The City of Brea has been sweeping City streets for over 50 years. The streets are swept once per week by in-house staff. In early 2016, City Council directed staff to explore the possibility of contracting out these services and compare contract costs to in-house costs and assess if long term ongoing savings could be achieved.
The current street sweeping program includes two full-time Street Sweeping Operators and are backed-up by Public Works Streets Division staff. The program also includes 3 street sweeping machines (two - 7 year old & one backup - 17 year old). The oldest machine is in need of replacement and was included in a previously approved budget. The City currently collects approximately $281,000 in annual street sweeping fees. Since the current cost of the street sweeping program exceeds the revenues, the City currently subsidizes the difference in actual cost of the street sweeping program.
Since early 2016, staff has presented four updates to City Council either at Study Session or General Session. In summary, the following are key talking points and actions from those prior discussions:
- In early May 2016, staff issued a Request-for-Proposal (RFP) to solicit proposals from qualified firms to perform street sweeping services.
- In late May 2016, City received proposals from Nationwide Environmental Services (NES); Athens; CleanStreet; and RF Dickson. Per the RFP, the bid proposals included costs to sweep once per week, twice per month, and sweeping on alternate sides (once per week & twice per month). The bid results were as follows with the low bid for each item shown in bold:
| Item |
NES |
Athens |
CleanStreet |
Dickson |
| Weekly Sweeps |
$293,000 |
$347,490 |
$365,092 |
$484,440 |
| Sweep Twice Per Month |
$240,000 |
$201,690 |
$227,479 |
$245,977 |
| Sweep Alternate Sides (Weekly) |
$758,160 |
$479,115 |
$379,080 |
$726,570 |
| Sweep Alternate Sides (Twice/Mo) |
$349,920 |
$269,730 |
$232,794 |
$368,096 |
- Discussed bids received, compared the costs of street sweeping between the low-bidder and in-house staff, presented options as to how incumbent street sweeping staff could be reassigned to other duties, and discussed the need for a back-up street sweeping machine.
- Concluded that contracting for street sweeping would not offer any immediate savings since incumbent street sweeping staff would continue their employment with the City and would be reassigned within the department. However, through attrition of the street sweeping or similar positions in the future, the contracting option for weekly sweeps with NES was expected to save up to $50,800 per year.
- Vacant position became available in Street Division allowing for potential transfer of incumbent Street Sweeping Operator, thereby allowing for immediate savings.
- Discussed potential opportunity to jointly bid street sweeping services along with neighboring cities of Placentia and Fullerton. City Council directed staff to proceed with issuance of a joint RFP.
Joint RFP Results
The Joint RFP was issued in May 2018. Participating cities included Brea, Fullerton and Placentia. Two bids were received from CleanStreet and Dickson and also included costs to sweep once per week, twice per month, and sweeping on alternate sides (once per week & twice per month). Both Fullerton and Placentia are analyzing the results of the bids for their respective cities. Fullerton currently performs street sweeping in-house and sweeps weekly while Placentia currently uses a contractor and sweeps twice per month. The bid results for Brea were as follows with the low bid for each item shown in bold:
| Item |
CleanStreet |
Dickson |
| Weekly Sweeps |
$371,767 |
$387,787 |
| Sweep Twice Per Month |
$231,160 |
$176,030 |
| Sweep Alternate Sides (Weekly) |
$433,225 |
$631,904 |
| Sweep Alternate Sides (Twice/Mo) |
$251,472 |
$305,828 |
It’s important to note that all bids for weekly sweeps from the joint RFP significantly exceeded the bid from NES from the original bid in 2016.
Cost Comparisons
As previously done for the original RFP, staff analyzed the cost difference between in-house and contract street sweeping services for a number of scenarios. These scenarios include sweeping weekly, twice per month, alternate sides for both weekly and twice per month. For the scenarios of sweeping twice per month, a reduction in revenue over expenditures due to less street sweeping enforcement was factored in. Please see table below summarizing the cost comparisons. The back-up to these calculations are included in Attachments 1-4.
The following table highlights the cost comparison between the current in-house street sweeping budget of $389,937 and the low bid contract services (plus other internal costs) for each scenario:
Cost Comparison – Existing Budget to Contractor:
| Item |
Existing Budget |
Contractor |
Enforcement (Difference) |
Savings |
| Weekly Sweeps |
$389,937 |
$385,124 (CleanStreet) |
$0 |
$4,813 |
| Sweep Twice Per Month * |
$389,937 |
$189,387 (Dickson) |
($37,791) |
$162,759 |
| Sweep Alternate Sides (Weekly) ** |
$389,937 |
$446,582 (CleanStreet) |
$0 |
($56,645) |
| Sweep Alternate Sides (Twice/Mo) ** |
$389,937 |
$264,829 (CleanStreet) |
($37,791) |
$87,317 |
* Switching to sweeping twice per month would require change out of signs at an approximate one-time cost of $8,000.
