Council Continues to Disagree Over Solid Waste Bidding

Disagreements regarding solid waste service contracts and bidding were still ongoing between council members at the Aug. 19 regular meeting following the council’s 6-1 vote on Aug. 5 to enter re-negotiations with its current solid waste services provider Republic Services, Inc. before the current contract expires in 2016. Councilman Frank Gonzales, who was the dissenting vote at the Aug. 5 regular meeting, called for clarification at the beginning of Monday’s council meeting regarding the council’s lawful options on public bidding and contracts, specifically for solid waste services. Staff found that, “under state law, there is nothing that would require the city to send this agreement or these services out for bid.” Likewise, the city’s municipal code “does not expressly require that the contract for waste services be sent out to bid.” The council “has wide discretion” and could send contracts for solid waste services for bid if it chose to do so, staff elaborated. Gonzales has held that the city should go out for bid on these services rather than enter re-negotiations with Republic, as the other council members had voted in favor of doing. “This contract was issued 20…years ago,” Gonzales said Monday evening. “Since that time, (Republic) has been getting extensions on a contract that’s worth close to $4 million. That’s a lot of money. For us not to go out for a bid and find out if we can get the best price for the service for our customers… is ludicrous. This is not good business,” Gonzales said. Councilmember Deirdre Bennett, who supported entering re-negotiations with Republic, said she felt Gonzales was holding a “personal vendetta” against the other council members who voted in favor of re-negotiations. “I feel like the will of this council is being circumvented because one member is unhappy with a vote or a decision that was made by the majority. We’re spending staff time and council time that should have been spent on other business looking at an issue that’s not an issue,” she said. Background: The city signed a contract in 1994 with Taormina Industries, after Gonzales, who served on the council from 1972 to 1992, 16 of those years as mayor, lost the 1994 election for mayor to George Fulp, who’d lost the race for mayor in 1992 to Gonzales. Prior to the city’s contract with Taormina, the city had been considering contracts with Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI). However, when the vote came up, BFI was passed over for the smaller Orange County-based Taormina, who won the bid. Shortly after Taormina became the city’s solid waste services provider, two former city council members, Abe Beltran and Don Sanders, admitted in both court papers and plea deals that they were paid bribes by Taormina, despite no bribery charges being leveled at Republic or Taormina. In 1996, Colton entered into a solid waste agreement with Republic Services, Inc. Since then, the agreement has been amended several times and Republic Services has been providing solid waste services to the City of Colton. Present Day Re-Negotiations: Councilmember Frank Navarro at Tuesday’s meeting said he felt the council’s decision to enter re-negotiations with Republic was an opportunity for the city. “We are giving the city the opportunity to enter into pre-negotiations to see what we can and can’t negotiate,” he said. “We will see what we can and can’t live with, and if we can’t live with it, then we can still go out for bid.” When Gonzales suggested providing the services in-house, as the city once did, Councilmember Susan Oliva disagreed on the grounds that the city could not afford to purchase the vehicles or pay more employees to do the work, and did not have a landfill or recycling area at its disposal. “We need to be able to do that to provide this in house and I don’t think that’s an option right now,” Oliva said. Re-negotiations with Republic have not yet begun, according to Public Works Director Amer Jakher, as staff is gathering all relevant information it will need to begin the talks. He expected to begin re-negotiations sometime this week, Jakher told the council.