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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-07-2019 regular meetingd City Council of Peachtree City Meeting Minutes Thursday, March 07, 2019 6:30 p.m. The City Council of Peachtree City met in regular session on Thursday, March 07, 2019. Mayor Vanessa Fleisch called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Others attending: Terry Ernst, Mike King, Kevin Madden, and Phil Prebor. Announcements. Awards, Special Recognition The Mayor recognized Stanley Chutkhan of the Public Works Department for his 15 years of service. Public Comment Cary Cook said he was concerned about the density of the proposed Aberdeen Village redevelopment project. He said he felt it went against the village concept created when the City was planned. Traffic was already a problem on SR 54 and would be worsened with additional commercial and residential development. Minutes King moved to approve the February 21, 2019, regular meeting minutes as written. Prebor seconded. Motion carried 4-0-1, with Fleisch abstaining due to her absence. New Agenda Items 03-19-01 Consider Bids for Paving - Atlanta Paving and Concrete City Engineer Dave Borkowski said they had sent out bids for paving work to be done in the I summer. The bids came back February 26, with Atlanta Paving and Concrete submitting the low lul bid at $4.799 million. Staff recommended awarding them the contract. He said the City had worked with this company for two years, and it did good work. Borkowski reported that 14.5 miles of resurfacing was done in 2018, with 89% of those requiring full - depth reclamation (FDR). This year they were proposing to do 13 miles, and 41% would be FDR, but, he added, responding to a comment from the Mayor, there was always a chance the FDR percentage could be higher once they began the project and saw what was there. Fleisch asked him to clarify what FDR meant, and Borkowski said it involved mixing cement and rebuilding the road in place. Fleisch inquired about the cost per mile. While that was being calculated, City Manager Jon Rorie noted that they received four bids, with the highest bids ranging from $6.189 million to $7.486 million. It was a competitive bid process. They also included some numbers for projects outside the bid. For example, he said they were working with the County to pave the south part of Peachtree Parkway and Robinson Road with federal dollars from the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Borkowski said they were looking at doing another five miles of Robinson in 2019 and the Parkway in 2020, Rorie said, referring to discussion at retreat workshop on March 5 about a roundabout and turn lanes on Peachtree Parkway, it was important that those projects lined up so a newly -paved road would not have to be re -done. Borkowski noted that the cost would be about $369,000 a mile. Civil Engineer Jonathan Miller ridded that it was not just paving; there was also curb and gutter, striping, and so on. He noted that the figure was skewed, too, because Windgate Road was wider than average. Fleisch asked if the $369,000 included everything that went into the road, and Miller said it did. LJ Clty Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 2 n Madden asked how much of the paving cost would come from the City budget and how much I from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). Borkowski told him that $1.8 million was budgeted out of the General Fund, and the remainder would be SPLOST money. Fleisch said that meant roughly $3 million was SPLOST. Madden moved to approve New Agenda item 03-19-01 and award the 2019 paving contract to Atlanta Paving and Concrete. King seconded. Motion carried unanimously. 03-19.02 Consider Name Brand Authorization for Blount Construction to Provide HA5 Pavement Mineral Bond Coating Services Miller said staff recommended that Council approve Blount Construction as a name brand contractor for HA5 pavement mineral bond coating services and approve a proposal to provide $293,326.98 for fiscal year 2019, HA5, he explained, was cited in the SPLOST as the best suited pavement preservation product. He noted that it was best for local roads and was cited and budgeted as SPLOST Project 2. Blount was the only contractor in Georgia approved to install HA5. Fleisch asked Miller to explain what HAS did. He said it was used to preserve the asphalt cement on roads that were of a higher rating, preventing oxidation. He presented a map designating the roads that would be treated with HA5 for a total of 5.5 miles. Prebor asked if this was something they had done in the past, and Miller told him used it on Commerce Drive as a test on a high -volume road. However, this was the first year it had been budgeted. Fleisch noted that there were some years when no roads were paved. Miller said the idea was to extend the life of roads that were still in good condition. IMadden told Miller he felt it was important to note the lifespan of an asphalt road. Miller said the J first major rehab, which would be a resurface, should be done at 15 years. In between, there should be some type of maintenance done to extend that life. Applying HA5 would be part of that process. Miller noted that asphalt cement, because it was a petroleum product, oxidized in the sun and that deteriorated the surface. HA5 had a UV protectant in it to preserve the asphalt that held the rocks together in the pavement. King moved to approve New Agenda item 03-19-02, name brand authorization for Blount Construction to provide HA5 pavement mineral on coating services. Prebor seconded. Motion carried unanimously. 