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