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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Board - Minutes - 06/15/2022 ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR June 15, 2022 4:00 – 6:00 pm Via Zoom 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 1  1. CALL TO ORDER 4:07 pm 2. ROLL CALL  List of Board Members Present o Renee Walkup o Blake Naughton o Aric Light o Mistene Nugent o John Parks o Thierry Dossou  List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused, if no contact with Chair has been made. o Brauilo Rajoas o Denny Coleman o Jeff Havens  List of Staff Members Present o Shannon Hein, Acting Staff Liaison, Economic Sustainability o Kellie Falbo, Executive Director, Sustainable Living Association o Dustin Spears, Program Assistant, Sustainable Living Association o Pete Iengo, Community Engagement, Utilities o Javier Echeverria Diaz, Sr Analyst, Finance o Sylvia Tatman-Burruss, Sr Project Manager, City Manager’s Office 3. AGENDA REVIEW  No changes 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION  N/A ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 2  5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES  No changes-minutes approved 6. NEW BUSINESS  ClimateWise Reboot Update  Presentation from Kellie Falbo, Dustin Spears, Pete Iengo and Javier Echeverria Diaz.  ClimateWise (CW) was 20 years of progress that eliminated more than 1.4 million metric tons of CO2e and saved $94 million for participants. City of Fort Collins was one of the earliest municipalities in the US to make a significant investment in reducing carbon emissions. In 2019, Our Climate Future encompassed the Climate Action Plan, Energy Policy, and Road to Zero Waste Plan with an emphasis on addressing inequities for historically underrepresented groups. It calls for shared leadership and community partnerships and that is where Kellie’s group at Sustainable Living Association comes in. They aligned with the City as a strategic lead partner in June 2021.  The reimagining of CW first steps included a background research report and a program vision. The background research report included the history of CW, an overview of the City’s performance program evaluation of CW, Alignment with Our Climate Future, best practices research, and common structure research from other sustainable business programs. It provided context and created foundation to begin work. The Program Vision was created for the reimaging process and pilot implementation. The Mission is to be the essential hub in empowering businesses to climate action. The purpose is to inspire, connect, and support Fort Collins businesses in taking equitable climate action. There were also 10 guiding principles.  The leadership team included 25 people from the business community. Some of the businesses included Poudre School District, Platte River Power, Boulder County, Fort Collins Chamber, Las Catrinas, and Larimer County ClimateSmart.  The business engagement report phase included interviewing 30 businesses to determine their priorities, barriers, and the perceived role of the City in a new sustainable business. The 30 businesses included a lot of different industries and identities for diversity. They were able to gain insight from local business owners regarding what they want in a new sustainable program. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 3   Q (John) How did you choose the 30 businesses?  A (Kellie) The leadership team sat down and compiled a spreadsheet, narrowed it down, and then each leader took a couple businesses and reached out to them. We had members then meet one-on-one with the owners or a representative.  Q (Renee) What is a B-Corp?  A (Javier) I was not there for this phase of the process but typically a B-Corp is a business certification for sustainability practices. An example business of this would be Patagonia or New Belgium. They range in size. The B-Corp certification is the most intense and broad certification for sustainability practices. It is very comprehensive and large. The most important thing to note is that businesses change their legal form from a regular corp to a public benefit corp. They are not only bound to profits for shareholders, but they have other statements in their business regium regarding social and environmental impacts.  Q (Renee) So can it only be private business? - A (Javier) Only private, nonprofits cannot participate either.  Comment (John) It is a critical mass approach that is aligned with that. Our climate future is really getting a strong representation of underrepresented groups.  Comment (Kellie) Yes, it is a major focus of ours. We are doing a lot of work analyzing barriers for businesses that are part of our historically underrepresented populations. We need their voices at the table. We need to understand what barriers they have to participating in a program like this and they are vast. We wanted to start at the beginning by having that representation on our leadership team and with the first business engagement report.  Presentation They identified the essential components of a sustainable business program that included ongoing business engagement; education and mentorship; tracking and recognition; and funding opportunities. Strategies for suitability questionnaire was sent out to gauge businesses experience and current involvement with sustainability, as well as what they would expect from a sustainable business program. They had 14 of 98 businesses respond. Kelly noted it was hard to get feedback as they did it through google forms due to the state of the pandemic. It did give them valuable information and helped them understand the importance of building relationships and that one-on-one interactions will work better. They were pleasantly surprised that a majority of those who responded to the survey are ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 4  interested or experienced in sustainability with more time to dedicate than they had originally through. It was a small sample size, but it gave them hope.  Q (Renee) So that sample size was 14?  A (Kellie) Yes. Small Businesses struggled during covid and are still struggling. Even some of our leadership members were having trouble keeping employees and couldn’t make all the meetings because they would have to go fill-in. Small businesses have issues larger than sustainability and we are aware of that. It is something we are tracking as we go through the process.  