03-19-03 Consider Expansion of Displaced Threshold at Atlanta Regional Airport - Falcon Field as Economic Development Tool Rorie said he asked Airport Manager Hope Macaluso to come before Council because they had been considering expanding this displaced threshold for some time. The Airport Authority would be moving forward with that, and he wanted Council to have a solid briefing on what was planned. Macaluso explained that the runway itself was extended around 2006, but adding the additional pavement did not move the threshold. The threshold was the point at which aircraft could land. The pavement was usable for takeoff, but not for landing. Although the runway was a little more than 5,800 feet, only 4,600 was usable for landing to the south. If a pilot approached over the lake, she noted, that was only a little over 4,600 feet of available landing distance. In order to move the threshold back and increase landing distance, some obstructions must be removed, such as trees, and there must be more negotiations with property owners on the north end of the runway. They currently had easements with two of the property owners, but it must be expanded with one of those property owners. The property where the expansion needed to be was yet to be developed, City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 3 (� although developments had been proposed from time to time. On March 19, she reported, they would begin the process by meeting with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would provide 90% of the funding for the project. That money would go to the state for disbursement, and the state would match 5%. The Airport Authority would contribute 5%. Fleisch confirmed this was not a physical movement of the runway or an enlargement. Macaluso replied that the pavement was already in place; they would just be using more of it. This would provide a safety factor in bad weather and also if there was a mechanical problem with the aircraft. King asked if there would be tree cutting on the hill or the golf course. Macaluso said both. They had talked with the golf course and had cut a few trees because they had lost night-time approaches to that runway. They knew that furthering the project would require removal of more trees. The owner of the hill had been provided with height limitations for that property, and there would be tree cutting there, as well. King verified that the size of the easement would be about an acre or an acre and a half, and Macaluso said it would be a couple of acres in addition to what they already had. Madden noted that displaced threshold would give the people who worked on the jets at Falcon Field the ability to have additional customers. Macaluso told him there were still a couple of limitations with the current runway configuration. One was takeoff distance in general. The only way to add to that was to expand towards the railroad tracks, and that would not provide any more landing distance, just more takeoff distance. The military, specifically, required at least 6,000 feet of runway. The only way to get the additional landing distance was to work with the footprint they had. It was already there and paved. They must cut some trees, add to the easements, and move back the threshold. Madden inquired if the additional. concrete extension of the runway was still planned, and Macaluso said it was. That would be done after relocating the threshold on the existing pavement. The next step would be looking at the other end, towards the railroad tracks. That would be a much bigger project, she noted. The approach lighting system would have to be relocated, and a lot more would go into adding 250 more feet of pavement for departure on that runway. Fleisch asked if someone living in Planterra would be aware that they had moved the displaced threshold. Macaluso said the person would not. It would be only 400 to 500 feet, nothing that residents would notice. PrebQr commented that this would allow the Fayette County Development Authority (FCDA) to know exactly what they could market and put on that property. Rorie said no Council action was required; they just wanted them to be aware of the plans. 