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The Mountlake Terrace City Council had an opportunity to do some trash talking at its Thursday, Oct. 13 work/study session, when interim Public Works Director Phil Williams presented the details of a proposed 10-year contract with Waste Management of Washington, Inc.
The city’s current contract with Waste Management — which covers residential recycling, organics and garbage — was set to expire Oct. 31. The council agreed Thursday night to extend it by two weeks — to Nov. 14 — after learning the city did not meet the required notice period for a public hearing, which had originally been scheduled for Monday, Oct. 17. That hearing has been postponed to Nov. 7.
During the meeting, Williams talked about the city’s history with Waste Management, which has been providing solid waste collection services in Mountlake Terrace for about 35 years. In addition to discussing the terms of the new contract, he also discussed options the city could pursue in the future if it wanted to look at other solid waste collection alternatives.
It’s hard to do an “apples-to-apples” comparison among various municipalities, Williams said, because each contract is structured differently and often includes different costs and services. In addition, some cities, for example, may be in the ninth year of a 10-year contract while others may have just signed a new contract, adding to the pricing variables.
Mountlake Terrace’s Waste Management services contract is “all-inclusive — one price,” with the most common level of service a 35-gallon cart weekly, Williams said. (Smaller garbage cans and less frequent service are also available for those who need it.)
Assuming council approval on Nov. 7, the new Waste Management contract would begin Nov. 8, 2022 and run through Nov. 8, 2032. The first-year rate increase would be either 15% or 22%, and that depends on what contract escalator option the council chooses. (More about that below.) The second-year rate increase would be an addiitonal 7%.
Williams then provided councilmembers with a graphic showing how both Mountlake Terrace’s current rates as well as the proposed new rates compare to other nearby cities. The city’s current rate is $30.48 per month, putting it as the third least-expensive city on the list. With a 15% increase, the monthly rate would be $35.05.
A rate increase is requested because Waste Management said its current revenue doesn’t cover increasing costs, including labor, maintenance and fuel expenses, plus the increased cost of recycling. In addition, Waste Management has seen decreases in the market for recyclables, as China in particular has become more particular about the contamination of those items, forcing the company to look at other, more expensive alternatives.
Under the new contract, the city has two options for service levels: Maintaining the current service, which means all customers continue to have organics collections, or allowing for subscription organics — either weekly or every other week. Customers who chose not to use the organics service would see a rate reduction of $8 per month; however, Williams noted that option would be short-lived as recent state legislation will require mandatory organics be provided to residents of cities with a population over 25,000 starting in January 2027. Mountlake Terrace is likely to meet that population threshhold by 2027, Williams said.
Also under the proposed contract, the Waste Management trucks serving Mountlake Terrace will be new compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, powered by renewable natural gas recovered from Waste Managment landfills. The new trucks will also have additional safety features, he added.
Other contract details include an annual $20,000 donation from Waste Management to the city, which Mountlake Terrace can use however it wants. And customers get access to the My WM app, which allows 24/7 access to account information. For the each of the first 1,500 customers who set up an account or download the app, Waste Management will donate $1 to a city-designated charity.
Also, Waste Management will provide five coupons annually (the current contract provides four) for extra garbage bags, a community program that allows residents to dispose of more garbage at no additional cost. Those coupons can be shared with other residents and customers who have lost theirs can get additional ones at Mountlake Terrace City Hall.
As for those contract escalators, Williams explained the details. There are several common escalators maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
The CPI-W is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, and is what is included in the current Waste Management contract language
The CPI-U is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. These are developed for the entire country, by region, and for approximately 25 major metropolitan areas including the Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue area.
Price inflators are also broken down by specific sectors of the economy, including separate ones for water/sewer services and garbage/trash services, as well as a combined water/sewer/trash inflator (WST)
Waste Management has proposed using the water/sewer/trash inflator in the proposed contract, Williams said. The 15% increase in 2023 and 7% increase in 2024 would allow the company to catch up with increased costs since 2014 that have not been fully covered by the annual CPI-W adjustments. Williams said Waste Management is suggesting the new contract use the WST escalator because it more accurately reflects those costs.
Should the city prefer to continue to use the CP-W now in the current contract, Waste Management would adjust the initial price increases to 22% and 7% respectively (rather than the 15% and 7% under the WST escalator.
Staff is recommending the city use the WST cost inflator, due to the uncertainty associated with speculating on how various cost inflators will perform in the future, the likely small impact over time, the discounted value of future savings, and the current guaranteed savings during the first two years of the contract.
