HomeMy Public PortalAboutMinutes_CCSpecialMeeting_08192008SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING AUGUST 19, 2008 AT 6:00 P.M. AT THE
COMMUNITY CENTER
PRESENT: Mayor Brad Andersen, Council members; Dennis McArthur, Steve Elliott,
Jane Shaw, Dan Gubler, Public Works Supervisor Zech Prouse, City Clerk Robyn Keyes
VISITORS: Stoney Tucker PSI representative
Dan introduced Stoney Tucker and explained that Mr. Tucker was providing information
regarding PSI's proposal for trash collection. Mr. Tucker handed out information about
PSI and the history of the company. Mr. Tucker said that the problem he sees with
submitting a bid is the fact that the lowest bid must be accepted, as apposed to a proposal
where the City can then enter into a contract with whom ever they choose. Mr. Tucker
also mentioned the fact that there were some people that did not want to subscribe to a
trash collection service. Brad asked if there was an option for those that did not wish to
subscribe to the service. Mr. Tucker said there was not but that their company offered a
hardship option that would allow 10 to 15 pickups that would not be billed each month.
Steve asked what legal basis the City has to enforce trash pick up. Brad said that he
would have to talk to Dale and that it would probably have to become an ordinance. Dan
said that one of the possibilities would be a referendum and mandate the service and that
another possibility would be to hold a public vote. Brad said that he was in favor of going
with the popular vote instead of mandating the service. Mr. Tucker said that the only
problem with going with a vote is that the city would need to have a specific cost to tell
the people and that the only way to get a specific cost was to enter into a contract with the
carrier. Dennis suggested getting proposals from the companies and then advertising in
the monthly newsletter a day the public can come in to vote. Dan asked if there were
specific times that the city could hold a vote. Brad said that he would have to ask the
attorney. The issue of property taxes and landfill fees was discussed. Mr. Tucker said that
if the county no longer charged landfill fees on the property tax, then the fee would have
to be paid by the homeowner and the contract would have to be adjusted. Mr. Tucker also
said that PSI supplied the big roll -off dumpsters during spring and fall clean-up at cost.
Zech asked what their cost was. Mr. Tucker said about $60.00 per dump. Mr. Tucker
talked about the benefits of having a single trash collection service and that PSI was a
publicly held company and that it had many resources. Brad asked Mr. Tucker if he
wanted to do a request for a proposal (RFP), Mr. Tucker said that he did and if the City
was going to contract with PSI that he would give the City a price. Mr. Tucker said the he
thinks the price would be around $9.00 per home. Brad asked what the terms of the
contract were, Mr. Tucker said that they offered a 5 year contract with a rolling 5. The
council thanked Mr. Tucker for his time. Steve said that he thought $9.00 was a good
price. Brad stated concern with the amount of delinquent water accounts averaging
around 30 per month, and that adding another $12.00 might make it even harder to collect
the bill. Brad stated that with a contract, the City would be responsible for paying for
those delinquent accounts. Dennis asked if Grandpa's Trash was a local company, Dan
said it was. Dennis and Jane said that they would rather go with a local company. Dennis
said that he thought there would be a noticeable difference in the cleanliness of the City
by going with a service. Zech asked if Grandpa's offered the hardship situation for
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pickups. Dan said that was the first time he had heard of the hardship offer. Jane said that
the City needed to get tougher on the delinquent accounts. Robyn said that Zech and
Darby collected on several accounts this month. Dan said that the City needed to get the
code enforcement moving in the right direction. Brad said that by having a full time
officer, there will be more consistency. Brad said that if a city averaged 90% collection
on its utility billing, that was good and that the City of Iona averages 95% collection.
Steve said that the people that do not pay are being subsidized. Brad agreed and said that
he was concerned about adding a garbage bill to that subsidy.
Meeting was closed at 6:30 p.m.
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