03-19-04 Consider Finalization & Release of Solid Waste RFP Public Information Officer/City Clerk Betsy Tyler reminded Council they had been developing a request for proposal (RFP) for a solid waste franchise. Currently, the City had a non-exclusive system with three providers that had to provide garbage pickup and recycling for their base rate, which they could set at whatever they chose. There were certain minimum insurance requirements. The providers managed customer service, and customers could change services if they wished. Under the current system, yard waste and large debris pickup were offered for an additional fee. City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 4 During this process, Tyler went on, they surveyed 26 Georgia cities with populations between 25,000 and 70,000 to see how they handled residential garbage service. The vast majority, 92%, had one provider. For 34%, that was a private company, while 46%, or 12 cities, had a city department that provided the service. The three cities in DeKalb County used a county -run service. Peachtree City and Milton were the only cities surveyed that had multiple garbage service providers. Sixteen of the cities offered pickup of yard debris in their garbage service, and 1 1 offered bulky waste on top of that. Milton, Roswell, and Newnan had hybrid contracts. In Milton and Newnan, a contractor handled garbage pickup and recycling, and an in-house department picked up yard debris and bulky waste. Roswell had a garbage department, and a private contractor handled yard debris and bulky waste pickup. Rorie noted they tracked this information with their current providers. There were 10,500 customers in total, and only about 55% recycled. There had been discussions with Keep Peachtree City Beautiful (KPTCB) about the recycling program. They wanted to encourage more people to recycle, but also realized that the current economic model for recycling might be unsustainable. The purchase price for the materials collected had dropped. In order to maintain the recycling program, the City had to subsidize it with General Fund dollars. Rorie said they were trying to look at better mechanisms to increase public awareness and participation and enhance the program so it could survive. A comparison of prices from the three Peachtree City providers showed quarterly prices of $46, $49, and $52.50 per quarter for garbage and recycling pickup, while Fayetteville residents paid $31.35, and Newnan residents paid $489669 Other considerations included street maintenance. Also, accountability was an issue, and it was often difficult to identify which contractor had caused asp or violated collection time restrictions. The City also was aware of the need to balance free enterprise and a resident's right to choose a provider. Miller took over to explain how heavy vehicles impacted the roads and if multiple garbage trucks would be significant. While numerous heavy vehicles might not be an issue in the North, where now plows were common, in the South, pavements were thinner, and the heaviest vehicle they saw was a garbage truck. He used an engineering formula that converted the vehicle's weight to equivalent single axle loads (ESALs). This formula provided a way to compare apples to apples when determining how much damage a vehicle could do to a road. One garbage truck was equivalent to 7,000 cars or 879 trucks. As an example, he related, they chose a neighborhood with 131 residences and no cut-throughs. They assumed 10 trips per household per day, which was an estimate from the Federal Highway Administration, with 10% trucks and the rest cars. There would be one garbage truck and one recycle truck a week. The formula let them calculate how much damage, or ESALs, a year would be caused by that traffic. The garbage truck would account for about 40% of the total damage in that neighborhood. Miller presented a chart of the impact of residential haulers on asphalt pavement. The chart used a timeline for the lifespan of a road, ideally 40 years, with the goal for the first major rehab to be at 15 years. That would cost $152,000 per mile at today's prices. In the example he gave earlier, the pavement would last longer than this. There was only one garbage truck serving that Ineighborhood. However, when there were two or three garbage and recycle trucks serving the LJII neighborhood, the damage increased by year 15 to require more intensive repairs. Miller likened it to the damage that would be caused by driving a car through your yard as compared to driving a heavy truck. The roads all had dirt under them and would flex, but a heavy vehicle would put City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 5 more pressure. He said if his assumptions were off by 50%, it would cost $152,000 at 15 years, but now it would cost $209,000, about $50,000 more. There were 135 miles of strictly residential roads in the City. If you assumed $50,000 more in damage to fix these roads, the additional cost would be $450,000 a year or $37,500 a month. To break it down further, that would be $3.44 a month per garbage customer, or $10.32 a quarter. Miller showed a cross-section of road that illustrated current paving standards, which he said did not come into effect until 1985. He said they had pulled up roads that had just an inch or two of asphalt over dirt, not an inch of rock at all. Miller said there were two ways they could change the current pavement design to handle all the trash trucks. One involved rebuilding the entire road, ripping all materials out, hauling them off, and building from the ground up with a thicker layer of graded aggregate base (GAB), binder, and asphalt. The second option, which they did somewhat already, required a little more asphalt and deeper FDR, and was the most economical because they did not have to haul off waste material or completely rebuild the road. That option cost $375,000 a mile. Subtract the $150,000 per mile it should have cost to repair, and the