Logan County Board waits city's decision on Joint Solid Waste Agreement renewal

[April 26, 2017]  LINCOLN - On Tuesday, April 18, 2017, the Logan County Board held its Regular monthly meeting. One focus of discussion was the proposed Joint Solid Waste Agreement renewal.

Executive and Personnel Committee Chairman Emily Davenport made a motion to approve the 20-year-Joint Solid Waste Agreement.

Board member Kevin Bateman amended the motion to include a one-year-termination or out clause in the agreement.

Bateman said he and board member Adam Schmidt are "liaisons to the city" and "in going to the meetings, I can nearly positively tell you the city of Lincoln is not going to pass this contract as written. They are asking for an out clause also."

Bateman said the city is also asking for "a shorter time and some financial stability." He said, "I am only asking for an out clause."

Bateman said he found two things in the agreement. He said, "the only way you can get out is by unanimous vote from all the towns."

Bateman said, "Number two, which I just came across today when reading it for the third time, is I find it odd that it takes a majority vote to get out, but it only takes a two-thirds vote to get out if you're delinquent on the payments."

Board member Scott Schaffenacker said, "you are asking for a lot in one amendment. The only thing I would agree on changing is, instead of making it a unanimous vote, make it a simple majority vote."

At Thursday's workshop, there was a lengthy discussion about the length of the contract and the possible need for an out clause. Jim Struebing and Mitzi Rohlfs, who work with the agency, were there to answer questions.

Ruben said when he talked to Mitzi Rohlfs recently, they discussed "the necessity of an out clause because of costs. We as a county have to approve any price increases. They cannot just be passed along."

Ruben said, "essentially we have an out clause. Let's say that for some reason half of the communities stop using it, so the cost was going to double from $4.50 per person in the county to $9.00. All we do is vote down the $9.00 and essentially they would be put out of business because they would not have the funds to operate, so we have an out clause in that sense already."

Schaffenacker said he thought the current contract allows an "out" if all the municipalities agree.

Bateman said it is a "weak out clause at best [since] all the municipalities have to agree to let somebody out. That's just totally wrong to have a 100 percent majority."

Bateman added, "We are looking for a 20-year-agreement and I don't want to 'handcuff' the next board or any other municipality for the next 20 years to worry about whether they can get out of an agreement or not." He said, "There should be an easier way to get out. If they're doing everything correctly, there shouldn't be any argument on letting us have an out clause."

Bateman said, "My proposal would be a one-year-date out clause, so if we determine that we're not liking the way the program is run, then we would give them notice that we're not going to fulfill the contract and they would have one year from that date to figure out what they are going to do with whatever municipality it is.

Bateman said that Jim Struebing and Mitzi Rohlfs are "doing a great job," but "I guarantee you, they won't be on the Joint Solid Waste Board 20 years from now."

Ruben said, "The other side of it is, we probably would also need that year for the board because we are mandated to do some type of program, so we would have to come up with something to replace it in that time frame."

Ruben said, "It has worked for 20 years" with changes in who is on the board and with Mitzi Rohlfs joining the agency 14 years ago.

Ruben said, "We are guaranteeing we are in at this price and we still have the control of purse strings for any increases."

Schaffenacker said, "We are handcuffing them to $4.50 a year. That comes out to 38 cents a month." He said, "If a municipality does want to get out and wants to come to the other municipalities and say, 'hey, we did some research and this private organization will do it for less than 38 cents a month, please let us out,' I think the other municipalities would be more than happy to do that."

Schaffenacker said, "I just don't think that is ever going to come to reality even if the prices go up double to $9.00 a year. There's never going to be a private entity that is going to do it for pennies on the dollar."

Bateman said, "If it is running that smoothly, why are we all afraid of having a door to open to get out?"

At Tuesday's meeting, board member Gene Rohlfs said, "If things were going poorly with the joint solid waste and if a municipality wanted out because of that, probably the rest of the municipalities would want out also." He said, "If a municipality wants out for any other reason, that puts everybody in jeopardy."

Bateman said, if the "city of Lincoln" finds someone who will do recycling and "decide[s] to opt out, they still have to run on the same budget and we just lost 15,000 citizens," which would put a financial burden on everyone left.

Ruben said that if something like that would happen, "the drastic changes would be to come ask for a higher levy and at that point in time, all this board has to say is no."

Bateman said, "There will never be a vote to allow somebody out, the way it's written right now, because it will put a financial burden on everybody that's left." He said, "There is no way anybody in this room is going to tell the city of Lincoln they can get out knowing we may have to make an increase to the taxpayers."