Presentation The pilot launched May 15th and will run through August 15th with 14 businesses participating. They wanted to build a pilot structure around their main objectives while allowing for flexibility for unforeseen challenges and opportunities. They realize businesses will also enter with many different levels of interest and different scopes of goals they want to achieve, so the program must have flexibility for the businesses to enter at a place that is comfortable for them. There are also a lot of different types of businesses that could participate.  One of the most amazing resources they build for the businesses is the Resource Library. They spent a great deal of time collecting data for incentives, rebates, loans, funding grants, education, and general small business support. It is a work in process and continues to grow.  They focused on relationship building and one on one relationships into the pilot program as they realize that is essential. They also wanted to make it easy to enter so all businesses would feel good about participating. To participate in the business pilot program, businesses had to dedicate 10 hrs. over 3 months; however, businesses could spend up to 30+ hours if they decided to dive deeper into the green business tracker and be more aggressive with their goals.  They are also testing a mentorship program for businesses that are not aware of sustainability, what is available to them, what goals to set, or to learn from each other. It could be pairing a small business with a larger business to further along the sustainability continuum or pair two businesses together with similar issues. They hope this mentorship program will take off and so far it seems positive.  They also learned early on that education and recognition is a huge value for a program like this. Businesses want to be in a network of peers who are working on these issues to learn from each other. Education could also ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 5  include providing trainings or educational sessions. ClimateWise also had a celebration every year for all the businesses.  Another thing they are looking at is if small businesses need access to funding to increase their sustainability measures. They assume it is true but don’t know what it would look like or what they would need funding for. They are looking at some different possibilities of grant opportunities and including them in the resource library. It is something small business owners don’t have tie for but there are processes and programs to help. We also know a full-scale program will require funding.  The process for choosing the 14 businesses to participate in the pilot was intentional. The businesses came together for a kickoff luncheon a the Rio to start the networking processes. The next step included a survey so they could gage where they were at when they entered the program. A core team member than met with them one-on-one to help establish their sustainability goals for the three-month program. The next step was to have them register in the green business tracker and connect them to the resources like the resource library and mentorships. They give them time to work on everything and then come back around to see how they are doing with their goals and see if they want to go further in the green business tracker. They can accrue points and earn recognition in a statewide program. They are also given he ability to have someone do a site visit to see what they have put in place and to take notes on how they can improve; they are given an opportunity assessment to help meet their goals.  Q (Renee) How are small businesses going to know about this program without going to the site? Are you going to reach out to all businesses and how can you reach more?  A (Kellie) Right now we are in the piloting phase, so we are working specifically a handful of businesses. We have a lot of work to do before this program could be stood up in 2023. I can tell you with ClimateWise there was a lot of marketing and emailing but that is a challenge we will ace when this program does fully standup. If we want to engage these small businesses and historically underrepresented business owners, we are going to need resources in Spanish, do meetings in their communities and have liaisons. We are doing research on the best ways to communicate. Just having knowledge of the program is one of the barriers we are going to see.  Q (Mistene) How was ClimateWise funded?  A (Kellie) Through the City. I think it got off the ground with some substantial grants and then became fully funded by the City. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 6   A (Pete) I wasn’t around for the early years of the program, but I believe Kelly is correct. It was ultimately utilizing the City’s budget process with ongoing budget dollars. It was in a couple different departments but generally with City funded dollars.  Q (Mistene) Was there a reason for letting it sunset?  A (Kellie) There were a lot of reasons. From my reading of the evaluation the City did, it started off strong and heavily funded. It did get moved around to various departments with out a lot of communication on why it was moving or who it was moving to, so there were some struggles. Funding reduced over time and went down to maybe not even one fulltime person working on it but the time it did sunset. I can’t speak for the City but it came to a point where the realization was that the program needed to be reevaluated. Utilities maybe thought we are already doing this so why do we need a special program for it but there was also a lot of relationship building that wasn’t happening and fallout in communication. Priority, funding, and staffing became issues.  Q (Mistene) So how does ClimateWise and this program play into the City’s environmental and sustainability metrics and measures?  A (Pete) Going back to the other question, I think that part of the reason the program sunset was the in the recognition the way the City was tracking its greenhouse gas emissions and other sustainability metrics didn’t fully align with the way ClimateWise was. The ClimateWise program was doing it earlier and then the strategy around tracking evolved from there especially with the update of Our Climate Future framework. It was one of the discrepancies and reasons it sunset.  