As you know, we are on the verge of deciding whether to continue to operate our own sanitation department (Public Works' major function) or to outsource it to a popular contractor called WastePro. The decision will be made at the Commission meeting on Tuesday, April 1. Next week. No fooling.
In anticipation of this decision, our Manager, Heidi Shafran, put together a major and comprehensive fact-finding effort. She found four potential contractors through a Request For Proposal (RFP) process, turned them over to an ad hoc committee made up of one BP resident, one BP employee, and two other people in the know, and ended up with the choice of WastePro among the applicants. That is, if the Village decides to outsource sanitation, we would outsource this function to WastePro. If we decide not to outsource, we learned a lot about the industry, and we gave close scrutiny to our own functioning in this area.
Heidi then created two workshops, or "listening sessions," on Saturday, March 22, and Monday, March 24, so all of us could listen to Heidi, Candido Sosa-Cruz, and WastePro, and learn, and Heidi, our administration, and WastePro could listen to us and learn. The first workshop was very well attended, and the second slightly less so. I would say we all learned a lot. One way or the other, sanitation will not be the same in the Village. Either we will outsource it, or we will keep it and hold it in higher regard and provide more support than we ever did before.
Please come to the Commission meeting on Tuesday, April 1. If you usually come to these meetings, this one will be worth your time and effort more than most. If you almost never come to them, this one is the one you shouldn't miss this year. Develop your thinking, talk to your neighbors, talk to Heidi and Candido, and expect to say whatever is on your mind about this topic. It's very important. There are considerations you never thought of. Really, no fooling.
Last night was a very informative meeting regarding the sanitation, and always great seeing the residents etc. I thought it was interesting to see the reaction from long time residents, some of us newer homeowners, and one of the sanitation workers. Today I spoke with our sanitation workers that were picking up our yard trash, there were 3 total. Asking what they wanted, and if they would like to work with a company that frankly, paid them better and offered more job security (we all know that if we don't create additional revenue, this issue will come back in the future). Well it seems, the 3 guys I talked to today, would rather not work for anyone else but Biscayne Park. A big surprise to me since they are being offered a significant pay raise to work for a company like Waste Pro USA, INC (not to mention all the rewards for their hard work).
ReplyDeleteListening to some of the long term residents voice their concern about losing their "extra and unpaid" services is somewhat a concern. I don't think any of us are that entitled, that we can't deliver our own trash to the curb. There are definitely special needs individuals who may require extra services, however if you can get out of bed, feed yourself, walk to your car, drive to work, and pick up groceries.... you darn well can move your trash can to the curb like the rest of the world (go buy a trash can with wheels). I also find it sickening that we only pay our sanitation workers under $8/hr..... yet many of us homeowners hire someone to mow our lawns every week because we can't handle a couple hours of yard work in the heat, yet expect others to clean up our trash in the blazing heat and humidity for slave wages. Personally I would like to suggest that we raise an assessment, buy new trucks, and pay our guys a living wage.
I agree with you completely. Let's figure out how we can streamline things so that our crews can accomplish the pick-up in less time and with less work. I can never understand residents who place a pile of leaves on the swale instead of putting them in a bag or garbage can. We seem to be very happy with the service we now get. The one complaint I do hear is that our medians need more attention. I know we can figure out a way to keep it in-house and have the staff not only maintain our medians but improve them. I'm willing to do a little more and pay a little more. Things will be changing and recycling needs to be a major campaign. This can be done in-house and will bring down our dumping fees. I don't do business with companies that don't pay their employees fairly and Biscayne Park needs to, at the very least, pay a living wage.
DeleteBrad,
DeleteI'm asked to post this response by someone who wants to be anonymous.
Fred
I would like to see one of Brad's comments clarified. Side yard pick up - not having to take garbage cans to the front - is not an "extra and unpaid service" for long time residents. This is a service that is available to every single resident and is in fact something we pay for in our fees. Aside from the convenience of not having to take cans to the front my biggest issue is aesthetics. Follow me on this one.
Monday pick up means cans can be out as early as Sunday and stay out until Tuesday (24 hours before and 24 after) That's 3 days of cans being in front of the house legally.
Thursday pick up means cans can be out as early as Wednesday and stay until Friday - that's another 3 days of cans being in front of the house.
That's not even counting the 24 hours before and after for trash receptacles and recycling receptacles.
Sadly it is not unusual to see things like recycle bins being a permanent yard decoration.
We'll have to wait and see what the manager recommends first. I know most long time residents are against this deal and probably feels scary and wrong for the current employees. Everybody always likes job security and even when they are offering you a better pay and better options one is reluctant to trust the deal, because it is the 'unknown'. Nevertheless this seems to be the best job offer I can think of, I don't think BP will ever have enough funds to give the guys a good wage, we always talk about doing just that, but it never materializes. We also need to modernize the garbage pickup and keep modernizing in the future, new trucks, better trucks, newer technology, etc. etc. AND a better recycling program. Myself I like that we could do this deal, give the guys a better wage, keep the taxes at the same rate and get some money to put in a fund for road repairs.