Schaffenacker asked, "So instead of it being a complete majority vote, do you want it amended to be a simple majority vote with the other municipalities."

Bateman said "No, I just want to give them a one-year notice." Bateman gave an example of a "waste hauler" moving to Atlanta and opening a business, telling them he can recycle the entire city of Atlanta for next to nothing. Bateman said in such a case, "Atlanta is going to want out and the rest of us aren't going to let them because we will have to take that financial burden."

Jim Struebing, chairman of the Logan County Joint Solid Waste Agency, was around when the agency was formed and policies were first made. He said, "The idea at that time was to make those rules difficult so that every municipality was included and would be included because if we lost some, it would put such a damper on the whole organization, especially the city of Lincoln. If they were to leave, then we wouldn't be able to operate."

Struebing said, "Essentially, rules were made tough so that nobody could leave without paying a price." He said, "The idea was to have a county program, not 10 municipal programs."

Struebing said, since it is a county program, "We don't consider each individual municipality when we do things. We do things as a county." He said, "I stressed over and over that it was the county that was responsible."

Struebing said, we do everything we can to keep municipalities from leaving and "over the last 20 years, we have not been faced with any situation like that." He said when he talked to the Lincoln City Council, they could not think of any problems in the last 20 years.

Struebing said, "The idea was to have a long-term situation so that municipalities would not be jumping in and out."

He said any municipalities leaving would likely end the solid waste agency. Struebing said after a lot of discussion years ago, it was "ironic that the city of Lincoln [and] the Sanitary Department Committee came back" and asked for longer than the five years originally suggested. Back then, City Engineer Dennis Hartman, "proposed that the five-year-agreement be changed to a 20-year-agreement."

Streubing said, "I don’t think there's been any problems. It's a smooth running operation. I think the need is still just as strong as it ever has been. I don't know that ten years is any different than twenty years."

Struebing said, "I just think that if there is a group that wants to stop, then they have to answer to the county board. However each municipality does have a vote and it is pretty serious if they want to leave."

Gene Rohlfs said "A large private company could lowball a price and make us think that price is going to last." He said, "I know that the county and this operation are doing it as cheaply as they possibly can and as efficiently as they possibly can." Rohlfs said, "If a private company wanted to see that end" and one municipality left, the arrangement seems risky.

Bateman said he does not like it being difficult to get out of the agency. He said, "I agree that if a private company came in, we would surely negotiate a contract that would have an out clause and make sure we're not stuck into a thing where they lowball us the next year and we're ramrodded up."

Bateman said, "We would do that on any new contract of anything we are going to do. We have done that many times since I have been on the board. Why is this any different? The reason it's different is none of us were here twenty years ago. None of us had a say so."

Bateman said, "My biggest concern is there is no way to get out. None of the other cities are going to take that risk to let any of us out knowing," there would likely "have to be an increase asked to pick up the difference."

Bateman said, "I hope it runs perfectly for 20 years. I just don't feel I am representing my constituents very well if I lock them into something with no way of getting out."

Bateman said, "We have no way of know what recycling is going to be in the future." He said recycling has already seemed to have decreased with few people recycling."

Mitzi Rohlfs, who coordinates the Joint Solid Waste Agency, said recycling totals "have remained steady or increased" for all materials besides paper.

Board member Bob Sanders said, "Let's say the city did opt out, as a county we are required by the state to have a joint solid waste, [so] we are going to be stuck with it one way or another is the way I look at it."

After Tuesday's discussion, Davenport made a motion to take it back to committee. The motion passed 10-1 with Kevin Bateman, Dave Blankenship, Janet Dahmm, Emily Davenport, David Hepler, Gene Rohlfs, Chuck Ruben, Scott Schaffenacker, Adam Schmidt and Annette Welch voting yes. Bob Sanders voted no. Bob Farmer was absent.

Bateman asked, "If it goes back to committee and the committee decides to come forward with an out clause, would we bring the out clause forward to the board as a whole?"

Ruben said it would be up to the committee as to how they brought it forth, but since it is a "controversial issue, I would bring it forward and let it be amended on the full board floor."

Ruben said, the reason for sending it back to committee "would be to wait and see what the city [does] after they receive the request for proposal, so that we knew if there was a different price."

Davenport said she is curious about the request for proposal.

Schaffenacker said, "I would like to see the committee work on the amendment and putting it down in writing."

The Executive and Personnel committee will further discuss the issue and amendments at their May 8 meeting.

[Angela Reiners]