A (Kelly) It also had to do with the way ClimateWise reporting tool worked and it wasn’t verifiable with the State and it is if we do the green business tracker.  A (Pete) My understanding is that the way we are tracking currently, we don’t need to rely on it. Either way we are going to be tracking those numbers overall for our community. This isn’t my wheelhouse though so for an answer I would turn to environmental services.  Q (Renee) Is the City incentivized to support and promote the program or does this come down to voluntary business participation?  A (Pete) It comes down to voluntary participation, but I would say we are also incentivized to have a program like this to create the culture ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 7  and environment for sustainability to thrive in our business community. That is a big part of what CW did that we want to carry forward. The reality is there is other tracking tools we can use like the State’s green business tracker, and we can leverage some of these things happening in the community to accomplish business recognition around sustainability. By having a local administrator of a sustainable business program, we are able to build that culture and community to understand what local businesses want and need, and then represent that.  A (Dustin) Another big component with the City to align, in the background research report is the focus on equity justice. ClimateWise focused on businesses that were ready to jump into sustainability, where it didn’t focus on those small, marginalized groups. That is now a big focus and gives the City incentive to move forward with his program.  Q (Mistene) So to clarify, the primary incentive for the City is equity justice rather than environment; that is going to keep the City engaged in this program?  A (Dustin) that is one of the bigger components. I can’t say if it is their number one but as far as the plan goes, we want to lead with equity.  Comment (Renee) I am glad you are working with Boulder County because I do get the sense that there is a big commitment from businesses but a bigger commitment to if we are doing something about it. I see big differences in what they have done over the past six years versus what I am seeing here.  Comment (Kellie) There is also a bit of a difference in culture there. I cannot speak on how they go there, but the City and County of Boulder are more in favor of regulations, so they make it non-optional, and their community seems to support that. Here we found regulations really are not what people want. If you go around to businesses, you will see the ClimateWise badge. The businesses that participated are proud of it. They want to tell their story and let everyone know they are doing good in their community. More and more customers are looking to do businesses that care about the environment. I think this program serves the City of Fort Collins on a number of levels and it says the City cares about its small businesses.  Presentation The 14 businesses participating includes a variety of owners, business types, and sizes. Some of the companies include Golden Poppy and Otterbox. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 8   Some of the services in the pilot program include one on one liaison, resource library, sustainability goal setting assistance, site visit with follow-up recommendations, mentorship program, business training with SBDC, Spanish translations services, and efficiency works free assessment. Possible assistance with grant writing and more could be added to the list for the full program.  Q (Renee) Have you worked with the Better Business Bureau (BBB)?  A (Kellie) Audrea with the BBB is in our sustainability leadership program right now. At BBB they are doing a BBB For Good Certification. It is the first certification they are doing around social responsibility that businesses can go for. We have been doing events along side them. Audrea is also in one of our other training programs right now, so we are also trying to combine forces there.  Comment (Renee) They have a lot of close ties with businesses that we don’t see front facing like construction and landscaping. I think that is an opportunity because they can reach businesses when they may or may not have an office but are using a lot of resources.  Comment (Kellie) Going back to your question on getting the word out, that is the perfect project. We are working with Hannah with the Downtown Development Authority and Kevin with the Chamber. These are avenues we can use to communicate with businesses later.  Presentation We are also working with Auburn University and John Fisk, who was an intern at ClimateWise 10-12 years ago. We received an EPA Grant for $75k to do an in-depth barrier analysis around participating in a program like this. We have four phases of that. We will be looking at historical ClimateWise data, how the program was structure, why it sunset, and what we learned. The survey we are sending out to all past ClimateWise businesses and other businesses is very specific in the information we want to attain. We are also doing a focus group with some of our historically underrepresented business owners. The survey will also be in Spanish. It should be coming up next week. It will be a great opportunity for us. The survey is unique on a lot of different levels to give us great information but also be able to share with other communities.  Q (Renee) So is this coming out of their Environmental Engineering School?  A (Javier) Political Science  A (Kellie) That is where John Fisk is a professor. John Morris is the other professor. There is another associate professor and then two grand students. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 9   Presentation The pilot program will end on August 15th, and we will have a recognition event on August 23rd. We will then evaluate the program and the City will review the findings and recommendations on how to proceed with a full-scale program.  