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Waste Management gets extension on Delray Beach contract

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — There will be no bidding for Delray Beach’s garbage pickup contract.  City commissioners on Tuesday agreed to extend for eight years Waste Management’s contract set to expire in September 2013 without putting the deal out to competitive bidding.

Cost to the city, which ultimately is passed on to Delray Beach residents and businesses: $6.36 million a year. Two other companies, Republic Services and Solid Waste Services, had expressed interest in the deal and had lobbied the city to open up the contract. There also had been some rumbling in the community that the contract should be put out to bid for the sake of transparency.

In the end, however, commissioners agreed that Waste Management provided good service at one of the best prices in Palm Beach County and had earned an extension. Final vote: 3-2, with commissioners Al Jacquet and Tom Carney favoring bidding.

“I can’t take this contract away from someone who’s done the job,” Mayor Woodie McDuffie said. “I won’t.”

“No one’s showed me where we pay a higher price; no one’s showed me poor service,” Commissioner Angeleta Gray said. “Waste Management has been an excellent partner.”

Commissioner Adam Frankel said it wasn’t an easy decision but he also favored the Waste Management extension. “If we put this out to bid, you may save a few bucks; you may not.”

But he said there was no way to guarantee the level of service the company is providing the city.

Jacquet and Carney didn’t disagree with their colleagues about the quality of work Waste Management provides. In fact, Jacquet said if the city would bid the contract, Waste Management likely would be the winner. But he said as a matter of policy, the contract should be bid.

“Putting it out to bid wouldn’t hurt us,” Jacquet said. “I think what it would do is give us more otptions.”

In return for the extension, Waste Management will give the city 125 solar-powered waste collection and compaction bins valued at $750,000 and service 23 trash bins at bus shelters throughout the city. Those bins are now handled by municipal employees; turning the duty over to Waste Management will save the city nearly $571,000 over the term of the contract.