GREAT WESTERN RECLAMATION, INC.1976

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If the contract is to be extended there should be a number of changes made in the present contract. These would include a changeover from the water meter to some other basic measure of payment to the contractor, the possibility of the contractor providing direct billing to the customers, changes in determination of commercial bin rental rates , the disclosure of financial records and possibly other considerations some of which the contractor has also requested. BACKGROUND The contractor, Great Western Reclamation Inc. sent a letter to the City Council dated November 25, 1975 covering seven specific points. This report responds specifically to only his first request which was for the extention of the contract period. The other six requests should be dealt with at a latter time following Council determination of whether the contract period is to be extended or not. The present contractor was low bidder and was awarded the contract beginning November 1 , 1963 and running for a period of seven years. Subsequent extensions of the contract by City Council provide now for an expiration date of October 31 , 1978 or a total contract period of 15 years. QUALITY OF SERVICE For quality of service we would have to give a high mark to the contractor, Great Western Reclamation, which is now owned by SCA Services. The number of service requests received from citizens during the 1974-75 fiscal year amounted to 1 ,042. This averages to 97 per month or 22 per week. Considering that over 50,000 refuse collection stops are serviced each week and that a strike occurred in May 1975, we feel that this is an extraordinary record. Very few of these requests can be considered as actual complaints. Some of them are misses and the company promptly follows up with a supervisor in a pick-up truck to take care of the missed collection on the same day that the call is received. Some are when the homeowner puts out his refuse after the crews have already been through the area. This fiscal year through November 1975 only 362 service requests were received. This amounts to 72 per month or 17 per week. The quality of service has been consistently high since the initial break-in period in late 1963 and early 1964. Our complaint level is well below that of other large cities in Southern California as shown earlier and compares not too unfavorably with the seven larger Orange County cities. Their average range is 28 - 66 monthly and Santa Ana' s runs 70 - 90. BIDDING EXPERIENCE IN OTHER CITIES A number of organizations were contacted to gather information regarding the experience of other cities that have rebid their refuse contract in recent years . These organiza- tions were The League of California Cities, Southern California Association of Governments, The Solid Waste Refuse News and Great Western Reclamation. We were interested in finding out what had happened to quality of service and price of refuse collection after rebidding as compared to these same factors before rebidding. Other cities' experience in bidding refuse collection contracts is very sparse. For example, in Orange County Fullerton is the only city that has recently bid their contract. This occurred in 1969. Prior to that Santa Ana bid in 1963. Other cities in Orange County range from 1955 to 1962. These data are shown on Exhibit A. In April 1974, Arcadia rebid their contract because the prior contractor went bankrupt. The new rate for single family residential service, once a week pickup, is $2.50 per month. The former rate was $2.50 per month. They received ten competitive proposals and the quality of service is considered very good. The contract provides that the City may audit financial records and rate adjustments are based upon contractor's proof through such records that he is entitled to a rate increase. Billing is handled by the contractor. The residential pickup is exclusive to the contractor but not the commercial . Arcadia's present population is 46,000. 2