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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Operations - 06/30/1988 OPERATIONS COMMITTEE MINUTES June 30, 1988 COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Christi Houser Paul Mann Steve Dowell Berne Bi teman STAFF PRESENT: Brent McFall Tony McCarthy l ' \ Mike Webby Charles Lindsey May Miller Tom Vetsch , Glenda Valvoda OTHERS PRESENT: Nels Johnson, Kent Disposal Gary Ewing, Kent Disposal APPROVAL OF VOUCHERS All claims for the period ending June 30, 1988, in the amount of $1 ,283,975.38 were approved for payment. RECYCLING CONTRACT City Administrator McFall noted that the City had been interested in promoting recycling for a number years and prior to the transfer of garbage pick-up to an outside vendor had planned to go out to bid to obtain that service. Following the transfer of the garbage pickup, Kent Disposal had implemented a pilot residential curb side recycling program on the West Hill that obtained approximately 60% participation. The City wanted to expand this program City-wide and selected, following discussion with various vendors, Kent Disposal 's proposal as the simplest and easiest proposal for the homeowner. The City-wide program will be for residential customers up to four-plexes for a once a month pick-up using a separate toter. The contract will be for an 18 month period, during which time Kent Disposal will submit to the WUTC for inclusion of the program in their base rates. During the interim period, the City will pay amounts between $5,000 and $6,000 a month from the City's Environmental Mitigation Fund for the cost of the program. The program is different from the pilot program in two areas: 1 ) Plastics are now a recyclable item (a market has been found for them), and 2) the program is once a month as opposed to twice a month. Operations Committee Minutes June 30, 1988 Page 2 Questions from the committee noted that the intent of the program was not to take recycling away from charitable organizations, but to get recyclables from those residences that had not been recycling before. The committee also raised the question about whether toters themselves were recyclable and the comment was that because of the type of plastic they were made from, the Kent toters were actually recyclable. Kent Disposal will also be working on a better balancing of the toters. It was also noted that because individual residences may be able to do a substantial amount of recycling, they may be able to reduce the size of their garbage toter, therefore, reducing their garbage costs. One other point of discussion was the fact that King County is working with all cities in the county to establish a recycling program and Kent's initiation of this project puts it way ahead of other cities. Based on this input, the Committee unanimously accepted the proposal to implement the recycling program. It was noted that the program would be instituted within 45-60 days, and that decals pasted on the toters ,would identify the recyclables allowed and schedule of pick-up days. CONSIDERATION TO LEASE CITY-OWNED PROPERTY City Administrator McFall noted that he has been approached by a developer who wanted to lease a portion of the property along West Valley Highway at 64th Avenue that had been donated to the City for the purpose of building a trail . The property is a part of the Puget Power right-of-way. The City's initial response to the proposal was "no" because it was important that the property be used to be part of the City's trail system. A counter-proposal by developer offered that the developer build a trail and a 10-car parking lot for the trail purposes, and in addition, provide the City with a $3,600 a year leasehold payment, plus the amount of leasehold tax that is required to be paid to the State on such a transaction. The committee was pleased with the staff proposal . Operations Committee Minutes June 30, 1988 Page 3 1 REAUTHORIZATION OF THE SCOTT WETZEL CONTRACT Assistant City Administrator Webby noted that the contract for Workers' Compensation claims administration was up on June 30 and needed to be renewed for another year. He noted that in the course of the City's Self}Insurance Program for Workers' Compensation, they had saved approximately $100,000 a year from the State rates. The program has been in effect since July 1979. The program calls for paying claims at an administration cost of $10,750 a year, up 4% from the previous contract. This amount will process up to 60 claims with additional claims being processed at $120 at each, up from $100 each. Councilman Biteman noted that the self-insurance program had been an excellent program and the City had used great foresight in its initiation of these programs. Based on this, the Committee unanimously approved the reauthorization of the contract with Scott Wetzel . MAY FINANCIAL REPORT Finance Director McCarthy reviewed with the Committee the May Financial Report. He made particular emphasis to the budget portions of the report since the Committee was in the process of hearing operations critiques from the individual departments in preparation for setting guidelines -for the development of the 1989 budget. As a part of the report, McCarthy noted that the projected available fund balance for program improvements in 1989 continued to improve and it appears that approximately $900,000 is available for those purposes at this time. FINANCE DEPARTMENT OPERATIONAL REVIEW The Finance Department reviewed their operations with the Committee. Information presented will be summarized along with other Committee presentations to be discussed at the council workshop of August 9. The Committee as a whole felt pretty happy with the direction of the Finance Department and saw no significant change in emphasis. 0066F-01F