Parks, Education, Recreation & Health Committee - Regular Meeting

We figured it out.

Good afternoon. I call to order this sustainability and beautification committee on Wednesday, 05/20/2026 at 2PM. Clerk, will

you please call the roll?

Com Ives Here. Jones, Driscoll, Kramer, McPherson, one present except for Meldon, also present Morris, also present Sorrento, also present Gaddis, also present and president Williams, also present. Thank you so much, Clark. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for coming to this important discussion.

We will be discussing the, curbside refuse and recycling contract today, in addition to, to follow the bulk set out, proposed legislation as well. If you a couple of housekeeping items. If you wish to speak today and address the body, there's a sign up sheet that's on the table to the to your left over here. Please feel free to sign up. We will call everyone up in order.

You will likely get around three minutes or so to say what you have to say. We'd love to hear from you. So please sign up if you are interested. The way this is gonna roll is we'll have an opening presentation by the by folks from the administration, and then in conjunction with some folks from, Republic who are here with us, today as well. We'll go through their, proposals and and talk about what the proposed contract might look like. And then once we wrap up the republic discussion, we will move into the bulk set out discussion after that. Wonderful. So I will kick it off to the hand it off to the administration.

Wonderful. Good afternoon. Thank you, chair Comive's members of council for having us today. I'm Megan Robson, chief of operation for the city of Toledo. I'm joined by director Joe Fosnaw of Department of Public Service, commissioner Ryan Murphy of the Solid Waste Division.

And we also have, representatives from Republic Services here today with us, Rick Rolfe and Giovanni Harper. So during the hearing today, we will review the proposed five year agreement with the option for five one year renewals that we have legislation currently in committee for with Republic Services. And additionally we will provide information about the communication, the technology enhancements, and service level agreements. We'll also walk through the proposed agreement price and contract terms, as well as focus on some timely refuse and recycling collection services, communication enhancements, technology and camera enhancements that Republic Services is gonna share with us today. So I'm gonna turn the presentation over to Rick and Jaimani, and they'll walk you through some information.

Good afternoon everyone, Jaimani Harper. And first of all, I'd like to say thank you to the sustainability committee as well as the council and inclusive also of the administration for allowing us to engage into a opportunity for, to continue our partnership. We've proudly served the city of Toledo for over fifteen years and we look forward to serving the city for many more years. I'm joined today with my partner here, the GM, Rick Roth, as well as a number of Republic employees who have decided to, who are participating today. Sean Warren, our Operations Manager and Rochelle Bowen, our Municipal Manager.

So I'll kick things off and certainly if there are questions, we can work through those as well. But I'll start off with our agenda today. I think you all have a copy of the PowerPoint presentation. We will work through technology, communication, customer service and education, the contract overview and service offerings. And then finally, we'll wrap up with the service level agreements we've been working with the administration to include into the potential new contract.

All right, when you think about at Republic, camera technology is not new for us. One of the first generations of camera technology was built around the idea of safety. Safety for your community, safety for the driver, and it also allowed for feedback, direct real time feedback to the driver of the surrounding around them. So our first generation in our trucks today are equipped with camera technology. And so as you think about the future, what I'd like to share with you is the new technology that will allow a bit more of transparency with service, it will allow the opportunity for the city and republic to have direct, some direct ideas of where we are today.

Thank you. So just a little bit, and I know we have the PowerPoint presentation here. Real time tracking. So every truck, the city will have access to our portal, it will be a shared portal where you will have real time tracking of every truck in service. There will be a bread crumb trail which I'll explain how the technology works of every house that is, that has a trash can out or not out.

You will have the opportunity to be able to request on videos for services that have been completed or not outs are the ones where we would say a service is not out or missed. We would be able to look at direct address for any service event that has occurred. So in the event there is a missed pickup and there is a customer who says hey, Republic missed me, we would have video evidence and I'll walk through that on our next slide on how we are able to see the lift image as well as the property image when our truck comes in front of the house. And then later in 2026, we anticipate while this technology is available for the waste and recycling collection today, this will also be available for bulk pickup for verification and compliance. Next slide please.

So taking look at for taking a look at, you can see that how

does

the technology work. When our truck pulls in front of the house, it will be able to see the home address, so the first image would be the property image. So we'll be able to verify the property image which is in the top left hand corner. And then there's also a camera connected to the arm. When the can is serviced, we will be able to see not only that it has been completed, but we will also be able to see if we're looking at things such as recycling, what types of material or from contamination that would be in there.

So that would be more of the generation three, but just wanted to share with you we would be able to see that the city would have direct access to being able to see those specific addresses as a can as service. Moving over to the right hand side of the page, I shared earlier that the city would also have the collection routes for all of our trucks. And so while you would not, when you dial into the portal, you would be able to see the truck on route. I usually, there's if you look to the right, there's three dots, one is green, one is yellow, and one is blue. The truck is in the middle, it's that yellow, it's the orange along the street.

And you can see that there is a yellow dot, a green dot, and a yellow dot followed by two blue dots. The green dot is that it shows, indicates that the house has been serviced. So we will be able to see which houses have been serviced. A yellow dot indicates it's a potential not out or the house has yet to be serviced. And so along with the republic, the administration will be able to see any specific court, any specific houses where there was a not out or a missed service.

The following two blue dots shows the direction that the truck is going, and those are the next two service events. So once it completes the yellow dot, it will move on to the next two blue dots. So you'll be able to see in the event, there's a reason the truck is late, someone says hey, the Republic's not here yet, we will be able to see that they're on their way. I'll pause for any questions.

Council Member Melden. Yeah, just curious about, is like a resident portal, like actually having the ability for not just the city. I mean, maybe that's what you're saying when you say the city will have access to it, but I'm curious if you could differentiate between, I think about Megan and her entire team versus like my neighbors who are wondering, did their trash get picked up?

Yeah and thank you for sharing that sir. When I reference the city having access, it would be city administration. We do have, we do have not for this particular technology, but we do have Track My Truck where residents can sign up for individual based on their, they can include their own individual address to see if their address has been serviced. Is that contract? It is a technology that's available today that a resident can sign up for TrackMyTruck.

