23 - Solid Waste Specialists Agreement

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Item No. 23 TO: Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem & City Council FROM: Grayson Path, City Manager Rob Vine, Assistant City Manager SUBJECT: Solid Waste Specialists Agreement DATE: February 27, 2023 BACKGROUND: In the May 23, 2022 City Council meeting, the City Council heard a situational update on the status of the City's Solid Waste Sanitation Department operations as of that time. The minutes from that meeting are very thorough, but in summary, the city was struggling to staff its department, thereby needing to pull from other departments daily to maintain a twice -per -week pickup schedule. Turnover, challenges filling vacancies, drop in public works morale, and negative impacts to other departments' duties (Streets, Parks, Water/Sewer, CIP, Traffic) were the significant concerns, all of which were pointing to a potential final culmination of the trash service being in jeopardy unless changes were made. The City Council authorized the reduction to once a week which cut the staffing needs in half, a number better manageable in the sanitation department. A couple of months later, it was determined that a pay increase was also needed in order to attract and keep staffing in the sanitation department and to keep up with our local competition. The City Manager instituted that change administratively on July 14, 2022. That pay increase was made possible due to the reduction in needed budgeted positions having gone to once per week pickup. We also decreased the sanitation fee paid to the General Fund in FY22/23 to help cover this increase. However, should the city wish to go back to twice a week, staffing numbers would need to increase (double) which would require rate and/or tax adjustments to cover the new pay range for all these added positions and/or the void created in the General Fund. A rate adjustment has not occurred in over a decade. Since these changes, we have stabilized our operation, albeit, the ultimate test is the summer hot months which are still yet to come in 2023 and assuming we can stay in competition with our local competitors on pay. At the May 23rd meeting, the City Council asked that City Staff bring back information on outsourcing of the sanitation operation. Staff presented their findings on November 14, 2022, which led to a presentation by Lyn Lantrip, Solid Waste Specialists (SWS), to the City Council on