ReplyDeleteNow, I doubt this deal will go through, we are attached to what we have now and we want to keep it that way. The option then will be to increase the garbage pick up annual fees (most likely to 1200 a year per unit) to do all of the above: good wages, new trucks and a reserve fund.
Whatever they decide, the commissioners will have a tough decision to make on Tuesday.
And how! Thanks for noticing.
DeleteFred
Hello Jorge,
DeleteWell, at $1,200.00 a year per unit (using your numbers) that would be "overpaying" by $754.00 of the actual cost of the service provided. I don't see that meeting with majority approval or making much sense either.
I thought to offer a somewhat different view based on my impressions from last night’s meeting regarding the possible outsourcing of our sanitization services.
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me start with the matter of the Human Condition. And that is simply to oppose change. We seem to find comfort in what is familiar and often resist tackling “change” with an open mind.
The main reason voiced by those at the meeting in my opinion was based on “sentiment”… a thought or idea based on a feeling or emotion. But this “sentiment” should not be the main focus for this proposal. It should rather be “what is in the best interest (long-term) for the Village and its survivability”.
Please remember that we have already been warned that at the current rate of expenses vs. income we have approx. 5 years left before we exhaust our reserve fund.
And let’s face it neighbors, if the Village doesn’t survive, these six jobs and this entire conversation is rendered irrelevant.
Let’s look at some of the fiscal issues that haven’t been addressed in further detail:
1) Our in-house sanitation fees have increased by 121% over the past 11 years. Clearly, this is not sustainable for those residents on fixed incomes and is an indicator that the current structure is not working.
2) By outsourcing our service the Village would be able to collect a Franchise Fee. If I understand this correctly and based on the proposal, the Village would generate NEW REVENUE between $39,000-$77,800.00 annually.
3) By also switching our recycling to Waste Pro we could eliminate the fee paid to Miami Shores, i.e. $35,000. So, in other words the combined NEW REVENUE to the Village could be $74,000-$112,800 annually.
4) Waste Pro can do the same job of our in-house guys in less time and for less money. Those savings could either be passed on to our residents, or forwarded to the Village for other capital improvements.
5) By outsourcing our services we would have a more efficient schedule for trash pickup. That means less days with trash sitting around waiting for pickup. I checked with sources and found out that for the past several weeks, 50% of our workforce has not shown up for work on Mondays. When you’re already running “lean” this is a problem.
6) Not a fiscal issue but the fact that Waste Pro has a training program for their employees to police their routes; I do not feel that we should experience any noticeable drop off in community safety.
Milt,
DeleteI was frustrated at the persistently side-stepped attempt of various questioners last night regarding the cost of recycling if done by WastePro (your item 3). As best I could read between the lines, I think they would do our recycling for the same extra $35K we pay MSV. I really don't think they ever clearly said it would included in the base rate of $300-something per house. Did I misunderstand this point?
Fred
Fred,
DeleteI have been informed that I misunderstood/misspoke on item #3. The potential recycle fee IS built into Waste Pro’s proposal but it would not be additional revenue to the Village as was illustrated in item #3.
So, it looks like our realized gain would be back in the $39-$78K range.
For any and all reading please disregard item #3 as I was in error. Sorry about that.
Milt
We were both wrong, Milt.
DeleteFred
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteWaste Pro’s plan for “Our Guys”:
1) To welcome and offer them a job with an increased salary and benefit package we simply can’t match. I for one was impressed with the many different bonus and incentives packages in place. We will never be able to compete with these in-house.
So, if indeed it is still our guys servicing the Village, (earning more money by the way) with the only change being that of a different logo on their shirts and truck color… what is the real drawback here?
Also know that one day, our current guys will retire and that new ones will have to replace them. In other words… nothing lasts forever.
Biscayne Park is not a professional Sanitization Company and never will be. We could never design “in-house” the same operational systems that are in place with Waste Pro. We will never have the same leverage in purchasing and servicing new equipment.
And so on and so forth.
I would think that those in favor of helping “our guys” would encourage them to consider moving up to a professional privately owned company that has more resources and options for them than we will ever have.
This is NOT about losing any alleged Village “charm” any more than was the logic of combining our elections to save much needed resources. Times are changing and we all need to keep up.
This IS all about finding ways to survive and improve the Village for all residents. Once again, we have already been warned that at the current rate of expenses vs. income we have approx. 5 years left before we exhaust our reserve fund.
I think we should all think of the big future picture and the reasons behind this proposal in the first place.
I also agree with you Milton. Emotions are not the best guidance to make rational decisions. But we are all human, no?
DeleteI think we should strongly consider what the village manager recommends. She is a professional, we all respect her and she will consider this from a point of view that should be not be based on politics but on what is best for out town. The burden will then rest on our commissioners, they'll have to make the politically difficult decision to accept or decline the manager's recommendation.