That's great, I appreciate that. Forgive my specificity. It will that be a part of the contract we are voting on?

Yes, so that technology is available today for residents and will be a part. The technology I'm discussing today is real time And the track my truck is a delayed that shows it in segments. So it will show it as a street is being completed versus a real time. This is a real time where we can pull up a truck and see where it is on route, what the city will be able to see where it is en route, as well as if there's an event that has occurred.

Cool, thanks.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you. How long will the images be kept and logged

by Yeah, so the, we will have the images, I mean we can, their video, there's a video log of the images. So I mean they will be up for a year, we will have those images in our database.

So every year it'll erase? Like how long do you store them? Like we have flat cameras, they take pictures, we keep them in our database for thirty days then they're erased. How long will you keep store the video footage of our residents' houses?

Yeah. You know, councilwoman, I I will say that I I probably would have to find out as far as how long we will store those. I don't want to necessarily share information and it not be correct there. But I can tell you we will have them for at least a year.

Okay, I can do that by referral. And then this is for the administration. Will the technology that Republic is sharing with the administration since it's going to the administration, is that going to be able to be work with Ptolemy so that we can get a printout of patterns? Because when I drive the neighborhoods, I put the I put the addresses in and I can see patterns. And if that if their technology is going to you, that doesn't necessarily help us as district members. So will they be compatible?

Sure. So the goal of the technology is not only is it gonna be real time information that we have on where Republic will be going and servicing for our residents but But also it'll be a tool that we can use with Engage Toledo and the customer service representative. So when we have residents calling in to Engage and asking about pickups or stops for example, that is something that we would be able to hopefully respond to them in real time and a little quicker than we can today. That information we can look at as we're getting that information how we could upload that into Ptolemy. So any city work service requests and stuff, of course, would be in there. But we could also look at getting the information from their database and seeing how it could work with Tolomey.

Okay. Yeah. Because I think it's an interesting I I like the idea of the technology, mister Harbor. I I think it's got really good potential. If there are people that are not getting their cans out regularly, I'd I'd like a place where I can see that because maybe as a district member then I can go and do some mediation or see what's going on as well. I just wanna make sure my my residents are being served. And if I don't have access to that technology or that information, I can't do my part. So, thank you, chair.

Mister Serratzi.

Thank you, mister chair. So I just wanna clarify. So if if my garbage is not picked up, I call Engage Toledo. Engage Toledo will then immediately check and see what's going on and report back to me. Is that accurate?

Republic.

Yeah, we would actually prefer that the resident call Republic because they're the service provider there and Republic would have the real time information. But if if residents do call engaged Toledo, you know, our hope is this technology would allow us to be able to respond to them quicker and have that information

for them. So the recording will remain where it says, you know, if you have an issue with trash, call Republican, such and such a number

or Yes. All information on the cans. And when you call engaged Toledo today, then, you know,

you can

press for Okay.

Republic. That would all remain

That's

why I wanted to clarify. Okay.

If somebody calls and says my can wasn't picked up and then we go back and pick it up, how much does that cost us every time we do that?

Are you saying cost the city to do that or is that costing Republicans?

Yeah, have to send another person out and right. I'm trying to drive the fact that this is about to save us some money potentially right. Like the reality is we'll be able to see if the person actually had their can out or not.

It's our stance of perception still. I mean it's it's great to be able to see if the reason it wasn't picked up because it wasn't out there. That's more of an education to us.

Mhmm.

We're still gonna go back and pick up that card.

So it wouldn't be like, hey, you didn't have your can out, we'll make sure we'll get it next week.

No.

You're still gonna go get it?

Yes.

Great, okay. Mr. Melvin.

Thanks, just one other quick thing. I just think the concern I have after Councilman Soranci's question is it seems like we have a nice piece of technology that isn't actually making the customer experience any better. And maybe I'm wrong, so correct me. But it would be nice if the technology eliminated the need to try to talk to a person. Because what will actually happen, if I heard, if I understood what I just heard, what will happen is what happens now, which is someone doesn't get their can picked up.

If they have my cell phone number, text me. And then I call Rochelle, and we have a lovely I text you, thank you for being so responsive to my text messages. And then it gets taken care of. And it's like two more people involved than should be. And so I'm just curious, maybe it might be like a page on our website that just puts that feed up there and then they can hit, I have a problem, here's my address. I don't know. I'm just trying to get people out of it because it just slows it down. And it's not me, I love talking to my constituents. We chat about other things. But I'm saying it's not a great customer experience add on actually, Unless I'm missing unless I'm misunderstanding. If I if I am, correct me. Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you. What I have found when people need to call in to Republic to the customer service line, Sometimes they get people from other communities who aren't necessarily familiar with our community and then they get misinformation. So I don't know that it's on a regular basis, but when I have had people call in they have been concerned that it's that the information is not getting to where it needs to go or that the people don't understand our community. And so and maybe that's later on in your in your presentation, but I just want that to be understood that if you know if we're still planning on having people call and I'm okay with people, people are good things to me. If we have them you know reaching in to make a complaint that they actually understand our community and understand what we're talking about.

Because what again, what I have experienced is same thing with Councilman Melden is that they feel like they haven't been heard through customer service and then they say, okay, well Teresa can you help me with this and I do the same thing. I contact Rochelle. Thank you Rochelle for always answering our concerns And then hopefully we get some type of feedback that I can give back to the to the constituent. So again, it's that same you know circle that we end up having. So however we work this situation, if you could keep that in mind. So thank you.

We have no more questions at this time. Thank

you, next slide. So it's an ongoing communication in collaboration with the city of Toledo. We're dedicated to maintaining an open line of communication. One of the things, we've had a couple of items that we've worked with the administration and we've heard you, City of Toledo, and some of the items that are important to you and we'd like to address just a few of those. And so as you think about the community meetings, we are committed to continue the community meetings.

