Professional Services Agreement with HF&H Consultants, LLC for Solid Waste SB 1383 Contracting Assistance in the Amount Not-to-Exceed $30,000
RECOMMENDATION
Approve Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with HF&H Consultants, LLC to provide solid waste SB 1383 contracting assistance in the amount not-to-exceed $30,000.
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
The City of Brea has an exclusive franchise agreement with Republic Services to provide solid waste and recycling services in the City. In the past three years, the City has undertaken numerous efforts to be in compliance with current state regulations such as AB 341 (Mandatory Commercial Recycling), AB 1826 (Mandatory Organic Commercial Recycling), and AB 1594 (Green Material used as Alternative Daily Cover). The City’s franchise agreement has also been amended to codify these regulations and their resulting rate changes, where applicable.
In September 2016, Governor Brown signed into law SB 1383, establishing methane emissions reduction targets for short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) in various sectors of California’s economy. SB 1383 establishes a mandated target to achieve a 50 percent reduction in statewide disposal of organic waste from 2014 levels by 2020 and a 75 percent reduction by 2025. The law grants CalRecycle the absolute regulatory authority to achieve organic waste disposal reduction targets by requiring residential organics recycling and establishes an additional target that not less than 20 percent of currently disposable edible food is recovered for human consumption by 2025.
City of Brea staff has been in communication with other Republic cities on a possible joint effort to analyze and ultimately negotiate contract terms with Republic for implementation of SB1383 mandates. The cities of Garden Grove, Fullerton, Yorba Linda, Placentia and Brea (Cities) agreed to seek a sole-source proposal from HF&H given HF&H's prior work with North Orange County cities on AB1826. HF&H Project Manager, Laith Ezzet, has over 30 years of experience in the waste management industry. He has assisted over 100 public agencies in solid waste matters, and negotiated agreements with total values in excess of $2 billion. Mr. Ezzet is considered one of the top industry experts in his field within Southern California, and was highly praised for his work by other North Orange County cities currently contracting with HF&H. Mr. Ezzet also assisted the City of Anaheim in implementing mandatory commercial organics recycling, one of the first cities in North Orange County to do so, and has served as a guest speaker at numerous events on organics recycling.
As a result, HF&H provided the attached proposal for Solid Waste SB 1383 Contracting Assistance (Exhibit A). The contractor’s complete scope of work is detailed therein. Given the variation in the Cities' refuse contracts and their current state of organics compliance, staff from the Cities agreed to consider moving forward on Tasks A & B only and consider Task C once Tasks A & B have been completed.
A summary of the contractor’s proposed scope of work is as follows:
Task A: Contract Profile – This would involve the contractor comparing the terms of the City’s individual franchise agreement to their inventory of the most modern franchise agreements and developing a document detailing their findings. It would also include both an individual meeting with the City, as well as a group meeting of all the cities choosing to engage the contractor to discuss a shared profile.
Task B: Gap Analysis – Under this item, the contractor would examine what requirements would be needed of the City in order to be in compliance with all SB 1383 provisions; then, they would identify compliance areas the City was already meeting versus compliance areas in which the City was lacking. It was noted by the contractor that not everything can be delegated to the hauler, but that some functions would require City responsibility, resources, etc.
Task C: Contract Negotiations(For informational purposes only at this time; not part of current contract authorization request) - The North Orange County cities group varied in terms of some wishing to completely update their franchise agreements versus others that simply wished to incorporate SB 1383 as an amendment to the existing franchise agreement. It was decided that this decision could be decided at a later date, independent of Tasks A and B.
The final cost of this effort will be dependent on the number of cities engaging with HF&H on the combined Tasks A & B above. The contractor has provided a sliding scale reflecting a discounted cost dependent on how many cities are willing to participate in this effort (Exhibit A, page 7). If all five Cities agree to participate, the proposed fee for Tasks A & B would be $25,000. At the time of this report, the cities of Garden Grove, Yorba Linda and Placentia have stated that they plan to move forward with an agreement for Tasks A & B in June/July either administratively or through City Council action.
COMMISSION/COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION
This item was on the Finance Committee agenda for June 9, 2020. Since a member of Finance Committee cannot discuss this item due to a potential conflict of interest, Finance Committee recommended that this item be presented at the June 16, 2020 City Council Study Sessions without Finance Committee review.
FISCAL IMPACT/SUMMARY
There is no impact to the General Fund. Funding in the amount of $30,000 will come from the enterprise fund for refuse-related expenditures, Fund 440 (Sanitation & Street Sweeping). This amount was not included in the FY 2019-20 Adopted Budget. If approved, Finance will include this item in the next round of quarterly budget adjustments.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
William Gallardo, City Manager
Prepared by: Gillian Lobo, Senior Management Analyst
Concurrence:Tony Olmos, P.E., Public Works Director