At its May 4, 2022 meeting, the City Commission approved a referral to the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee (FERC) to discuss and to consider the City establishing a maximum fee for waste hauler services for multi-family dwellings of less than 25 units.   

At the request of the FERC Committee members at their April 29, 2022 meeting, the discussion was to be heard in conjunction with a Public Works presentation, related to the City's solid waste commercial franchise hauler item. 

On April 29, 2022, FERC Committee members also made a motion to bring to the full City Commission, the City's current commercial waste hauler contract (RFQ No. 2013-178-SR,) set to expire on September 30, 2022, in order to consider extending it on a month-to-month basis. 

At its July 20, 2022 meeting, the Mayor and City Commission adopted Resolution No. 2022-32228, approving the extension on a month-to-month basis of the contract term for the non-exclusive commercial franchise waste contractor agreement and service agreement with Waste Management Inc. of Florida, and Waste Connections of Florida, Inc. for a period not to exceed September 30, 2023.

At the November 14, 2022, FERC meeting, the Public Works Department provided an updated presentation, followed by comments from Waste Connections Inc. and Waste Management, detailing the particulars of their contracts, and options available to residents.  At the end of the discussion, a motion was made to:

• Return to the Committee and propose a specific or maximum fee (9-24 units) to establish within the City’s Code.
• Encourage those in the industry to reach out to Committee members to discuss. 
• Determine for the next Committee meeting, which other cities and municipalities are doing (caps, fees, etc.)
• Discuss franchise fees collected on the City’s behalf and provide analysis and comparison of other municipal franchise fees.

At the January 27, 2023 FERC meeting, Public Works provided a five-minute verbal update with regards to findings for waste hauler services for multi-family dwellings of less than 25 units.  Based on Public Works and the City Attorney’s analysis, to raise the cap from 9-24 units, it would require an amendment of the code (Section 90-97) which provides that “Collection by single-family waste contractors. All solid waste generated by single-family residences and multifamily residences of eight units or less shall be collected, conveyed and disposed of by a single-family waste contractor(s)."  In addition, two contractual options are possible:

• Issue a separate RFP for the 9-24 (buildings under 8 units are considered residential under the current Exclusive contract)

• Bid waiver on the current Exclusive contract to negotiate an extension and include the new pricing structure for 9-24-unit threshold.  This would require a 5/7 vote approval.

At the end of the verbal discussion of the January 27, 2023 FERC meeting the Committee requested that the Administration provide at the February 17^th meeting the following:

• Meet with Commissioner Fernández to discuss possibility of code amendment to include less than 25 units into a single family residential Exclusive agreement.

• Provide a full presentation (see Solid Waste Commercial Franchise Hauler Presentation discussion item) of the franchise fees, analysis and comparison.