difference was $225,000. Then, Miller related, you must multiply by the miles of road the City had. The General Fund budget for road maintenance was $1.8 million. If the goal was to have all residential roads re -done within 25 years, they could dedicate 67% of that General Fund budget to FDR all roads for the next 25 years. This would break down to about $27.87 per customer, per quarter, for the next 25 years. Rorie noted that it could be looked at in the same way as management on a ball field, asking how much damage was caused to the field by 1,000 players a week or 3,000 players a week. No complex formulas needed - they could assume it was three times the damage. The amount of time, effort, and money spent on maintaining that grass was directly related to the number of players. He said you did not need all the math to understand that the more vehicles on a road, the faster the degradation of the road. He asked Miller how many golf carts it would take to reach the level of damage caused by a garbage truck, and Miller replied about 2 million. At the end of the day, damage was caused by use and overuse, and lack of maintenance accelerated it. Ernst asked if speed made any difference, saying a car traveling at 30 miles per hour (mph) was spinning its tires more rapidly than a garbage truck doing eight to 10 mph. Miller responded that it depended on how long the load was there. Pavement bends, and the longer a heavy load sat, the more it bent. If the truck was going slower, it bent the pavement more and for a longer period of time, causing more damage. The pavement was under stress when it was loaded and the longer the load set, the more stress. Heavier loads at slower speeds stressed the pavement more. Fleisch recalled that a company came out several years ago to conduct a laser analysis of the roads. She asked Miller to explain what was done and where the City's roads were, condition -wise, today. Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) used lasers on their trucks to measure where pavement was deformed, Miller stated. Last year, IMS said the City's roads averaged a 61 on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 meaning the road was completely gone and 100 being just paved. After they finished the 14.5 miles of paving in 2018, the average jumped to 64. Fleisch noted that they had wanted an actual calculation, rather than visual observations, which were often inconsistent. Fleisch asked ow many years a road rated at 64 would have left. Miller said a 64 was getting pretty close to requiring an FDR. It was passed the point when it should have been milled. It could get by with a full mill and extensive patching, but it was close to an FDR. Anything over 50 was close to FDR. An FDR was about three times the cost, Rorie commented. City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 6 Fleisch asked Miller to use an adjective to assess the condition of the roads. He acknowledged they were in rough shape and described the situation as being in "recovery mode." He said it was like they bought a neglected house and right now were getting it back into shape. That would eventually happen and all that would be required from then on would be routine maintenance. It would be a few years down the road. When single -service was first discussed years ago, Fleisch asked if there had been any solid statistics on road wear -and -tear such as Miller had provided so residents could assess the facts for themselves. Tyler said they did not. The only mention of roads was that residents did not like the number of trucks and the noise the trucks created on different days. They did not look at it in terms of physical damage to the streets. The Mayor said she had heard that it was bad for the streets, but did not recall any statistical analysis. The main objection, as she remembered it, was that it would be a monopoly. At Council's retreat session in May 2018, Tyler noted, staff brought forward several options. One was to do nothing, which had no fees or franchises, and no calls to staff. Another option was to stick with the current system of non-exclusive franchises. Creating a new sanitation department was an option, as was relying on a combination of internal pickup with some external contracts for specific aspects. Increasing the franchise fee, as was discussed in 2017, was an option. At the Retreat, Council requested staff go forward with the option of looking at a single provider contract. Rorie said there was a cost involved with garbage pickup, whether it was outsourced or done in- house. He recalled that Miller said if they kept the current system, they were looking at about $450,000 a year in increased paving costs. That represented a .194 millage increase for all property owners, coming to $26.38 for a home valued at $340,000, the City's average. Another option was to reduce the number of garbage trucks on the roads. They could also keep the current system, but assess a franchise fee of $10.32 a quarter to each household to make up the paving costs. That would equal $41.28 per customer. Or as with all public policy decisions, you could simply do nothing. In a lot of cases in the past, that was what had been done. The current General Fund budget for paving and resurfacing was $1.8 