** Switching to sweeping on alternate sides (twice per month) would require adding approximately 16,000 signs at an approximate one-time cost of $480,000.
The following table highlights the cost comparison between the current in-house street sweeping budget of $389,937 and the proposed cost if City staff continued sweeping under the various scenarios:
Cost Comparison – Existing Budget to Proposed Sweeping by City Staff:
| Item |
Existing Budget |
City Staff |
Enforcement (Difference) |
Savings |
| Weekly Sweeps |
$389,937 |
$389,937 |
$0 |
$0 |
| Sweep Twice Per Month * |
$389,937 |
$243,876 |
($37,791) |
$108,271 |
| Sweep Alternate Sides (Weekly) ** |
$389,937 |
$516,037 |
$0 |
($126,100) |
| Sweep Alternate Sides (Twice/Mo) ** |
$389,937 |
$377,876 |
($37,791) |
($25,730) |
* Switching to sweeping twice per month would require change out of signs at an approximate one-time cost of $8,000.
** Switching to sweeping on alternate sides (twice per month) would require adding approximately 16,000 signs at an approximate one-time cost of $480,000.
Alternate Sides Sweeping
Under ideal conditions, sweeping the streets on alternate sides would solve issues regarding parking and enforcement since residents could park their cars on the opposite sides of the street during sweeping. This ideal condition would need to include a square/rectangular street grid with little to no cul-de-sacs. Unfortunately in Brea, the opposite seems to be true. Most residential development includes streets with curved alignments and a high number of cul-de-sacs. Sweeping on alternate sides of the street under these conditions is not an efficient model and requires more resources. In particular, cul-de-sacs require the sweeper to travel along the entire cul-de-sac on two separate days in order to sweep both sides.
In addition, switching to alternate street sweeping would require extensive signing. Aside from the potential visual impacts, staff estimates that approximately 16,000 new signs would be needed since every street would need to be signed. Cost of signage is estimated at about $480,000 ($30/sign).
Finally, staff has identified a neighborhood in Brea that will be considered for alternate side sweeping. The neighborhood is Canyon Country located north of State College Boulevard and east of Brea Boulevard. Many of the residential driveways within the neighborhood are short and make it challenging for sweeping since cars overhang onto the street.
Current Staffing Situation
In September 2018, a full-time Maintenance Service Worker position became vacant due to a resignation. The position has been held vacant since pending a decision on this item. In June 2018, one of the Street Sweeping Operators retired and the position has been held vacant pending a decision on this item as well. In the meantime, a Maintenance Service Worker from the Streets Division has been temporarily assigned Interim Street Sweeping Operator duties. Although the Public Works Department has been doing its best to continue maintenance operations at the same service levels, this temporary condition is not sustainable.
Should the City Council decide to contract street sweeping services, the incumbent Street Sweeping Operator would be moved into the vacant Maintenance Service Worker position and the Interim Street Sweeping Operator would revert back to his normal duties.
Should the City Council decide to keep the street sweeping services in-house (at a weekly interval), staff would proceed with the purchase of a new street sweeping machine and would look to fill the second Street Sweeping Operator position. Public Works would also look to fill the vacant Maintenance Service Worker position to restore staffing and maintenance levels.
Other Cities
Staff recently contacted other Northern Orange County cities to find out how many contact their services and the frequency of their street sweeping. Attachment 5 shows the results of the survey. Of the thirteen cities surveyed (other than Brea), eight currently contract their street sweeping, ten sweep weekly and three sweep twice per month (bi-weekly).
City Council Possible Actions
- Direct staff to keep street sweeping operations in-house at current weekly sweep frequency or switch to twice per month.
- Direct staff to negotiate with low bid contractor from original bid for weekly sweeps and bring back a contract for approval.
- Direct staff to work with Fullerton and/or Placentia on a cooperative agreement and final contract with a specific street sweeping contractor and bring back both to City Council for approval (based on selected sweeping frequency).
Public Outreach and Timing
Based on selected option, City staff will work with our Communications & Marketing team to implement an outreach plan. The outreach plan would identify any proposed changes to the street sweeping program. If there are any changes to signage, the outreach would also provide for an enforcement grace period to allow for residents to adjust to the changes. |