As for funding, the City provided $10k in 2021 to help build the Sustainable Living Association capacity. The program was able to hire an assistant to help Kellie. The City then contributed an additional $3k to compensate minority business owners for their time on the committee which came out to $25/hr. The Sustainable Living Association was awarded the grant from the EPA for the Barrier Analysis, half of it went to Auburn. In 2022 the City provided 8k for hiring a bilingual business engagement fellow and 5k for general staff support, meetings, and events for the pilot program. They do recognize there is a need for additional funding for the full-scale program.  They are asking for support from the Board with the resource library, building relationships with historically underrepresented business owners, ideas or throughs are previous projects like this, or recommendations moving forward on program design, business outreach and funding.  After it ends and the City reviews the evaluation, they will determine their stance on the program and what it could look like in the future. There is a line item for this project in the 23/24 budget for potential funding for both years. We will be able to see if they decide to fund it. If you feel strongly about this project, I encourage you to talk to your City Council Members. If it occurs with that level of funding, the City would need to go into a RFP process. We would competitively compete in that RFP and hopefully be the organization to stand out. There is no certainty when going through the RFP process, but it would be our hopes and dreams to be the organization to stand up this program. If that were to be the case, the City would be providing some initial funding for those first two years to help get it off the ground. I believe it was 120k each year.  Q (Mistene) Are there funding opportunities other than the City?  A (Kellie) It would be a lot easier to start with funding from the City because we are in a tricky situation right now because we don’t know if we are going to be the organization that will be standing up this program. We can’t be applying for grants not knowing if we are going to be utilizing them. There is a large EPA grant coming up that would be a good fit for us. I would say yes there is funding available, but we don’t know with any certainty yet.  Q (Mistene) If the City says no funding is it the end of this program or will another organization carry on the torch to try and find other funding. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 10   A (Kellie) If the City says no, we will do our best to try to find funding, knowing well it will take more than our organization has ever had in its pocket to do so. We would because it’s worth it.  Q (Renee) Are there any opportunities for other public or private partnerships to contribute?  A (Kellie) Yes that is one of the early assumptions we talked about if larger organizations would be willing to fund a program like this. It is a model we have already looked at but haven’t spent much time there. We don’t want to charge a fee for the program so that is a barrier.  Q (Renee) So it is a possibility then?  A (Kellie) I think it is worth working on. Kevin Jones, who is on our leadership team, and I have talked a lot about it. He has some great connections and relationships. He could go out and test the assumption. We would have to have a business plan and find out what it would take to stand up a program like this.  Comment (Pete) The goal of the budget offer is to see about getting a program off the ground so that these different funding opportunities that may exist can be understood and explored. Overtime this isn’t necessarily something the City needs to hold onto, as the way it is funded. We could even explore how the leadership program looks. We are not stuck with one specific way, but we do believe the City can benefit from funding getting this off the ground and that is what the offer is all about. Exploring community, public, and private partnerships might be able to make this thing a reality.  Comment (Kellie) Going back to the question about the City’s big moves with Our Climate Future, our work with the City on this specific task relates and ties to one of those big moves. With Our Climate Future, they are saying they can’t do it alone as a municipality and need participation from the community to do this. They need strategic partners to step up and help. So, we are aligned with their desires in the new master plan around that. I think the City wants this to happen.  Comment (Theirry) Not sure if you already mentioned this but HP is big about sustainability so that might be a good company to talk to  Comment (Kellie) Jacob with HP has been on our leadership team all along and has been terrific.  Q (Renee) I know sustainability also affects public health has anyone approached ____ and their health care business to see if they would be ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 11  interested in supporting some initiatives.  A (Kellie) I submitted two different rounds of grant proposals to their newest program, and we did not get funded either time. I think I could keep massaging. It is a hefty application.  Q (Renee) Has someone contact ____ and put a bug in her ear about it? I know it is not her decision but its her company so maybe there is a personal relationship that can be worked?  A (Kellie) I do have an opportunity to further that along. We will be strategic. The health benefit is part of our grant with the EPA, specifically around air quality and reducing CO2 emissions. Air quality is just one component of sustainability, but it is a very valuable one.  Comment (Kellie) On our webpage there is a page for this program. You can go through all our reports, and you can see just about anything. If you want something specific let me know.  Single Family Trash, Recycling, and Compost Contracting  Presentation from Sylvia Tatman-Burruss.  This fits into our adopted plans and it is a Council priority. It is part of Our Climate Future and the big move zero waste neighborhoods that creates a zero-waste system in the City plans and part of the City Strategic plan.  There are multiple types of systems. Pure open markets do not have regulations. Open market with licensing, which is how the City is currently operating. It requires haulers to be licensed with the City. In Fort Collins, we currently require recycling to be bundled with trash services. There are some things that can be required under a licensed system but essentially still open because the haulers can operate on the same street. HOAs can opt into a contract where their trash is paid through their HOA dues.  