million, Rorie stated. That included curbing, striping, and everything else involved in paving a road. They were trying to reduce the backlog of roads that needed resurfacing and were trying to keep up with needed maintenance. In order to do that, assuming zero SPLOST dollars five years from now, the General Fund budget must move from $1.8 million to $4.3 million, a one mill increase. On top of that, another $450,000 would be needed. Those numbers began to add up, he commented. The costs were in today's dollars, not 10 or 20 years from now's. He said he understood all the variables, but believed they had a responsibility to look at things from a fiscal perspective and try to stretch every dollar. Rorie acknowledged that they could not make everyone happy. The purpose of this discussion was to synthesize the RFP and get Council's input on any changes they wished to see. Tyler noted they outlined the goals for the RFP in the proposal packet. These goals were finalized during the Retreat and budget process last year. Goals included: • Reducing resident rates • Increasing recycling participation • Protecting infrastructure Reducing the illegal dumping of yard debris in greenbelts Reducing outdoor burning of yard debris Enforcing collection hours, spill cleanup, etc. • Addressing escalated complaints City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 7 n Reducing the cost of operating the mulch center and recycling stations. Last year at I the mulch center, the City spent $74,500 for grinding and about $13,000 in labor. KPTCB Director Al Yougel addressed Council recently about how they were getting less for recyclables, while the bin pulls were increasing in cost. The franchise fee of $40,000 needed a $26,000 supplement from the City. The RFP specified minimum services as a single provider for residential curbside service, with the contractor billing the customers. Residential service would be mandatory and include weekly garbage collection, co -mingled recycling, and yard waste. Extra carts would be available for an extra fee, and yard waste would not have to be bagged or bundled. There would be a clause requiring that back door service be provided at no extra charge if the customer had a note from a doctor saying the customer was physically unable to roll carts to the curb. The RFP also stipulated a monthly bulk waste collection service that residents could call to confirm. Tyler said City facility garbage and recycling service would be included at no charge. Optional services that they requested bids on, with the bills coming to the City, included bin pulls at the recycling center, removal of mulch at the mulch center, and clearing of storm debris. Terms of the agreement would include a performance bond that would equal one year of anticipated revenue for 10,900 customers. This would be a one-year contract with four renewals. Future rate increases would have to be approved by the City and would be based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for 2021 or later. A temporary fuel surcharge would be allowed if prices spiked. Fleisch inquired how the number of 10,900 customers was obtained, and Tyler said she pulled the tonnage reports the providers filed each quarter. That was the number of customers served in December 2018. The Mayor noted that residents who did not have garbage service would not be included, and Tyler said that was correct. Fleisch asked if people who did not currently have garbage service would be required to obtain it, and Tyler said they would. Rorie said they could make service mandatory, but they did not have to. He told Council they needed to think through this RFP process and come up with a proposal that looked at all those options. Fleisch referred to Fayetteville's pickup cost of $31.35 a quarter, and Rorie said it was not that simple, though. He recalled that one of the most common method of providing garbage service was through a competitive bidding process with a private contractor, Fayetteville charged every residence $10,45 a month, billed on their water and sewer bill. Fayetteville had its own water and sewer system, but Peachtree City did not. People who had complaints in Fayetteville could lodge them by calling City Hall. Garbage removal in Fayetteville was weekly, and recycling was every other week. Fayetteville had a complaint department and did the billing. If Peachtree City contracted for pickup, they would have to figure out how to bill 10,900 customers. They were able to add the sewer bill onto the Fayette County water bill at $1.60 per month. Maybe they could bill garbage service that way, but if they did, with a $1,60 per month surcharge from the County, the $10.32 cost per quarter would need to be raised. In Peachtree City, Waste Industries charged $46 per quarter; Pollard charged $49, and Republic charged $52.50. The one with the most customers had the highest quarterly charge. Rorie said he had received many emails from residents saying they liked their service and did not want to Ichange. There were provisions that could be included in the RFP to fix the costs. Those costs could ILL JII not be fixed in regard to fuel. He recalled that a few years ago, fuel costs went down, so they immediately sequestered the funds budgeted for