I know there are neighborhood block watches. Many of you know Rochelle, you know, you have met Sean, you've met Rick. We are committed to continuing to be a part of those, as well as the general council meetings. And then one of the things that I know that while we've had it, and it may not have necessarily been in the community is the educational outreach that we have. We have a dedicated program for K through 12 for recycling and waste.

And our team is committed, we've had a dedicated person to do monthly outreach. I shared with council president to share with us some, as well as the administration, some schools that we could start with. And we would love your support in on the, as a cross group of schools that we can support to do the educational pieces. As a part of the contract, one of the other pieces that was really important to the city was the customer service data reporting and the SLAs, which you will hear more of today, service level agreements. The service level agreements are accountability tools.

They will hold the contractor accountable to miss pickups, to delays, to several of the items, and Rick will discuss those items. But we've worked with the administration, taken some comments, and those items will be included in the next contract. So we will have reporting as it relates to the SLAs as well as the status of any initiatives around the educational programs. Lastly with shared media, one of the items that we found that was an opportunity was to have joint communication regarding planned and unplanned interruptions. So any time that maybe a street is down or we have an outage or there's a weather delay, how do we work together with the administration to make sure that we have a cold message and that we're getting out a timely message.

And so we have, we are certainly dedicated to making sure that we have worked with our comms team and the city's comms teams to make sure our messages are aligned as it relates to shared media in addition to anything with the city's website or any of the social media pieces that to support any of the planned or unplanned outages. The last portion of this is the service level agreements. These are items that will be included in the new contract. And so we will work through those and share those. Oh I'm sorry, yeah.

There we go. And so Rick will now walk through the customer service plan.

Okay, first off it's gonna be local specialized agents. So

Request that you pull the microphone closer.

How's that? Better? Yeah. Okay. Sorry. So first we're gonna talk about the local specialized agents. So that's when you call Republic Services. They're gonna be specialized dedicated agents to address the needs with knowledge in the city of Toledo. So that's gonna be their job. Their focus is gonna be on the city of Toledo.

We are also going to provide a customer retention supervisor for all of our business reviews. They have the knowledge and information on the calls that are actually coming into the center, so they'll be able to share that and discuss with that. And the other thing is is that we will be providing a logistic analyst that's gonna be responsible for the city of Toledo. And the customer service will will be Monday through Friday from 07:30AM to 5PM. The account accessibility in it was a little talked about a little bit already is that the residents will have twenty four seven online access at republicservices.com or with the Republic Services app.

You'll be able to get real time service alerts and schedule additional services, report missed pickups, or or request a repair or replacement container. So that gives that that that doesn't does eliminate the call. If you need a new cart, they'll be able to do it on the app. They wanna report a missed pickup, they'll be able to do that on the app. That's all part of that program.

And then this has been talked about also is the service level agreements, and we're gonna go in more detail with them later on here. But these, excuse me, service level agreements are will in the new contract, they'll align with the city of Toledo's agreed upon SLAs. And then some of the examples of that, and again we'll talk more about it, is hold time on when calling in for service and twenty four hour response on cases on business days.

Next slide.

One moment please. Councilmember Gaddis.

Thanks, chair. I appreciate your communication plan. One of the concerns I had that I brought up in a meeting is that in the brochure that you have on your website, there's conflicting information with the city of Toledo. Are you going to have someone focused on updating your information or making sure that it's compatible with our MARCOM department?

Yes. Yes.

That's a huge thing when you when you print out your brochure and and you're giving it to a neighbor and it says something completely different than what the city has. And then I feel like I've been yelling from the rafters about it for at least a couple years and no one has updated it in Republic. So I just wanna make sure if we're moving forward with this, with you as our provider and our partner, that the the information is going to be the same so that our residents have a clear line of communication. Yeah.

Yeah. Think I what they're seeing is the generic stuff when they're looking at that. I think you're absolutely right. We need to make sure they're directed to the information that matches the label.

Okay. I appreciate that. Second of all, the customer service, I have I I'm I'm a little maybe the administration can explain to us. For the last ten years, we've had our residents call Republic. In this year, you came to us telling us we're going to set KPIs, and yet the customers are still going to call Republic.

Are we just honoring those KPIs, basing them on an honor system? Because I would think like, how do they are they providing the complaints to us, the numbers? Like, how do we know they've met those goals of the KPIs if they're calling Republican not and not engaged for instance. Or if they're calling, like councilwoman Moore said, if they're calling us or and I and I love Roshana and she's a blessing, but or if they're my neighborhood leaders are reaching out to her. How is all that going to be compiled?

Because there's so many avenues and we're all gonna be funneling them into Republic. There's like not one stream and then we have to base that for those KPIs. Could you explain that more?

Sure, so the idea would be that all of the information would be tracked. So any information that comes into the city of Toledo through Engage Toledo would come into Cityworks and every single call is logged. So we would have that information. We would also have all of the information that's coming in through Republic Services. Currently we meet with Republic Services on a monthly basis to review data that is coming in, the calls that Rochelle's getting, the calls that the call center's getting, etcetera.

And we go through that information. There are Excel spreadsheets of that data that can in fact be verified as we're working through these service level agreements and the key performance indicators, the KPIs that council member Gaddis mentioned. We are also looking at what makes sense as far as percentages and how this information is gonna be audited. It is not possible for someone to go out and verify every single address, every single day, every single time. So what we're doing practices through service level agreements that other municipalities have done with their municipal provide refuse and recycling providers.

And we're also looking at what makes sense for the city of Toledo on the 94,000 households that we have and what those percentage markers would be for missed pickups for example, missed refuse and recycling for call times and the wait setters. And so we're using those and that data and really focusing more on percentage basis.

Okay I hear you and I appreciate the hard work that you're doing but I just as a council member this long I would feel better if it was coming into our system so we could track it versus nothing against Republic, but these are our numbers. It's our residents' hard money going into this stuff, and I just feel like we would be a better representation. I might be a minority in that, but I just want to get that on the record. Thank you, Chair.

Of course. Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, Chair. Can we go back to the previous slide for a second? What in this represents a change from what's going on right now? So how many specialized dedicated agents do we have right now dedicated to the city of Toledo, customer retention, of that. Can we just go kind of line by line? What's different about our current arrangement with Republic currently and what's been presented on this slide here?