The City is looking at a contracted system. Multiple municipalities have gone to this type of system. It is done through a competitive RFP process. It could be for multiple haulers within a districted system or one hauler. A lot of communities our size go with one hauler. This is different from a municipal hauling system. Loveland is the closest community that has municipal hauling.  Fewer trucks in the neighborhoods is one of the elements that is specifically addressed by contracting. Neighborhood HOAs that contract would likely stay the same. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 12   Q (Mistene) Will you allow the HOA’s to continue as they are?  A (Sylvia) That will be a conversation with Council. That is one option. It is one we are leaning towards because a lot of peer communities do that, and it can be contentious for neighborhoods that want to stay with their hauler that already have a contract.  Q (Mistene) So haulers with HOA contracts would be grandfathered in?  A (Sylvia) They could be. We will discuss it with council. They could continue their current contract. We could require them to come onto the City’s contract once theirs is over, so they won’t be penalized for breaking a contract. We could essentially allow them to be grandfathered in and just stay with their contract. We would hope that we could incentivize them into the City’s contract by the economy of scale and that it would be cheaper for them to come on with the City.  Q (Renee) Would the HOA just pay the City?  A (Sylvia) It could be individuals, or we could work with the hauler. That is something we would need to figure out depending on which way Council wants to go.  Presentation There could also be predictable pricing. There probably would be escalations or ways they could increase pricing for things like gas or changes we don’t have control over, but it would be more predictable. Equity and customer service is something that would also be addressed with a contract. There could be a low-income program. We could also require a valet service for people who qualify for the driver to go get their bin and bring it to the curb and then back.  The contract would only apply to single family homes, duplexes, townhomes, condos, and multifamily complexes of 7 units or fewer. That is a State law requirement that it cannot apply to multifamily complexes of 8 of more, businesses, construction sites or industrial. We might be able to offer it to them if they want to opt in. Contracts may apply to HOAs that are contracted for trash and recycling services now.  Q (Mistene) What is the rationale for the exclusions.  A (Sylvia) That is State law that it can only apply to single family homes. We could offer it to them if they want it. Haulers get a lot of revenue from those, so I think the State wants to protect those industries.  Q (Mistene) Do you have any information on what year that law was ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 13  passed?  A (Sylvia) I am sure Caroline does but that is something I can find out for you. I am not sure if trash contracting was always allowed. I think that has changed to allow municipalities to do what we are trying to do. I am not sure on the history of it.  Presentation We did studies for the waste truck impacts in terms of road maintenance, greenhouse gas emissions, noise, and safety. Our current system is costing the maintenance fund and community around one million dollars. A hauler truck is about the equivalent of 1200 cars on a street if they are at legal weight.  Q (Renee) So one trip is 1200 cars?  A (Sylvia) Yes so you can imagine if there are three haulers on one street picking up trash, recycling, and maybe yard waste every week, that is where the impact is coming from. These are some general numbers from the impacts on our roads. We cold get more specific but if you were to move up to more haulers, that could increase. If we go with one hauler in the contracted system, we will get to a much smaller number around $300k instead.  Comment (Renee) I didn’t see these numbers on the slide and would recommend you relay that information to Council in writing.  Comment (Sylvia) There is a slide coming up with those numbers.  Comment (Renee) That is what is costing us money, it’s the damage on the streets.  Presentation We also did a pricing study, we know that our neighbor could be paying a different price for the same service with the same hauler. We collected bills from employees of the City and then the community. We are still doing the data but the range for the small cart is $10-16/month. We learned that the $10 is from the new hauler Mountain High and we think they have that price set to start trying to get in the market share, but they would likely raise that to be more average. The $16 is from our mor established haulers.  Q (Mistene) So the smallest size is the ones you buy at Home Depot, not the ones the haulers provide?  A (Sylvia) 32 Gallons is the smallest size you see. 96 gallons is the big size that you see that the recycling bins also are.  Presentation The $23-36/month is for the mid-size and the larger size is ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 14  $20-45/month. Now most people pay these as a quarterly payment. Yard waste is only offered by one hauler and that is $13-18/month.  Q (John) Did you get a decent number of bills?  A (Sylvia) We did get a decent number. We received a lot from employees and then the public. I don’t know the exact number, but it does give us a good range and understanding for the RFP.  Presentation These numbers are going to be compared to a single hauler with diesel trucks. Annual maintenance costs would save us ore than $600K. Green house gasses would decrease by 1200 for MTCO2e. A benefit to the contracted system is the ability to require things like compressed natural gas or electric vehicles, which would then save more. The large nationally owned haulers are better able to do that.  Q (Mistene) Is there a concern at the City level if they are a “small guy”?  A (Sylvia) It is interesting timing for this process because pretty much all the haulers that operate now are nationally owned. Even the new hauler is technically not locally owned. Their company is run out of Kansas City. There isn’t necessarily a small guy.  Q (Renee) What about Ram?  