gas and diesel in the City budget so it could not City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 8 be spent on other things. The costs of some things could be fixed, but adjustments had to be made for variables. u Rorie asked Council now many emails they had received on this topic, adding some writers asked if he had lost his mind, while others were from residents who said they understood. One resident asked to make the RFP only about weekly trash pickup and bi-weekly recycling, leaving other options out of it so it would be easier to compare prices. Another asked that he identify a dedicated customer service agent for Peachtree City to handle complaints. Rorie said that would not happen. Another asked him to exclude homeowners' associations (HOAs). A correspondent said his neighbors wanted them to all change to one provider. He had used one company for many years and had resisted changing unless all the other residents of his cul-de-sac changed to the provider who would provide cheaper service. Their priority was to have only one carrier on the cul-de-sac. The writer asked that the RFP include a provision saying the container must be pulled out after 7 p.m. and taken in by 7 p.m. on pickup day. They also wanted a provision regarding collection times. Rorie noted that they were not opposed to one provider, but wanted things done right. He read another email supporting single -provider, saying he read a newspaper article, asking why they could raise the rates. Rorie said he replied that the draft RFP said a provider could raise rates only if approved by Council. A resident moving from Atlanta complained about inadequate recycling service. An email from January asked what would happen if they already negotiated with a vendor. Rorie summed it up by saying they wanted to conduct a competitive bid process that looked at what they could do to provide the same level of service and hold providers accountable for spills. A resident who lived on a small cul-de-sac said there were six trucks a week, and it was ridiculous. Rorie said these emails were available through an open records request. Another resident told Rorie that bi-weekly pickup of recyclables was inadequate. Rorie said there were a lot of goals related to this process. Rorie noted again that 92% of the cities surveyed outsourced and privatized pickup or had their own services or some hybrid of the two. Staff had been dealing with this issue since May. Rorie noted that he kept hearing that he was trying to monopolize this. An analogy would be a home alarm system. All of them had a monitoring statement. If an incident occurred, that system would call 911. A private company installed and monitored the alarm system, but called the public 911 center, paid for through taxes. The consumer also paid a fee associated with the phone to fund 911. The 911 center was a monopoly. The Police or Fire Department responded. All were government -run monopolies. The paving process discussed earlier in the meeting was competitively bid, Rorie noted. It was common, and they did it all the time. This discussion was about putting out an RFP so they could compare the costs of vendors having economies of scale and reducing the cost to customers and the amount of wear -and -tear, as well as looking at the goals of the RFP. At the end of the day, they knew there would be damage to the roads. They could do nothing and repave the roads on a 15-year cycle. He wanted Council to look at the RFP and see if they should change it or go forward with the way it was written. Staff needed direction. Fleisch noted this was not a public hearing, but they would take public comment, with each speaker allotted two minutes. Bob Morrison said he did not believe a monopoly was a good idea. He wondered if residents � should be given the opportunity to vote on this. City Attorney Ted Meeker stated they were not allowed to conduct straw polls. Fleisch asked if it could be a referendum. That might not be a valid referendum, Meeker replied. Morrison said he felt it would be a good idea because it was an issue that impacted everyone. City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 9 KPTCB's Yougel told Council he lived in one of the 21 subdivisions responsible for their own street maintenance. He noted there were 21 micro -organizations in Peachtree City that had already approached this issue, and they all had one trash service because they did not want all that weight on the streets that they would have to pay to repair. He remarked that he could not understand the dissent since there were 21 neighborhoods that had already made a decision because it impacted their wallets. Curtis Gardner said he was opposed to single -provider, although he understood the need to reduce traffic. There were a lot of commercial companies as well, asking if the City had looked into commercial collection. He was concerned about the neighborhoods that had already negotiated with a garbage company. He asked if they were getting lower rates, and what the rates were. The new president of the North Hill HOA noted that everyone had benefited from being able to choose their own gas provider, and this was a similar circumstance. He also stated his was a small neighborhood on a private drive. The City