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Refuse Stickers One Free HolidaMEMORANDUM December 6, 2003 TO: FROM: SUBJECT: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members Michael C. Van Miliigen, City Manager Holiday Refuse Collection Allowance With last year's implementation of the State-mandated Pay-As-You-Throw refuse collection system, the additional costs associated with this annual extra volume continue to be a concern to many of our customers. Last year, the City Council approved the distribution of one, free Extra Garbage Pickup Sticker to each City refuse collection customer during the holiday period. This proved quite popular, with over 5,700 stickers distributed from City Hall's utility billing counter. Operations and Maintenance Manager Don Vogt is recommending City Council approval of the distribution of a free Extra Garbage Pickup Sticker to each of our customers for the coming holiday season. I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council approval. Micfiael C. Van Milligen MCVM/jh Attachment cc: Barry Lindahl, Corporation Counsel Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager Don Vogt, Operations & Maintenance Manager TO: CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA MEMORANDUM December 4. 2003 Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager FROM: Don Vogt, Operations and Maintenance Manager SUBJECT: Holiday Refuse Collection Allowance INTRODUCTION The purposes of this memorandum are to provide information and recommend a course of action regarding the extra materials usually collected by City solid waste management crews during the year-end holiday period. With last year's implementation of the State-mandated Pay-As-You-Throw refuse collection system, the additional costs associated with this annual extra volume continue to be a concern to many of our customers. BACKGROU ND Attached is a memorandum from Solid Waste Management Supervisor Paul Schultz regarding this issue. Last year, the City Council approved the distribution of one, free Extra Garbage Pickup Sticker to each City refuse collection customer during the holiday period. This proved quite popular, with over 5,700 stickers distributed from City Hall's utility billing counter. This year. after again exploring the alternative of a one week amnesty period, Paul and I recommend the free sticker distribution. This year, to address concerns expressed last year regarding occasional long lines and the single distribution location. Paul, Finance Director Ken TeKippe, and Public Information Officer Susan Gwiasda have rewsed the proposed sticker distribution system. Those proposed revisions are outlined in the attached memorandum from Paul. Aisc, with the support of Housing Services Manager David Hards and Leisure Services Manager Gil Spence, we are able to triple our proposed distribution outlets, one of which is much more convenient to our customers who live on Dubuque's west side. ACTION STEP l recommend that the distribution of a free Extra Garbage Pickup Sticker to each of our customers be again authorized for the coming hotiday period. The proposed method and guidelines regarding the distribution are noted in the attached memorandum from Solid Waste Management Supervisor Paul Schultz. Attachment CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA MEMORANDUM December 4, 2003 TO: FROM: SUBJECT: Donald J. Vogt, Operations and Maintenance Department Manager Paul F. Schultz, Solid Waste Management Supervis(~ Winter Holiday Extra Refuse Accomodation The purpose of this memorandum is to suggest two altematives in response to customer concerns regarding extra refuse generation during the winter holidays. This concern is based on the container setout limits of the Pay As You Throw (PAYT) program dudng these heavy gift-giving holidays. PAYT especially affects this year's Thursday collection day customers, who with the transfer to Saturday collection would have an unbalanced number of garbage generation days. Last year the City distributed 5,700 Extra Garbage Pickup Tags (EGPTs) to walk up customers over the counter at the Utility Billing Service Center. The public's response to this free distribution was very favorable. First Alternative: Advertise One Extra BaR or Can at No Additional Char,qe: This exception would be allowed for each household or small business customer on their first collection day following Christmas. Second Altemative: Distribute One Extra Garbage Pickup Tag Per Customer At No Charge: This option is proposed for customer pickup at the Utility Billing Counter and two other city offices until January 16, 2004. Rationale for the alternatives: First Alternative: Advertise One Extra BaR or Can at No Charge: · Much of the packaging generated at Christmas is not recyclable: Styrofoam, foil-component greeting cards and envelopes, miscellaneous plastics, etc; · The extra refuse containers at this time of the year weigh very little, compact well and