Piqua Talks Trash

The City is looking at an outside vendor for trash collection

Last week, during their regular meeting, the Piqua City Commission spent considerable time contemplating a significant change in its sanitation services. The Commission heard from Amy Welker, Assistant City Manager, a presentation detailing the challenges, options, and potential outcomes of changing trash hauling from an internal service provided by the city to a service provided by an outside vendor. The exploration of this change began in July 2024 with budget preparations and discussions about cost increases, followed by the development of a white paper and initial conversations with City Commissioners in August and September.

The presentation highlighted five main challenges facing the current sanitation services: staffing issues, vehicle and equipment concerns, the need for a competitive rate structure, liability and safety considerations, and other operational costs. To address these challenges, the city has proposed several options, including rate adjustments, service model reductions, updating the staffing model, and exploring contracted services.

As part of this process, the city issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for sanitation services, which was due on November 12th. Only one response was received from Rumpke of Ohio, a potential contractor for the city's sanitation services. The proposal suggests a potential start date of April 1, 2025, for the new service, should the city decide to move forward with the contracted option.

The presentation provided a detailed comparison of rates between maintaining city services and transitioning to contracted services. For standard service, which includes one 96-gallon trash cart and one 64-gallon recycling cart, the proposed monthly rates for city services would increase from $25.74 in 2025 to $47.26 in 2030. In contrast, the contracted services would start at $26.00 in 2025 and increase to $33.18 by 2030. A similar trend is observed for small quantity service, which uses 32-gallon carts for both trash and recycling.

An annual cost comparison reveals that over a five-year period from 2025 to 2029, maintaining city services would cost an estimated $19,158,523, while contracted services would cost $15,451,389. This significant difference in total costs is a crucial factor for the city to consider in its decision-making process.

The presentation also outlined the pros and cons of both maintaining city services and transitioning to contracted services. The City believes by providing the service itself, it offers better managerial oversight of employees and premium customer service but are currently facing challenges in recruitment, retention, safety, liability, and increasing operational costs; this was described as a “perfect storm” by the Assistant City Manager that necessitated this service review.

On the other hand, contracted services would eliminate recruitment and retention challenges, transfer risk related to safety and liability, and provide a known rate structure for 5-10 years. However, this option may result in less managerial oversight of employees and practices, and the level of customer service is unknown.

If the city decides to maintain its services, the next steps would include updating the staffing model for 2025, exploring potential reductions in the service model (such as less frequent collection of bulk items or recycling), updating the 2025 Sanitation Budget, and introducing rate increase legislation at the December 10 Commission Meeting.

Should the city opt for contracted services, the next steps would involve contract negotiations, seeking contract authorization at the December 10 Commission Meeting, and initiating contractor mobilization from January to March 2025.

This presentation provided a helpful analysis of the city's sanitation services situation and provides a clear timeline of the decision-making process to the City Commission. The discussion certainly demonstrated the city's commitment to addressing the challenges faced by its current sanitation services while exploring alternative options to ensure efficient and cost-effective waste management for its residents.

The comparison of rates and costs between city services and contracted services is particularly illuminating. While the contracted services option appears to offer more stable and generally lower rates over the five-year period, it's important to note that this comes with potential trade-offs in terms of control over service quality and employee management. It will be up to the City Commission to determine whether these tradeoffs are worth the cost or not.

The city's approach to this decision is commendable in its transparency and thoroughness. By presenting a detailed timeline, clear comparisons, and outlining the pros and cons of each option, the city is ensuring that all stakeholders, including residents and city officials, have the necessary information to make an informed decision.

The decision between maintaining city services and transitioning to contracted services is not merely a financial one. It involves considerations of service quality, employee welfare, risk management, and long-term sustainability. The city must weigh the benefits of maintaining direct control over its sanitation services against the potential cost savings and risk transfer offered by the contracted option.

The timeline presented suggests that a decision will need to be made relatively quickly, with key actions scheduled for the December 10 Commission Meeting. This underscores the importance of thorough discussion and consideration of all factors before this deadline. The decision the City Commission will need to make will have significant implications for the city's budget, its employees, and the quality of service provided to residents.

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