Well, on the first one I'll say that currently it's more of you call in and it's gonna go to the available agent. Where now it's gonna be going specific to specialized agents that have been trained on Toledo and understand the process here. So that's a big difference there.

And are they only working Toledo or do they work other accounts?

It's I believe it's gonna be specific to Toledo.

Okay. So right now there's nobody specific to Toledo, but there would be two people specific to Toledo Correct. In the about the other positions that you list here, the customer retention supervisor, logistic analyst?

Yeah. So currently they're not part of those meetings. They're not part of those reviews, but we're bringing them in on those and we think it's gonna be very helpful for everyone because of the understanding of the system and what's coming in and the explanation for it.

Okay, thank you.

Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you. One of the things that I think has been a problem for us was kind of the middleman that we had with the Lucas County waste folks having the contract, And then the city of Toledo perhaps not communicating with Republic and through Lucas County, I think it was kind of a mess honestly. And so when we have an issue like council member Melden and council member Gattis, you know, what we've done is we've we've contacted Rochelle. Now that hasn't necessarily been in our city system and so I guess this is more of a kind of how sausage is made, How you're going to figure out when someone contacts me, what is the protocol to put it into any system? Is it Engage Toledo or is it through Republic?

How are we going to have those metrics I guess to communicate between the two of us and the members who are district? And actually at large too, I don't want to exclude them as well because they get kind of casework calls as well. So I guess I just want to make sure that we're all talking the same language so that we can make sure that these SLAs are really being adhered to. So I don't know who wants to answer that question perhaps. Megan if you wanna take

Sure, yeah I'm happy to answer it and maybe I wasn't clear in my response earlier so if I wasn't I apologize. All of those calls will be tracked and should be tracked through Republic Services and their mechanism that they use and the City of Toledo mechanism that we use through Engage Toledo and CityWorks. When we come together to review the information, currently right now we do monthly meetings, we anticipate those will continue. We will have that data and be able to see what is happening on both sides. And use that information in that data that is being collected both from the city of Toledo and Republic Services to determine if those service level commitments are being met.

I guess my question is, so something happens and it's communicated perhaps to Republic, perhaps to engage Toledo, they still get to us, right? They still say Teresa Morris this is still a problem. I, right now I go to Rochelle. Rochelle gets me immediate information back. But you don't necessarily, maybe you have it, maybe you have it.

I don't know. I know I have it. So I guess I just want to make sure that we are all in communication somehow. Our casework that we do with what you do so that everybody knows that the problem that I have, whether it was communicated to you guys or not, that it's still a service level agreement problem. You know what I'm saying?

And so I just, I wanna make sure that all of us are talking the same language. And so when I was talking with councilwoman McPherson earlier today who is not here, she had said that perhaps you would give quarterly, at least quarterly, maybe monthly, I don't know, reports to this committee and that's up to the chair. But you know just to kind of let us know how things are going. So I think you in this situation, I don't think you can have too much communication is really what I'm saying and I want us to have a clear us up here on the dais to have a clear understanding as to how we fit in with what you're doing because we're still gonna get them at some point. And I just wanna make sure that you you get what we're doing and we get what you're doing is really where I'm going with this.

Of course and any information you would send to us or send to Republic would be logged and then that would be reviewed during those monthly meetings. And then I think I'm happy to, I think it would be appropriate to provide counsel quarterly reports on those service level commitments and where those percentages stand and where they're being met.

Okay, thank you very much. Sure.

And we can certainly look at quarterly updates of the committee, build them into other committee hearings. Course, Council President Williams.

Thank you so much, I appreciate it. I actually have to dip out to do family things so I really wanted to make a comment before I left. As one of, or if not the loudest opponent to coming back to the table with Republic, I want to say I am pleasantly surprised and happy with where we're at. I mean not happy, I'll say content. Sean actually, Sean Warren from Republic, Rick and even Jaimani, I actually spent two hours with these folks.

No, I'm joking. I actually had two hours with Jermani and Sean just talking over some of my concerns. Sean has been down I think every week we've had a meeting to talk about different things and I actually shook the table at a meeting with the administration council and republic and they definitely heard my concerns and respected what I was saying. I believe, here's the thing, I believe we're on track to do better with Republic and rebuild this relationship. And if I say this, you know it got to be true because I was like, I don't want to go back to the table, I don't want to do anything.

This contract actually saves the city 6,000,000 versus the priority contract. This contract actually has the KPIs in it. This contract is ours, we own it and we have the capabilities of holding the company accountable. I also am really interested in having this ad hoc committee as well with the Teamsters, with Republic, and with council and administration to keep building this relationship with one of the districts that was definitely underserved, it was underserved. And along with District 3, I do believe that it has gotten better.

It's not all the way there yet, but I am willing to get in the ring in this and make sure it gets better. One thing I will say is as far as the KPIs, I'm excited to see that we finally have that accountability measure for us. Fighting for the last five and a half years was tiresome for me, it was cumbersome for me because, I'll say it again, it felt racially and socially economically damaging to the communities I serve and that's the reality whether you like it or not, was what was going on. And sometimes we have to speak the truth for things to get done. I do it a little bit differently, but I do it because I'm serious about really having a real impact.

Having the conversation with Jaimani and Sean actually opened their eyes to I am not a bad person, I'm just fighting for what's right and trash is a basic necessity that we pay for as residents and I'm willing to understand that there was some faults there, but it was not on the residents of Toledo. We put our trash out, pick it up. There were some things, yes we lacked the education pieces there, now we have it. So, I'm telling my colleagues I am ready to get into this relationship again. Everybody need to clap with that.

I'm just saying, I'm ready to get into this relationship again, but I'm ready to come into this relationship with authentic discussions. There is no more, you're not hearing us or we're not hearing you. We are at this table, let's take this opportunity to grow this relationship. Now if you all start slipping, just be clear, I'm a tell that you all slipping, I'm a say it loud. But as I sit here today, the savings that is in this contract and it was hard for me to say, okay, I'm going sit here and listen, but we need something.