would only increase our cost of collection by a relatively small amount; · The accommodation could be presented as a holiday present / thank you for our customers' excellent participation in the PAYT program; · Families often feel financially pinched at Christmas and express that they would rather use their available dollars for presents rather than for refuse disposal; · With an extra-allowed bag, there would be less refuse left uncollected in alleys; · Advantages of this model would be that it does not require a distribution system and has no additional cost for pdnting EGPTs; and, · The disadvantages are that the one free container collection would be available for one set week only, would require heavy promotion, and would create heavy phone traffic from customers who were either out of town or stickered their extra container and would expect us to collect an extra container from them the next week. This model could create mass confusion. Second Attemative: Distribute One Extre Garbage Pickup Ta.q Per Customer At No Charqe. · The EGPT would be made available for customer pickup at the Utility Billing counter and two other City offices until January 16, 2004. Requests by phone to mail out the tag would not be accepted; · Customers could use the tag on any of their collection days in the future; · Some customers might criticize this alternative as too much of a bother to expect customers to travel to downtown and wait in a line for the small value of one free $1.05 tag. They may suggest that we mail a sticker to each customer. However, mailing a sticker to every customer would have a much more sedous economic impact on both the Solid Waste budget and the Utility Billing budget than a pickup option; and. · The estimated lost revenue for this model would be approximately $7,000. The following distribution guidelines were drafted for the Second Alternative with input from Finance Director Ken TeKippe, Customer Service Supervisor Marge Schemmel, Public Information Officer Susan Gwiasda, Housing Services Manager David Harris, Leisure Services Manager Gil Spence, and, Information Services Manager Chris Kohlmann: 1. The EGPT would be made available to the customer who receives the City's Utility Billing for solid waste collection services: renter, owner, property manager, or small business. 2. Customers paying the monthly solid waste fee for multiple housing units would be eligible to receive one EGPT for each of those units. 3. A renter in a housing unit where the owner or property manager pays the monthly solid waste fee would request the EGPT from the property owner or manager. 4. Customers requesting the EGPT would need to present in person an original City of Dubuque Utility Bill dated between December 9, 2003 and January 4, 2004. 5. These Utility Bills would be rubber stamped and returned to the customer indicating that the customer account has received the EGPTs at no charge. 6. Customers would pick up EGPTs at Utility Billing on the first floor of City Hall at 50 East 13th St. during normal business hours1 Additional pickup locations are proposed for Housing Services and the Leisure Services during their business hours. 7. A customerwould have the option to pick up one EGPT for their own household as well as for their neighbors or relatives as long as they have the proper, original Utility Sill(s) from the designated time-period. 8. Customers receiving multiple City Utility Bills for rental housing units or business accounts would have the option of picking up the appropriate number of EGPTs from Utility Silling. Instead of the odginal Utility Sills, a current Utility Silling printout listing multiple account billings would be used to determine the number of eligible housing units to receive the free EGPTs. These customers, or their designees, would need to present photo identification to pickup the EGPTs. Those customers that would not personally be picking up the multiple EGPTs would be required to provide written designation naming the approved person to pickup the EGPTs. 9. EGPTs would not be mailed out to customers unless a customer makes a written request and includes a self addressed stamped envelope along with the Utility Bill from the designated time-period. The Utility Bill will be returned to the customer along with the EGPT. 10: Phone requests would not be accepted. 11. Light-duty, laid-off seasonal employees, or, volunteers would be utilized, as available and as needed, to provide assistance to City staff at the three distribution sites. 12. Distribution would start Tuesday, December 16th and end Friday, January 16t~, 13. Customers may use the EGPTs on any of their collection days in the future. 14. This distribution model has been changed from last year in order to reduce the verification time in using a printout and the resulting waiting in-line time. Recommendation: Second Alternative: Offer One Extra Garbage Pickup Tag to each customer via pickup at designated City offices.