SR-503-004 (10)~_ . .
City Council Report
~ City of
Santa Monica
City Council Meeting: January 23, 2007
Agenda Item: ~_ ~
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Craig Perkins, Director, Environmental and Public Works Management
Subject: Hazardous Waste Management and Transportation Services
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council approve additional contract authority for
hazardous waste management and transportation services in the amount of $47,110.19
to General Environmental Management, Inc.
Executive Summary
On June 20, 2005, Contract Number 8127 (CCS) with General Environmental
Management, Inc. (GEM) expired after a period of three years. Staff from the
Environmental Programs Division with the assistance of Purchasing issued a request for
bid to issue a new three year contract to the best bidder. At the conclusion of the bid
process, staff selected PSC Rho-Chem (PSC) to provide hazardous waste services for
the Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Facility. On September 13, 2005, Council
authorized the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with PSC through
June 30, 2007. The agreement with PSC was not executed until January 10, 2006, and
between July 1 and January 10, 2006, GEM continued to provide interim services on a
month to month basis. From the start, staff was not satisfied with the quality of services
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provided by PSC. Attempts to resolve the problems were unsuccessful, and on May 2,
2006, the City terminated its agreement with PSC and proceeded to work through
Purchasing to award the contract to the next best bidder. On June 27, 2006, Council
authorized the City Manager to negotiate and execute a three year contract with the
next best bidder, GEM, to provide hazardous waste management and transportation
services through June 30, 2008. On December 5, 2006, Agreement Number 8605
(CCS) was executed by the City Manager for a total estimated expenditure of $600,000.
Due to the lack of performance by PSC, GEM continued to provide the required
services on an interim basis throughout FY 2005-06 until the new authorization and
contract could be approved by City Council. As a result of these unforeseen emergency
needs, staff's administrative contracting authority was exceeded by $47,110.19. It is
therefore recommended that Council approve contract authority with GEM in this
amount.
Discussion
The City generates hazardous waste from emergency response, municipal activities,
and the HHW Facility, which serves to dispose waste on an ongoing basis mostly from
City residents and occasionally from small businesses. Nearly twenty years ago, the
HHW Facility was one of the first permanent facilities to be established in the nation and
holds itself and its consultants to a high standard of customer service and
environmental responsibility. The HHW Facility is open four days per week from
Wednesday through Friday from 7 am to 1 pm and Saturday from 7 am to 3 pm. On
average, staff serves about 3,000 Santa Monica visitors who dispose of approximately
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130,000 pounds of various hazardous wastes ranging from pesticides and paints to
motor oil and nail polish. Strict state and federal laws set the guidelines for accepting,
handling, storing, disposing, and recycling the various categories of hazardous waste
that are accepted at the Facility. Staff responsible for operating the Facility and
identifying, classifying, and segregating the materials are required to have extensive
hazardous waste awareness and safety training in order to properly operate the Facility.
In addition to operating the HHW Facility, staff oversees the proper management of
hazardous waste for all City operations, is responsible for educating and training
employees and residents about the dangers of chemicals, and works closely with the
Fire Department to provide emergency response for spills and abandoned hazardous
waste. Outreach is conducted on an ongoing basis through direct advertising and
marketing campaigns, student and adult tours, and collaboration with other government
and non-government agencies. Hazardous waste must be transported by state and
federally certified haulers and recycled/disposed of at state or federally certified and
permitted landfills. Due to limited space and the laws governing the storage of
hazardous waste, staff cannot store the waste it collects for extended periods of time
and is required to ship, recycle, and transport the waste from the HHW Facility on a
routine basis.
The decision to sever the agreement with PSC and award the bid to GEM was made
due to the inability of PSC to provide staff that could provide the services required at the
HHW Facility at the rates and level of quality quoted in their proposal. Two permanent
hazardous materials technicians must be present at all times in order to operate the
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HHW Facility with one acting as the lead technician. The City depends on contracted
staff to supplement existing staff, especially on the weekends when the volume of waste
being disposed of by residents increases and when staff is sick or on vacation. It is
critical that staff provided through the HHW contract is well trained and can operate the
Facility independently. On several occasions PSC provided staff that was not prepared
to work on time or trained with the basic knowledge and equipment required to handle
hazardous waste. These and other ongoing issues did not give the City the confidence
that PSC would be able to provide the level of customer service to Santa Monica
residents or City employees and staff continued to utilize the services from GEM while it
attempted to resolve the problems with PSC. When staff requested PSC to provide
qualified staff PSC quoted rates that were nearly twice as high as the rates originally
quoted in its proposal.
Subsequently, PSC informed the City that it would not honor the rates that it originally
provided in its bid for staff and submitted revised labor rates. The bids previously
received in June, 2005, were re-evaluated by the Purchasing and EPWM staff based on
the same criteria as the first review. Based upon this subsequent review, GEM was
determined to be the best bidder and Council approved the staff recommendation to
award the bid to GEM on June 27, 2006.
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Budget/Financial Impact
Funds in the amount of $47,110.19 are available in Environmental Programs Division
account number 31662.555130.
Prepared by: James Conway, Senior Environmental Analyst
Approved: Forwarded to Council:
Craig Perki s~ `JP. ont Ewell
Director - nvironmental and Public ~ Manager
Works Management Department
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