. Commissioner Jordan Johnson suggested the commission approve Malik’s earlier recommendation with a smaller rate hike.
“We’re getting ready to spend more money on extending a month-to-month contract when we know what’s presented to us might be a slight increase, but in that increase we can tear down dilapidated properties, we can cut right of ways, we can deal with vacant lots, we can clean up our city,” Johnson said.
Contract terms the committee agreed upon included the selection of one vendor, the option for recycling, to remove any supplemental services such as street sweeping and to extend the current contract extensions to six months.
The supplemental services, such as the weekly street sweeping of downtown streets, are already separate contracts, Malik said.
The vote to rebid the contract passed 3-0 with Clark and commissioners Tina Slendak and Tony Lewis in favor and Commissioner Brandon Garrett absent.
Committee sets deadline for charter review committee
In an agenda addition from Clark, the city’s Administrative Services committee set a Feb. 18 for commissioners to choose their representatives to serve on a charter review committee. The commission previously engaged the Carl Vinson Institute of Government to facilitate a charter review.