So the savings here, I did see the camera systems and I was definitely loving that. There is some stuff that we can work out as we go along, but like I said, I'm ready to get in this relationship. I am excited about trash improving, I'm excited about the relationship being built and I appreciate everyone listening and being willing to understand that trash is important and it's important for the quality of life of our residents in Toledo. That's all I got. Thank you so much, Chair, I appreciate that. And please do not take my leaving as I'm done talking about this. I actually have to go get a baby. Thank you.

Council Member Melvin.

Thanks. Call volumes last year, Toledo focused call volumes. I'm curious how you came up with the number of two specialized call takers, dedicated agents, think is what it says. Do you know what were the call volumes last year that you received? How do you know two is the right number?

While Rick's working through that, so much of the call volume, so you're not really paying apples to apples. Last year we had a call in bulk program. And so in order to have a bulk pickup, you had to call Republic. Today that doesn't exist. Ever since January when we implemented the five items, residents can sit up to five items out on their regular trash pickup every week. So that has eliminated call volume significantly of when you think about year over year, month over month, we've seen a significant downturn in the number of calls that we receive because no one has to schedule bulk anymore.

Maybe I'll try a different question. I appreciate that, that makes sense to me. How did we come up with two dedicated agents?

So we worked with the, excuse me, director of our CRC area and we looked at the numbers. I don't have them in front of and apologize for that, but we looked at the numbers of what's actually coming in. As Jaimani said, our numbers have dropped significantly from Not where they just with the bulk, but the service improvement and we've seen a reduction there too. So based on that, that's where we came up with the two. Now if something happens and then we have to tweak something, then we'll obviously we'll look at it. But right now we feel confident that with what we have, we can the calls. Okay.

Yeah. It's good to know you can adjust. Mean, only thing worse than calling someone who lives in Dallas trying to figure out what what Toledo means is calling two people in Toledo who never answer. That might be really obvious. Mhmm. But that's what I'm getting at. I'm just trying to protect against, if you miss that number for some reason, how do we adjust that at some point? That's all, thanks.

Real quick in terms of education too, just wanna encourage a strong partnership with Keep Toluca County Beautiful. I just came from a meeting. I know that they've been in more than 20 schools this semester alone. So I just wanna at least protect duplicity from occurring, right, make sure that we're hitting as many places as we can. So I would encourage a strong relationship with them moving forward. And I believe that's all the questions from counsel at this time. Never mind, councilman Sarontu.

Thank you, mister chair. This I'm directing these remarks to the administration. So in researching the previous contract that Lucas County drew up, there really were no provisions for accountability or consequences if things did not work out with Republic. So my question is, is the city of Toledo administration have in this contract consequences, accountability. If for some reason Republic is sold, to another company, and suddenly we have an issue where trash and bulk pickup is not being picked up in a timely manner and we have all kinds of issues, are there consequences?

Or if Republic continues to have the company as it is today, but there's a failure of picking up and having bulk pickup occur on a timely basis. What happens?

Sure. So currently, there is no contract. The legislation before council allows us to enter into contract with Republic Services. However, through the negotiations and the discussions that we've been having with Republic Services, there are service level commitment agreements that we are working through as far as missed collections for example, communication, call times, returning, getting a response to a customer who may have an issue in a timely manner. So those would all be written into the contract if counsel authorizes the legislation in front of you to allow us to enter into the agreement.

And within that contract there would be provisions and requirements for republic to meet certain service level commitments at whatever percent is determined by us as being what we think is appropriate. If Republic were to not meet those commitments, we would have flexibility within the contract to either end the contract for example or there would be some associated maybe cost requirements or fee adjustments that would be in there if those SLAs would be missed.

Financial penalties in other words. Yeah that's what we're looking for because I was amazed that the county attorneys didn't have that in the previous agreement. So counsel will need to look at that document also. I understand obviously that the contract hasn't been written yet because you don't have the authorization, but I would appreciate it if council would have the opportunity to look at that contract so that we're aware of what the provisions are. Because, you know, we we have a responsibility to our citizens, and we're asking them to pay fees for garbage. And they're gonna ask us, well, wait a minute, you know, what are you doing to enforce the contract? So I would appreciate that information. Sure. Thank you, mister chair.

We're gonna get into some of the service level commitments and agreements that we've discussed with Republic in a little bit we go Okay, further in the

thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Chair.

Of course, Councilman Martinez.

Thank you Mr. Chair. I will defer my question till after the presentation because it's along Councilman Sorantu's questions more about enforcement and who's gonna be responsible for it. I'll defer my questions, thank you.

Next slide. So this time I'd like to just walk through, you've had a preview from the administration on the proposal. And so in front of you is the five year rate proposal for 94,000 homes. As shared by council president, this is a savings, but the year one cost of roughly of $11,000,000 a total spend of $62,000,000 And per the contract, the annual increase based on the bid specifications is 3% or garbage trash whichever is lower. So just wanted to share the annual contract value.

It's a five year proposal with one year extensions. That is the basis of the contract. Rick will now walk through the service offerings as it relates to recycle waste and bulk collection. So

service will continue as it is. So recycling will be biweekly service. Waste will be weekly. And as we started January 5, bulk collection will be weekly on the same day of your trash day. Little bit on the bulk, the five item limit.

We accept furniture, appliances, wrap mattresses, and so on and so forth. And then all noncompliant set outs are stickered, and I think you all have a copy of the sticker. They're stickered and we take a picture of that and send it into the city. Any questions?

Councilwoman Morris.

This is where I'm really concerned about is the bulk and I think a lot of people are. Like right now I have a bulk set out that I've worked with Rochelle about and there's more than five items. And so what we're going to start seeing is that, so again, we need to have education and everything, it's going to be an adjustment. But right now there's a bulk set out that someone has put out. I don't think it was a landlord, I think it was a person perhaps that is moving.

