Correspondence - #25 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Dear Mayor Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem Penaloza, Councilmembers Bacerra, Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza and Phan, Thank you for the opportunity to present this letter to you. My name is Stewart Rylander and I’ve worked for Athens Services for almost five years. I also thank you for the opportunity for Athens to be considered as one of four proposers under the City of Santa Ana’s solid waste request for proposal. It was noted during the special council meeting held June 22, 2021, that the four companies being considered are all qualified to service the City of Santa Ana and I agree with that sentiment. Having worked for Waste Management and Republic for 26 years and having a professional relationship with CR&R going back to 1993, I have a tremendous amount of respect for each of these companies, but most importantly, I’m proud to be able to tell people I work for Athens Services where our employees, from the frontline to the back office, are empowered to do what we do best every day. I’ve never worked for an organization with such a high level of employee satisfaction. As a privately owned local company, Athens Services takes a long-term view in our customer partnerships with our main priorities being to the safety and well-being of our employees, to the local residents and businesses of the cities and communities we service, and to environmental sustainability. Our significant and recurring investments in infrastructure and processing facilities ensures that Athens will exceed compliance targets, diversion goals and customer service standards, resulting in the highest level of contract compliance and satisfaction at the lowest possible cost to the City of Santa Ana. The hauler survey results compiled by HFH scored Athens Services as the highest ranked of the four companies. This is in the opinion of the council members and the staff of the surveyed cities we all service. rd This is the 3 recent RFP process where Athens was the highest ranked of all finalist proposers, most recently ranking at 8% to 41% higher than the other three proposers. We are the only one of the four Santa Ana proposers to Exceed Expectations in the opinion of our respective municipal customers. In summary, not only are we the highest ranked, but we are proposing the lowest cost of all four proposers. Seeing, learning and experiencing what I have over the last five years with Athens, these results are not surprising. In addition to the successful City of Los Angeles implementation in 2017, since 2016 we have been awarded and successfully transitioned three new exclusive franchise agreements with a fourth one scheduled for January, and have worked with each of the other proposers resulting in seamless service implementations. What’s most impressive is that Athens has never had to transition service to another hauler. These achievements are attributed to our leadership and employees who possess an unparalleled vision, commitment and drive to be the best public servants to the communities we service. In closing, I hope that the City of Santa Ana council and staff agree that entering into this long-term partnership with Athens will result in your expectations consistently being exceeded for the next ten years and beyond. We at Athens are honored to be considered, and are ready to be your solid waste services partner. Best regards, Stewart Rylander