A (Sylvia) I don’t believe they are, but Caroline would know. I believe part of the timing is that there are not longer any of those small local haulers. They are accustomed to these RFPs and contracted systems. I think last time Gallegos was struggling with this because they were a local hauler, but they were bought out by Republic.  Presentation We are also looking at elements like noise reduction and even more if we require electric. Safety increases in neighborhoods due to less trucks. Again, there is the figure of one truck at the normal allowance of legal weight is equivalent to 1,250 cars. A lot of the trucks weight a lot higher than that.  Comment (Renee) If you multiple that by three for the waste, recycling and possible yard waste over two hours that is on one street…  Q (John) and they must go down both sides of the street. Is 1,250 when the truck is full or at its average weight?  A (Sylvia) I would need to look but believe it is average, not full, or empty. It also depends on the cars as well, are you looking at a smart car or truck? I think it is the average overall.  Comment (John) It would be nice to have that for Council. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 15   Comment (Sylvia) We do have the reports from a third-party company in the packets for them. There would probably still be those three trucks going down the street every week each side because of the three different services but you won’t have to multiple that by three or four haulers. They currently must go down the street even if there is one person being serviced.  Q (Renee) I know this portion has not been presented to Council yet, but have you gotten any idea as to appetite on Council’s idea?  A (Sylvia) Because it is a priority of theirs, they have said we want to do trash contracting. This is not a staff led effort, it is Council telling us to do it. That is part of the messaging in the community too as to why we are doing it now. They see the benefit of it and want to get it done within their term and to get it done right.  Presentation Some other potential benefits include a yard waste opt in. We get about 15% of residential yard waste that is already being diverted. If we do a spring and fall pick up, assuming 50-60% of residential waste could be diverted we would see a 5-6% reduction in waste emission. If it is bundled, which is what we are recommending, assuming 85-90% could be diverted, we could see a 9-10% reduction in waste emissions. There is not a lot of people getting yard waste.  Comment (John) It would be nice to have the bundled option because I have neighbors who want it but don’t want to spend the extra money.  Comment (Sylvia) We would hope that with the economies of scale, for the RFP process and it being City wide, you would get the price reduction in trash services so the yard waste could then be added at a lower rate than what people are currently paying.  Presentation Food scraps is a future program as we don’t have the infrastructure for large scale composing in the region. I think Boulder might have the ability but that is too far. It is in the works and once it comes online, we could include it in the next contract as part of the service.  Q (Renee) what kind of composting, only certain foods?  A (Sylvia) It would depend on the facility and how they break it down. In communities in Seattle, you can put everything in there and if it ends up in your trash you can be fined. That is not something we could offer this round, but we could get 75% effectiveness we could see an 8% reduction in waste emissions if everyone has the option to divert their food scraps. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 16   Presentation With a contracted system you can have a base and then work off it as other services become available like electric vehicles and food scraps. It would also help air quality because of the methane that comes off it.  Comment (John) Methane from landfills is a concern, but in our arid climate it is not as big as in a humid climate. The methanogens need an anerobic environment to do their thing, which is when they are wet. It makes me wonder just thinking about total volume waste diversion might be another useful metric.  Comment (Sylvia) We threw it out there since it is not something we can do right now but that is something we could say as a future savings benefit.  Comment (Mistene) I don’t see anything on recycling specifically.  Comment (Sylvia) That is because we already require it.  Q (Mistene) Does anyone have any feel for recycling from a market standpoint on if its really happening right now?  A (Sylvia) That would be a great question for Caroline as she has a better understanding of how much is getting recycled and where.  Comment (Mistene) We were at Taste of Fort Collins and there were not recycling bins, so my guess is it is not happening.  Comment (John) There was a recent study in the Guardian that said in the US 5% of plastics are getting recycled. There was also a recent bill passed at the state level that the producers are responsible for recycling. I am not sure how that will play into the full question, but it will take the burden off the municipalities and put it on the producers.  Comment (Renee) My husband volunteers at the recycling center and he reports numbers about it. He was telling me how cardboard is profitable, and plastic is not. He knew some of the numbers of what they get back vs what is costing them. Most of it costs the City money, but some of it doesn’t. I don’t know the numbers, but they are available.  Comment (Mistene) It also changes with the market right now. I used to work at a paper shredding company and sometimes they would make more money recycling the paper but sometimes they didn’t, and it would go to the trash.  Comment (Renee) The critical thing is where is the contamination? Let’s say its cardboard and its highly profitable and then someone ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 17  throws a greasy pizza box in there, it can mess up the equipment. I don’t know what happens to everything, but they can take trips to the processing plants and see how it can mess up the machines and wholesale product. What makes me crazy is I look in the recycling bins and anything is in there.  Comment (Mistene) I have teenagers in my house, and it happens to me too.  Comment (John) That is something I would like to see come out of this is more of an educational piece. I get the feeling since there is market competition that there is no feedback from the haulers to their customers.  