And so what I see is going to happen is that we're going to pay you $11,000,000 for this first year, but then we're also going to have to employ people to pick up the bulk, if it's not something that is going to be set out. So another option could be that we don't pick it up and you just keep picking it up five items at a time. I just I have a real problem saying that we're gonna pay all of this money, but then we're still gonna have to pick up the bulk items. And so one of the problems that I personally had is that my refrigerator took a dive and so I had to throw out a lot of things and so it was it was a lot of items. If you have a flood in your basement, if something happens, there is no real mechanism to deal with a larger issue that might be a one off as opposed to a set out by a landlord.

So, guess I'm just trying to understand, I don't want us to have to pay for things twice and five items, I understand it. I like that it's weekly. I love that that works, but sometimes that is more than five items. And so then we have to deal with our administration. So we're paying for this twice. So help me out, help me understand what we're doing here for those kinds of a situation.

There actually is a process for that type of situation. And what we're trying to do is encourage residents to rent a dumpster. So if you have a situation that's gonna cause you to set out a lot at one time, like a flooded basement or something like that, We'll try to create the situation, provide the education so that it's to drive that behavior that you rent a dumpster, which is the proper way to set that material out, rather than just set it out at the curb and risk being fined for that activity and ultimately having the city have to use their resources to pick it up. So it really, it's a big educational lift. But that's the type of behavior we're trying to drive to address those situations where you have more than the five items and it's not feasible for you to think well I'm going to hold onto some of it and put it out each week.

There, you know, that's the mechanism you would use is you'd rent a small dumpster.

So I'm paying for my, you know, my trash pickup, but now I'm also paying for a dumpster. So there's already a duplicity. So I'm just, and again I'm not trying to be argumentative. I'm just, I'm just trying to understand what we're paying for. And I'm not being critical, I'm just trying to understand. And so, when someone comes to me and says, I've already paid this money, why isn't getting picked up? That's, I want to have that answer.

So as a part of the contract, the proposed contract, it is the five items. It's the five items for bulk and there's a couple of reasons why we're doing that and I think you've heard me say this before. There is definitely a fine line between picking everything up that goes to the curb and disposing it in our landfill which we are paying for and we wanna prolong the useful life of the landfill as much as we can. And also doing an education piece and encouraging our residents to reduce, reuse and recycle. And that's really where we're focusing our efforts and where we wanna move towards.

And if there are instances where someone does need to dispose of a number of items and you'll hear further along in the presentation, we are encouraging them to get that small dumpster, excuse me, to dispose of them properly. But as far as their regular refuse and recycling collection and then the five items for bulk, we would really encourage those residents to try to reuse them, to try to recycle them as much as possible. We encourage them to come to the Clean Toledo Center. If there's life left in that couch bring it to us. We want to make sure it gets donated to someone who can use it.

We want to make sure material gets recycled properly. So we are offering other tools and other options for our residents to help them recycle And of course the education piece that we would do in coordination with Keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful, Republic Services would all serve for that effort.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for that question. And while we're on the question, we will be talking about larger bulk set outs as the next piece of legislation in this committee. And I think that there's probably an opportunity for us to engage with you all to maybe offer a dumpster at a set price. So that way when we have landlords who are setting out large amounts they could just contact you and perhaps it'll be a nice reasonable cost for them to be able to do so. But I think we really have to figure out what that looks like. But it would make a lot of sense if it was Republic that could provide that dumpster. So we will be asking you about that in the future. Council Member Melden.

Thank you. I'm certainly kind of tracking with I think the experience of my colleague Councilwoman Morris. And I think differentiating between the set out conversation, the next piece, and this particular notion of bulk is worthwhile, at least in my opinion. It's an eviction, that kind of thing. That feels like what the next conversation is targeted at.

I'm curious if you hadn't considered a hybrid model of the five items, smaller, and then quarterly call ahead still for a bigger bulk thing that happens. The truth is people are savvy and they're smart and they're creative, and what's going happen is people are going to say, I'll just put five items out and let it just sit in my driveway until I do the next five. And people will get around. That's how it works, right? There's no judgment in that actually. It's just like how we're always just kinda, it's a little Tom and Jerry game I guess. I'm just curious if you thought about like a hybrid situation. I'm not saying you could just do the five things every single week and do the quarterly so that one quarterly got really wild. I mean had you thought about something like a middle ground there?

Yeah, so actually as a part of the proposal when we were seeking bids we did approach BOLT differently. You know asking for ideas, looking at what other successful communities do who don't face maybe some of same blight issues that we do. And actually we had an idea that maybe you needed to segment the city, right? Maybe we do it by district and it's unlimited by district. But we found that was kind of hard to manage and track and then also the provider setting them up to be successful as well.

We're also dealing with what I had mentioned before with wanting to extend the useful life of the landfill and protecting that asset and the education piece and encouraging our residents to recycle. We're bringing on a MRF here soon. We want to make sure our residents are using that. So trying to balance those two things is ultimately what we were trying to do. So we did look at other models. We also really came to the conclusion that successful cities who have seen a reduction in blight, who have had some blight challenges and then have actually found success in reducing blight and helping to educate their residents have gone with this model of the five items and having it be on their weekly collection days. So ultimately that's why we made that decision and went that route.

Okay, would you be open to still allowing people to have like twice a year call ahead, do a bigger bulk set out? Mean we're talking about the contract

It is not something we put in the proposal for the bids. So I think that would be something that would have to be discussed with our law department and Republic Services. I'm not sure if I can answer that right now.

Okay, what do you guys think?

I would say we're looking to work with the city and talk through what are the best options for the city.

So

that's not a political answer, that's really we want a partner. So it's not

I think if I were in your position I would probably answer it the same way.

I think the idea is, one of the things I think, again the goal was to make sure we can eliminate the need to have to call in.

Sure.