Looking to the future, Williams explained that the city has a range of options to consider for waste collection services:
– Continue to negotiate the current contract. This is the simplest approach, he said, as the city can compare terms and pricing with other communities.
– Issue a request for bids, based on price only in which the lowest responsive/responsible bidder receives the contract.
– Issue a request for proposals, in which respondents compete on both price and quality.
– Turn the process over to the state. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission will provide certificated haulers, although rates are generally higher and the service level is often lower. The cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood use the WUTC process to procure their solid waste services.
– Provide its own waste collection services. Among the cities doing this are Marysville, Olympia, Mount Vernon and Spokane. This approach requires a higher initial investment related to facilities costs, vehicles, staff and drivers, but it does give the city control over operations, labor costs, commodity revenues and customer service, Williams said.
In other business Oct. 13, the council heard an update regarding the Transit Connection Corridor Project, which includes the Veterans Memorial Park trail system and the public plaza adjacent to the light rail station on 236th Street Southwest.
The total estimated cost is $1.5 million for the pedestrian plaza and $3.577 million for the trails, which will be funded through Sound Transit, federal highway funds and the Puget Sound Regional Council.
Recreation and Parks Director Jeff Betz explained that the city began doing design work at the pedestrian plaza at what was formerly known as Gateway Boulevard and is now Van Ry Boulevard. The plaza itself is not yet named and that process will happen later, Betz said.
The project is split between two elements: the trails within Veterans Memorial Park and the plaza. The main trail, shown in red in the map below, runs from the light rail station — scheduled to open in 2024 — to 58th Avenue West. This will be a lighted asphalt pathway. The asphalt, lighted campus connector trail, shown at the upper right of the map in blue, runs north to the Civic Campus, will terminate just south of the police station. The north connector trail — shown in dark green at the top — will run from the Civic Campus over 60th Avenue West. That will also be asphalt and lighted.
In addition, Betz said, there will be a foot bridge with interpretive signage. It will be meant for pedestrians but will also accommodate city maintenance vehicles.
The city is also developing a vegetation management plan, and as part of that is performing a detailed tree survey at Veterans Memorial Park.
The trails project is in the design phase and is scheduled to be built in 2023.
Betz next provided an update on the design for the plaza, which was supported by Sound Transit Access Enhancement Funds, with final construction and future maintenance coordinated by the city. The original plan, completed in 2019, included a 2,000-square-foot developed area along with plantings and a cut-off trail. Additional Sound Transit analysis after that initial planning effort revealed that that a portion of the plaza was not doable, mainly because the fill calculations “ended up escalating the price for the city significantly,” Betz said. “We were going to have to pay for a lot of fill; we were also going to have to pay for all those plants that were going to go in there.”
Staff revised the design plan to determine what the cost would be if the area shown in red below was removed, which will reduce the costs, he added.
A decision that needs to be made regarding the plaza is whether it should include a water feature or public art? Both ideas were brought up at various times as public input was gathered on the project, Betz said, but “there’s been some rethinking on a water feature.”
Water features are expensive to build and maintain, Betz said, and the plaza location is “not very conducive to water cascading down, due to its wide-open nature as you are walking through the plaza and having the water blowing off your face,” he said. Betz also noted that there is a lack of public art in Mountlake Terrace. “To have something as a welcoming point piece of art was attractive to both RPAC (Recreation and Parks Advisory Commission) and the Arts (Advisory) Commission,” both of which “overwhelmingly recommended the art,” Betz said.
Councilmembers expressed varying opinions about the water feature vs. artwork. Councilmember Bryan Wahl pointed out that the Mountlake Terrace has “lake” in its name and noted that the public in general likes water features. Councilmember Erin Murray said she preferred the idea of a water feature but would be open to artwork, and wondered if it would be possible to combine the two. Councilmember Steve Woodard said he preferred the art option, as did Councilmembers Doug McCardle and Rick Ryan. Woodard also suggested the plaza include a map of the city, with the parks highlighted, as part of the plaza.
Mayor Koyoko Matsumoto suggested including “a really large statement art feature that everyone from light rail can see and say ‘Oh, we’re in Mountlake Terrace.”
Betz said that based on council feedback, he will issue a call for artists next week regarding the project. The notice will also include a preference for incorporating a water feature if the budget allows.
In other business, Acting City Manager Stephen Clifton said the city has initiated a search for a city manager and is using GMP Consultants for that purpose. The city is also looking to hire an engineer and a deputy city clerk, he added. Deputy Clerk Jennifer Joki has been appointed to fill the city clerk position left vacant when longtime City Clerk Virginia Clough left the city Aug. 31.
— By Teresa Wippel
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