Comment (Mistene) I am skeptical, I think it is just going to the trash. I feel like I put all of my stuff in the recycling bin to make me feel better, but it doesn’t matter because nothing is getting recycled.  Comment (John) Republic is using the normal trash trucks to collect recycling.  Comment (Mistene) At least we have the façade because the recycling truck comes by.  Comment (Sylvia) I wish Caroline was here because she is very passionate about this, and she could answer that. We can get that from her because there is something within our licensed system that recyclers and haulers are required to report contamination rates and where it is going. They must go to particular places with the current licensing. Now where it ends up, I am not sure, but we could ask Caroline.  Comment (John) It just seems to me that if there is contracting then they are not concerned about losing customers and they could say this is contaminated we are going to note that to the customer and next time we won’t take it or something similar.  Comment (Sylvia) Part of the contracted system is some more control like that. There would be requirements for education, customer service, reporting or etc. more than what we have with the licensed system. We could also get more requirements in the licensed system, but I think you are right that there would be some benefit to contracted and having one hauler.  Comment (Renee) These are national companies so they might be working with cities like Seattle that are more particular and diligent. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 18  They would know what is accepted and not.  Comment (Sylvia) There are those benefits with national haulers and having the requirements in other communities.  Presentation Haulers that are not awarded a contract would continue to serve commercial, multifamily, and construction site customers. It could continue to service existing HOA contracts. They could shift staff; in the RFP we could require them to hire folks that were laid off. It is not necessarily something we will do. They would also have 12-18 months to plan for the adjustments. Companies like Republic are accustomed to this in other communities. It doesn’t mean there isn’t an impact on the nationally owned haulers, certainly each one wants the contract. I am sure they might prefer a districted system but there is a lot to that.  For the RFP we would have these different items that needed to be priced out. Within the RFP we ask for certain things. One of those is pay as you throw which is volume-based, based on the size of your cart. Recycling would also still be bundled with trash. Both are currently required under the licensed system for us. We are required by state law to have an opt out option which would look like an opt out fee. This is so we don’t get a bunch of folks opting out and going with a different hauler, because that would defeat the purpose. We are recommending a fee equivalent to the smallest trash cart service cost. These are things recommended to Council, but they could decide something else. That is particularly true in the districted decision. A lot of peer communities our size go with one district and that is for a lot of reasons. Billing is easier because if you have two different haulers you may have to charge a fee to level out the differences in pricing. The City would probably not do billing, it would be the hauler doing the billing. Managing two contracts is also a lot. We would need staff to manage two separate contracts with the different reporting requirements and things like that. We are recommending one district. Council could decide to do something else. I think we could look at an admin fee for reimbursement to fund the contract management. We could have a way or opt in option to offer service multifamily and commercial locations. There would also be requirements for GHG reduction and safety improvements. We are under review for what those percent reduction requirements might be. These are some of the base recommendations we are looking at there are some differences between program options.  We are recommending package A with the other pieces. We would look at yard timing to be either bundled all year, seasonally, or have an opt in option. Food scraps to be added when infrastructure is available. For bulky waste collection, we don’t want people just dumping those items, but we don’t want to encourage people to off load a bunch of waste, so we are looking at 1-3 ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 19  bulky items per year by request and might have a size limitation.  Q (Renee) So like one sofa per year?  Comment (Mistene) Our neighborhood does a dumpster for three days following our garage sale  A (Sylvia) Yes that is one way to do it. I think there is a little bit of concern there if we do it City wide, its different equipment that brings out the dumpster.  Comment (Mistene) And could you even monitor what is going in the dumpster?  Comment (Sylvia) Right, it could be great for certain neighborhoods, and we could price out some roll off dumpsters, but it may not fit within out waste reduction goals, and so we are trying to find a middle ground.  Presentation (Sylvia) Carts are a big deal. I think it would cost around $11 million to buy carts initially. That is typical and could be financed as a fee that folks would pay. It could then go down to a maintenance fee after a certain amount of years. The City would own them, and the hauler would maintain them. That way if you switch haulers in a different contract, you won’t have to go pick them all up and redeploy them. You just keep your cart and if you wanted to switch sizes or needed another one, they could do that.  We would probably look at a low-income program, depending on the price we got back. That would be for people who either qualify for SNAP benefits or some median income percentage. That would be a qualify only program. We would also look at alley and valley services. We do have alleys within Fort Collins, and they are serviced different so we would want to include them. The valet service is for folks with physical impairment that cannot get their cart out to the street.  Q (Renee) So when it’s a residential alley, I wouldn’t think those vehicles can get in the alleys, are they wide enough.  