City of Lawrence                                        

Solid Waste Task Force

January 31, 2012 (6:30 PM) Meeting Minutes

Commission Room, City Hall, 6 East 6th Street

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Mayor Cromwell, Suzi Cammon, Joe Harkins, Daniel Poull, Ralph Reed, Jeff Severin, Christine Tomlin, Dan Wethington

 

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Billy Beeson, Sam Porritt, Charlie Sedlock

STAFF PRESENT:

Dave Corliss, Tammy Bennett, Michael Eglinski, Eileen Horn, Craig Pruett, Kathy Richardson, Chuck Soules

 

GUESTS PRESENT:

 

PUBLIC PRESENT:

Dorothy Hoyt-Reed, Cory Smith

 

 

CALL MEETING TO ORDER - Mayor Aron Cromwell

 

REVIEW AND APPROVE MEETING MINUTES

 

Motion and second to approve the January 26, 2012 meeting minutes (Severin/Harkins).

Vote was passed unanimously.

 

REVIEW AND CONSIDER ADOPTION OF FINAL DRAFT WITH ANY APPROVED AMENDMENTS

 

Mayor Aron Cromwell asked if any task force member had additional edits to the final draft of the Solid Waste Task Force report.

 

Staff suggested the following edits to the final draft of the report and the task force agreed to make these revisions:

1.                      Under the ‘Goals and Findings’ section on page 1 and page 7, add the sentence “The 2010 recycling rate was 38 percent.” It will be inserted after the sentence “The task force recommends the goal of 50 percent recycling rate in 2020.”

2.                      Under the ‘Pathway for Residential Service – Recyclables’ section on page 12 and 13, edit the following sentences to state:

“There is one private multi-stream community drop-off center that takes fibers, metals, plastics, and glass. Two additional private community drop-off centers specialize in salvage and metal recovery. There are twelve (12) city-operated fiber drop-off locations (newspaper, cardboard, mixed paper) in the community. The drop-off locations are provided at no-charge to the customers. In 2010, approximately 5306 tons of material was recycled through the drop-off programs and curbside programs.”

“Glass is handled at one drop-off location, offered by a private company. The City of Lawrence will implement four additional drop-off locations for customer convenience in 2012.”

 

The task force discussed and agreed to make the following edits to ‘Attachment 6’ of the report:

1.                      Under the ‘Satisfaction with status quo’ and ‘Desire for phased in approach’ sections change the formatting to:

“Priorities for improvements are worker safety, cost effectiveness, and increased recycling rates. These will be accomplished through:

·           Standardizing containers

·           Increasing automation

·           Increasing recycling opportunities.”

2.                      Under the ‘Concern about lack of inclusion of multi-family properties’ section, add the word “second” so that it states “Based on feedback at the second public comment session…”

3.                      Under the ‘Concern that privatization option was sufficiently considered’ section, delete the following text “(While not discussed extensively, Mayor Cromwell responded directly to a question about privatization, stating there was a consensus on the committee, and none of committee members disagreed with the statement.)”

 

A few other edits submitted electronically by Sam Porritt were discussed by the task force and there was consensus to revise the document as follows:

1.                      Add the following paragraph drafted by Michael Eglinski, City Auditor, under the two graphs on page 2:

“To develop our recommendations, the Solid Waste Task Force read and listened to feedback from community members, reviewed materials and experiences from other cities and companies that provide waste recycling services, reviewed information compiled by City staff, reviewed recommendations of the Sustainability Advisory Board and the City Auditor, and discussed issues as a group. The task force held 20 meetings between April 2011 and January 2012.”

2.                      Add the words “curbside recycling and” to the second bullet on pages 2 and 9 to state “Higher diversion and recycling rates are achieved in communities with curbside recycling and separate collection of organics;”

3.                      Replace the word “may” with “should” on pages 3 and 11 to state “Other cart sizes should be available for modestly difference rates.”

4.                      Replace the word “developed” with “identified” on pages 5 and 17 to state “The Solid Waste Task Force identified common themes from the comments received,…”

5.                      Add the following paragraphs drafted by Michael Eglinski, City Auditor, under the ‘Pathway for Residential Service – Solid Waste / Trash’ section on page 11:

“Collecting solid waste is a dangerous job. The task force learned that, nationally, refuse collectors are three times more likely to be killed on the job as police officers and fire fighters. Review of the city’s workers’ compensation expenditures found that solid waste expenditures over the last two years were almost $4,000 per position, which is more than three times the expenditures for the next highest department, the Police Department.

Increased automation helps reduce the risk to employees. Automated collection is associated with fewer injuries than manual collection, a lower portion of severe injuries, and less physical burnout. The City of Olathe noted a decrease in workers’ compensation costs over 50 percent after transitioning to automated collection.

Increased automation helps reduce and manage collection costs. Lawrence’s current approach with a three person crew and a rear loader, while flexible, costs almost twice as much as fully automated collection and about 50 percent more than semi-automated collection.”

 

A couple of Sam Porritt’s edits were not incorporated into the report. For example, the task force agreed to keep the paragraph under the ‘Commercial / multi-family solid waste services’ section as written. Also a few of the words he suggested “made important changes to this report based on citizen input” was not included under the ‘Public Input’ section.

 

The task force agreed to add the sentence suggested by Mayor Aron Cromwell, “This maximizes the return-on-investment on currently existing semi-automated trucks.” This will be added under the ‘Residential solid waste services’ section under the bullet stating to increase automation.

Motion and second to approve the final draft of the Solid Waste Task Force report with amendments discussed at the meeting tonight (Wethington/Reed).

Vote was passed unanimously.

 

Mayor Aron Cromwell thanked the task force members for serving on the Solid Waste Task Force and actively participating in meetings, tours, etc. It was noted that the task force had a quorum at every meeting due to the excellent attendance record of the group.

 

The next step is to schedule a City Commission Study Session. It will likely be scheduled on a Tuesday before a City Commission meeting in late February. Commissioners will receive a copy of the Solid Waste Task Force report at that meeting. The task force members will receive notification of the date, time, and location of the Study Session and will also continue to receive copies of the feedback submitted through the online form on the Solid Waste Task Force webpage.

 

 

PLANNING FOR FUTURE MEETINGS

 

Date

Topics

TBD

City Commission Study Session (likely on a Tuesday before a Commission meeting)

Location: Commission Room at City Hall, 6 East 6th Street

 

 

Adjourned at 7:45 p.m.