And to have a process that fits a large percentage of the residents. We want to have a solution for all. But we will get as many as we can and something in the five items, not having to call, not having to guess when bulk day is, if we were to do, those are today, you can just put it out. You can put your five items out. So we were trying to find the simplest cost effective solution for the city at

the time. Yeah, just wanna point, the only reason I'm driving at this is just to say I think it is a reasonable experience for someone to have. They're doing a home remodeling project or something. And I'm not saying they can just throw loose carpet that they've ripped out of their house, that you had to bundle it. It felt reasonable to be able to call and say, hey, I have this situation. And they would always walk me through it. They would say, it has to be cut and taped and sticks or whatever. They were like, what are you putting out there? Which I appreciate. I'm just saying I think that that could be interesting.

Some of the best, I don't want say best, some of the most interesting feedback I got when we switched to this five items thing, just do it every week, was people were like, but what if I'm going to have more than that? I don't need to do it every week. And so it's just an interesting thing, was just curious. I heard you say it's possible. It feels like that's doubtful because we're kind of down the track here but I just thought I should ask the question.

Sure. I would encourage you to respond to your residents to encourage them to use our free disposal days at the landfill. We are offering three Clean Toledo events throughout this summer and then we of course have the Clean Toledo Center that's opening in June. So they could bring all those recyclable items there. But free disposal days are also a tool that residents can use to get rid of those bulky large items that they might not be able to set out in this bulk collection.

Yeah, I mean that's okay. I represent people. My job is to think about residents. And the reason they got that appliance on a delivery truck and they didn't pick it up in their Camry is because it doesn't fit. So when they go to get rid of it, it doesn't fit in their Camry then either. And so I appreciate that. I'm just saying like it's not that realistic to say, take it to the free place. Anyway, okay, Thank you.

Councilman Martinez. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. So along the lines, I guess, as my colleagues have just expressed, know, so one of the big concerns is the bulk pick up for the residential side. I think the landlord, as they said, it's a different issue altogether. So we went from a free monthly bulk pickup as long as you called ahead. Correct? And now it's no bulk pickup but it's bulk pickup five large items every week, correct? Under this new contract?

Yeah, five bulk items per week on your refuse day.

Right, correct. And then correct me if I'm wrong but when the priority contract it was all unlimited bulk pickup?

No the priority was very similar. They had an option for unlimited pickup within their contract but it was the same proposal where it would be five items on your refuse day.

Right. But they also you could put large items in. They could just pick it up and you didn't have to schedule it. Right. So the concern is, again, as we represent a lot of constituents who are older and and don't have the opportunity or the resources to take stuff to the recycling or maybe it's so far past its useful life that it's needs to go into the dumpster.

I get protected the asset, but bulk pickup is a big deal, Whether it's a monthly, quarterly, or semi annual, however it can be discussed, that is for me a real issue. So I have three like major complaints almost on a monthly basis. That's sidewalks number one, trees and trash. So and it's typically around bulk pick. They Republicans have been very good about picking everything up, so there's no concern.

My concern is moving forward because that expectation was there. I know you just rolled this out in January, but still the expectation is I think a lot of my residents still don't know that they can't do monthly ball pickup anymore. So that's a concern. And we have to really consider that, especially for District 2. So I trust you guys and this subcommittee.

They've done a lot of great work to get us to where we're at. But this is just a huge concern for me in my district. So I just wanna make sure that we're being very proactive about the bulk collection and having good robust conversation about it and find some sort of medium win win somewhere. Thank you. Council member Gaddis.

Thank you. Two things. One, I'd like to ask about we see furniture. Furniture not sawed in half, completely set out couch, they will pick it up.

That's correct.

Okay. Because there's like, I was out driving my district looking at stuff, and there's a lot of furniture, and it's just one. It's so it's not I get I don't even the piles, but, like, a couch, a chair Mhmm. And they're not being picked up, so still struggling with that in District 3. The other thing just and and maybe this isn't for republic.

Maybe this is a this administration needs to, but in the vein of Councilwoman Morris and Councilman Melden, when I think about the emergencies like the tornado in Point Place, the three days of no electricity in District 5, and then the flooding on Arlington. There are situations where there are blocks and blocks of people throwing away food, throwing away flooded basement things. Are we going to require them all to get a dumpster, or is there a is there a way the city steps up in emergency? Is there a way we partner with Republic to step up in these emergencies? I think that's what I'm like, what I'm hearing is there are e siders are savvy.

Guys moving out, he knocks on all the doors, we put five items on every in front of everybody's house. Like, that's that's how we roll, but in a state of an emergency where the whole block is flooded, then we're all like, you can't just game the system. Right? You can't be neighborly and get the garbage out. We're all have a flooded basement. So I think that we need to have a plan for when those emergencies happen because they're happening more and more in our in our city. So I

Yeah. That is actually something we have talked and discussed with our provider and internally. Those are unique situations. You're exactly right. And they need to be treated as such and that's where the city team along with the Republic Services team and our urban beautification blight team forestry as we saw with the experience with the tornado would all step up and make sure we're doing what is appropriate for those residents. Through discussions it does not appear that it would be an issue to to make sure we address those independent from, you know, a current contract of five items, for example.

Okay. But but but even in situations of flooding or Sure. No electricity. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Of course. Councilwoman Jones.

Thank you, chair. I was gonna wait until after the presentation but I have to take my children to their appointment. I know that you will be talking about the SLAs in that instance. I just wanted to put on record that I did offer for the monthly reports either through, I mean I know that we mentioned through this committee but I'm also offering my committee because of the public health aspect. I feel that with the public reporting it will give the residents opportunity to possibly address any issues and of course hearing the data on in real time and also if they have questions about just how Republic is doing or any concerns addressed.

So I do wanna put that on record in the event that there is not a monthly meeting per se then the emailed reports will be fine because we can also share it with I know some council members have town halls and go to different events but I feel that we should have some in person reporting at that aspect. I also had the same question as Councilman Sorantu as far as what that enforcement look like, the penalties if things are not met especially the KPIs and then also considering Adam come on now. But then also considering what would be that threshold because I understand that it was further explained that even though it's a five year contract this could be treated as three as far as the basically how things are going and if after that year three that it's not to our satisfaction then we have that option so I would want to you know see what in that hypothetical situation what would that look like as well and also looking at as far as the education piece I know that you talk about recycling with the kids and things of that nature, but when it comes to high school or even trades, are you talking to those about possible careers within this sector as well?