A (Sylvia) I think with old town they are serviced by those trash trucks now, but we would want to make sure those are priced into the system. I am not sure how they are serviced now if it’s a different truck or someone hops off and manually loads it.  Presentation For HOA’s we are recommending them be able to opt in or they can remain on their own contract if they follow our requirements with recycling bundled and volume-based pricing. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 20   We have an option B to show Council some differences but there are not many differences between them.  Comment (John) It sounds like it might be nice for us to put together a memo for Council for June 28th.  Comment (Sylvia) The next work session is on July 12th and the regular session is on July 19th. That is basically the resolution that Council uses to have us move forward with the RFP. We would move forward with decision making in December.  Comment (Mistene) It sounds like its not a formal yes or no but we are going to do this. The real decision will be the bundles and options.  Comment (Sylvia) July 12th will be a conversation around priorities and pieces they want. Then they will direct us through the process. They could later decide they don’t like any submissions and they are not going to do this or they will do it again. So, the decision to move forward with the RFP process is what we are looking for on July 19th.  Q (Mistene) Are you only submitting the RFP to providers that are already in our market?  A (Sylvia) No, I don’t think so. I think it is required to go out to everyone.  Comment (Sylvia) As a group for you could recommend anything from these things. You could weigh in on whether to move forward with the contract or if you support what we have right now. We could offer our team to come back with any details you might need.  Comment (Renee) Usually as a board we create our recommendation, which is usually in alignment with staff and then we polish it and send it off. We don’t have quorum anymore so we can just discuss.  Comment (John) I would support drafting a memo to support the districting/contracting. What is everyone’s thoughts  Q (Mistene) I say keep it simple for efficiency for the City. Are you saying districted or one hauler?  A (Sylvia) So the contract is either districted or one hauler. Contracted is different from licensing. Right now, we are licensed; contracting would be moving to either one hauler or districted. Districted would be potentially 2 or more districts. It is a bit confusing.  Comment (Renee) I see districting as geographic ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 21   Comment (Sylvia) Yes so it would be breaking up the City into districts.  Q (John) So if we say we support districting that would mean supporting either one hauler or multiple haulers?  A (Sylvia) It would be more if you say I support a City contracted system and then we either do or do not support districting. Districting would be breaking the City up into two or more areas. A contracted system could be done with one hauler. A contracted system could also be done with multiple haulers and then it would be a districted, contracted system.  Comment (Shannon) And that would dictate the RFP process and how it is flushed out.  Comment (Sylvia) Yes Council could say structure the RFP to be contracted and districted. Here is the map of the districts.  Comment (Renee) So we should tell Council that we support, keep it simple.  Comment (Mistene) The question is what do we support? It sounds like we are moving to contracting so for us to say we support contracting doesn’t add value.  Comment (Renee) Well it is not decided. Council has a priority, they take it to the City and the City says we will do research, investigate and then make a recommendation. That is what they are doing. As a board and we don’t have to agree with everything, but if we think it is a good idea, we send a memo to Council saying we support this and here is why. They can listen or the don’t have to. It is a way for us to have some input  Comment (Mistene) So we would say we support contracting, should we take it to the next level and say we support districting or one hauler?  Q (Renee) We could say one hauler, right?  Q (John) What would you support?  A (Renee) I know there are restrictions, but I would say we support one hauler per district to help with street repairs, traffic, safety. It doesn’t make sense to have 2 haulers per neighborhood due to impact.  Q (John) Based on your presentation, what are you moving towards?  A (Sylvia) We are moving towards a single hauler as a recommendation because of the efficiencies it creates. But the ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 22  districting could include more than one hauler. The Mayor has asked about it from a City management of the contract perspective. We see it would require more resources to do.  Comment (John) I would support contracted single hauler. I think it makes the greatest amount of savings.  Comment (Renee) I agree  Comment (John) I see no reason to have a choice for your hauler.  Comment (Mistene) It is trash and it’s costing us a lot of money.  Comment (Renee) Legally though people must have a choice.  Comment (Sylvia) You must have an opt out and we would recommend it being an opt out fee. The fee would be the lowest level of service, so you might as well just have the service.  Comment (Mistene) The market will take care of itself. Someone is going to win he contract. We might have a few HOAs but even the ones with HOAs might not have enough business.  Comment (Renee) Multifamily housing too.  Comment (Mistene) It will play itself out.  Comment (John) The one with the contract will be more efficient than anyone else.  Q (John) Mistene, are you agreeing with one hauler?  A (Mistene) Yes.  Renee supports as well.  Sylvia mentioned they can add any of the details, like yard trimmings or anything important to them. Renee stated they like to keep it simple to better ensure it will be read.  Renee will send out an email to the Board that will include the presentation to get a vote with quorum for the memo. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS  None 8. BOARD MEMBER AND STAFF REPORTS  None ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 06/15/22 – MINUTES Page 23  9. OTHER BUSINESS 10. ADJOURN - 6:00 pm