did not pay for road repairs. He said they had negotiated a low rate with Waste Industries. Rorie asked what that rate was and was told $39. Rorie noted that there should be an exclusionary clause for private roads. Taxpayers did not pay for their upkeep. A Wickerhill resident said he had a home in Fernandina where they pushed recycling. He also owned a home in Massachusetts where they required one provider. He said he had kept the same rate with Republic here for 10 years. Rorie told him he did not care which provider, if any, they selected. He was looking at 35,000 residents and maintaining the infrastructure. There was a cost one way or the other. As an aside, Rorie noted that Robin Cailloux had been promoted to the Director of Planning and Development, and Council congratulated her. Paul Massey said he came down on the side of competition. He taught American history in high school and said Americans were independent people who did not like being told what to do. He liked the idea of having three vendors because it kept all the motives in the right place. He said he was not concerned about road maintenance. That would have to be funded in any case. Massey noted that Miller did not mention school buses. He said a school bus weighed 36,000 pounds. Rorie said a fire truck weighed 40,000 and 75,000 pounds. Massey said school buses caused a problem. Everyone just needed to pay their fair share. Prebor asked him how much he paid per quarter, and Massey said $52,50, He said he had been with this company for 25 years and had only been late one time. When he called, they came out immediately and apologized. Massey said if even if they went to one company, the same number of visits would be made. James Turner also backed free enterprise. He mentioned the increasing number of package delivery trucks on residential streets, asking many ESALs there were for delivery trucks. Miller said it took 32 delivery trucks to equal a garbage truck. Turner said he got deliveries several times a week. Miller calculated that even with 18 deliveries a week, the burden was about half of one garbage truck. Delivery trucks were just not significant. Turner said as you added other vehicles, the impact of the garbage trucks lessened. Fleisch said she wanted to look again at the options to address the $450,00 in paving costs. Fleisch mentioned that there were 21 private roads and when they needed to be repaved, the residents AIL JI@ paid for it. She noted that it was good North Hill was a short road because there were so few homes to cover the costs. City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 10 Prebor commented that, like the HOAs that wanted to minimize costs on the streets they paid for, the City's goal was to minimize costs for the streets everyone paid for. He asked if they could agree to exclude the private roads. Rorie said those would still have to go through the franchise process with the City, but could be excluded. Tyler asked if these neighborhoods could join the City's program if the City got a better deal than they had, and Prebor said he believed they could. The goal was to finalize the RFP and bid this out, the Mayor stated. When they got the bid results back, they could be tweaked. Prebor said there were a lot of things he would like to talk about in the RFP. They had a baseline of what other cities were paying, but when they threw in all the other things, such as pickup at City Hall and the recycling yard, it was difficult to get a comparison. He said he would like to see those extras removed. He wanted to get rid of the yard debris requirement, He had a yard service that did that, asking why should he pay for someone to pick up Jon's leaves. The Mayor added that a resident told her she watched her neighbor's yard service dump debris in the greenbelt, and they needed to follow up on that. The City paid KPTCB $40,000 a year to remove debris dumped in the greenbelts, Rorie remarked. Prebor again said he believed it would be easier to compare costs if all the extras were removed. Ernst stated that he saw many things that were negotiable in the RFP, but he was not elected to tell the citizens of Peachtree City what color to paint their house and now he would say he was not elected to tell them who could pick up their trash. King added that he also liked the freedom to choose and noted it would take time for these providers to ramp up theirservice if they were selected. He said he would like to see the RFP broken down by a cost for each service provided. They were not going to decide at this meeting if they were going to one provider. They needed to be careful what they wrote in the RFP so they could decide when the bids came back. Maybe they would want to do part of it, or maybe not. Nobody in the City said the private streets and HOAs had to participate. They already had chosen their provider, and it worked for them. King said they needed to have the flexibility to choose what services they wanted. He saw no reason not to let someone opt out and pay a surcharge to the City. That option should be included. Prebor said he agreed. Fleisch clarified that, if they carried on with the three providers, the cost for road repair would be $450,000 a year, which broke down to $10.32 per quarter for each home. They could bypass the RFP process and just assess this $10,32 a quarter. Everybody could keep their same provider, and it would still be competitive. They would just add $10.32 onto everyone's bill. It would take a Council vote, and there would be no accusations of collusion, kickbacks, or a monopoly. Rorie remarked that he was angered because of the implications that someone was getting their pockets lined or had a vested interest in a certain company. He said he was at the point of filing a lawsuit to anyone who accused him of it. He would not be someone's whipping boy. Council agreed they were tired of those comments as well. Fleisch proposed that at their next meeting, they vote on adding $10.32 a quarter to trash pickup bills and leave the situation as is. ILL J9tl Prebor, however, was in favor of going on with the RFP, saying he wanted to see what economies of scale would do for them. City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 11 It had been an honor to serve with these dedicated servants on Council this past year, Madden remarked. They had always agreed that they would not repeat the mistakes of past councils. They had tried to look down the road and do the right thing by budgeting for maintenance of roads and other infrastructure as well as for the new things they had built. At the least, they owed it to the people to find out if they could get a better service for a lesser price. This vote was to decide if they should find out, and they owed it to the people to see if they could save money and enable the roads to lastlonger, It was a fiduciary responsibility and just the right thing to do. He said Prebor had the right.idea about breaking it down. He recalled an incident when a garbage truck in this neighborhood leaked hydraulic fluid on a newly -paved street. They did not know which company's truck did it because there were several companies. King agreed that following through with the RFP was the right idea. Rorie said he would have the RFP revised to ask what weekly garbage service and bi-weekly recycling would cost. Then, he would ask the bidders to state the cost for various service options. He said the growing mulch pile required a solution. He knew the cost of what it would be for City employees and vehicles to transfer the mulch pile to the County transfer station in Fayetteville. So for that aspect, at least, he would be able to compare costs. The RFP would ask for the cost of pickup for one 96-gallon trash container and bi-weekly recycling pickup. Tyler said right now recycling was required weekly, unless they provided a 50-gallon tub; then they could go bi-weekly. Rorie said those terms could be kept. It would be a private choice. Council agreed with this. B Tyler asked for two more points of clarification, asking if the City facility pickup should be left as an option. Rorie said to take it out. He said it cost $20,000 a year and was not worth cluttering the RFP. Tyler also asked about the mandatory service requirement. Rorie said to remove it. If a neighborhood chose another provider, they would have to go through the franchise process. If an individual wanted to haul their garbage to the transfer station, they could. Madden asked how many homes were in the City. Cailloux said there were about 1 1,400 single- family homes. Madden noted that meant about 500 homes had no garbage service, and he wondered if they dumped their garbage in the KPTCB bins. Tyler pointed out some could be vacant units, neighbors who shared service, or people who went to the transfer station. The length of the contract concerned Prebor. Rorie said it was one year repeated five times, depending on their service. They had to provide performance bonds on the front end. Meeker said Georgia law did not allow them to go beyond a year. Prebor asked about price increases and asked how the fuel surcharge was written. Rorie said -the provider could come to Council for permission to impose a fuel surcharge on a temporary basis. Prebor said they needed the provider to tell them what portion of their rate was tied to fuel cost. Madden noted they would still have to come before Council. Fleisch asked Tyler to go over the RFP process. Tyler said once the changes were made, they would put it out. It had to be out for 30 days, and there would be a mandatory pre -proposal meeting, not limited to the three current providers. The proposals would be opened at the set time, and they would be brought before Council for a decision on moving forward with any of them. If the bids were all higher than Republic's current $52.50 rate, Fleisch commented, they could turn down all of them. Tyler confirmed they had the right to reject any and all proposals. Rorie added that if you wanted to make a data -driven decision, you needed to get the data. City Council Meeting Minutes March 7, 2019 Page 12 Madden moved to approve New Agenda item 03-19-04, finalization and release of Solid Waste RFP with the amendments discussed. King seconded. Motion carried 4-1, with Ernst dissenting. King moved to convene in executive session for sale, acquisition of real estate and pending or threatened litigation at 8:36 p.m. Madden secon ed. Motion carried unanimously. artha Barksdale, Recording ecretary Vanessa Fleisch, Mayor