So if that I'm not sure if the SLAs are finalized. I think it was a little note at the bottom but I would want to definitely wanted to add that as far as especially with the committee reporting as well. But thank you just for being here and really having this explanation and giving all of the information. I mean looking forward to seeing what this will bring about. I know the contract isn't finalized but I'm glad that we're having communication. So it's a good start to this open communication and transparency. Thank you, chair.

Thank you. Council member Melvin.

Hey, I know. Look, I've been waiting for this meeting. Okay? I've been excited about this one for a while. And I know we're gonna get to the SLAs, but since it's on something we've talked about, I just wanna bring up the communication. So I'm on the website, I made sure I had my account. I found, so it's not a bad URL, republicservices.com/account/services is how you get a quick missed pickup button. I don't hate that, that seems reasonable. I'm just curious, this is kind of on the city side, if we could just flag that link somewhere just to make sure it's easy to get to. I know Republic is not some like small company, okay?

So to change the way your website is laid out is like pretty arrogant for me to even suggest. However, at the very top, it does say pay bill, see schedule, customer support, service alerts. It wouldn't be terrible if it was like missed pickup or some like, can we get it as quick as possible for someone? That's my quick suggestion. And then I'm curious, this is more

of a

question, are you working on texting? Like texting 90052 or some number to say like hey, missed pickup, here's my address. Is that in your horizon relative to quick on time communication?

Yeah, as far as the layout, I think we're always assessing customer opportunities and to improve the experience. I can't tell you that we have that particular function available. The hardest part with that is, and I think what you're saying is hey, you text Republican and then we give you a response. The hardest part is making sure everyone, not all trash pickups are like in a landlord situation. The customer and the end user may not be the same person.

And so the text piece could be a bit challenging, but I would say that we're looking at all aspects of being able to communicate digitally with customers.

Yeah, that's great to hear. Look, you are not talking to a fan of first energy. I would not be described that way. And when the power goes out, you text the number, outage, and it says, what's going on? And you reply and there's like a quick thing back and forth. Now, a couple months ago, anything past that they were awful at. But they did have that feature and so it's just something that's really interesting. And it just makes the experience better for the resident. That's my whole point. That's the only thing I'm actually after. So just an idea. Know it's like, look, it's tech, it's expensive, it's a platform. Someone has to manage it on the kind of corporate comms side, but I think it would be a really cool tool.

Thank you. If you would like to continue on with your presentation, I think there's a couple slides left.

Next slide.

Also make sure that you're speaking into the microphone. It's being recorded for the record, so.

Right, so one of the, before we wrap up with the SLAs, one of the other questions that I believe the city and council may have had some questions about the variable piece to a contract. And the one variable piece that exists today in our contract and has existed in our previous contracts and were a part of the bid specs was the fuel calculation. So what is the fuel surcharge as it relates to fuel if there is a major change in fuel, we've all seen the most recent changes in gas prices. And so companies also have that as a part of their bid process as well, and the contract allows for it. If you look at the middle of the page, it talks about the fuel adjustment.

It says fuel adjustment escalates above $4 per gallon and decreases below $3 per gallon, adjusted each quarter and three month period, it's an average cost from the U. S. Department of Energy. And so, and then there's a 20% collection cost for the month and there's a formula. So what we did given that there was some sensitivity around this, put together a sensitivity table on what might happen in the event fuel prices were to change.

This is a lagging indicator, and the lagging indicator means that in order to get the fuel costs for, let's take April, you have to get the average for January, February, and March. That is then applied for the next quarter. So same way with for July, you would use the average of fuel for April, May and June, and that factor is applied in July. So it's a lagging indicator. So if fuel cost was $4 there's no additional charge to the city.

If fuel in this example that I highlighted was an average of $5 for the previous quarter, there would be a 54¢ per home fuel charge that's added. And that amount would be the monthly adjustment amount would be 50,760. This information is all part of the bid specifications and contract, it's standard to what we've done in the last two contracts. So I wanted to make sure we had the conversation given that when we were working with the administration there were some questions around this, and I wanted to make sure and be here to answer any questions as it relates to the fuel adjustment.

Councilmember Member Meltzer. Chief Robson, how are we buying fuel? Are we buying fuel bulk for fleet and different things that we use?

Sure, so there's a couple of different ways that we buy fuel. We do buy it in bulk. We have fuel trucks that go around and make drops to our fueling sites and locations and some of that heavy equipment that can't go to a gas station for example in the community. We also have Mansfield fuel cards for a number of our divisions departments who utilize vehicles more regularly, our police department for example, code enforcement, etcetera. They have fuel cards and then they can go fuel up at gas stations in the Toledo area.

Are we getting a bulk rate over an annualized period?

Yeah. We do receive a bulk rate. I would have to take by way of referral what that is or how it's changed or whatever, but yeah, we do get a a special rate

for that.

Have you ever thought about sharing that with vendors under contract and buying it at a higher bulk volume, but to give savings all the way around?

I do not know. I could look into that. I'm not sure if we Feels, explored

like, non applicable probably to this exact table I'm looking at here, although it is very sensitive. That's a good title for that table. It just seems like it could be something, right? Whoever we're contracting with, we could say, here's what we think they're going to use in years two through four or five of this contract when we go to buy bulk fuel again, can we wrap them in? I don't know, just curious.

I think one of the things we have to take into consideration are what size tanks do we have, do we have the capacity to Or add more are we already filling those tanks and using what we need for ourselves? So we'll to have a talk with Commissioner Aikman and see what the possibilities are.

Yeah, I would love it if you could dig into that. Thanks.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So while I say this tongue in cheek, should have more capacity as we transfer fuel driven cars in our fleet to electric. So we should have more space I would think. But my question is, so if it drops for some reason, do we get a cost savings or some sort of credit to reduce our overall cost? And at what point does gas have to be in order to get that?

Yes, so per the contract, dollars 3, if it drops below $3 for the quarter, so remember it's a quarter average, then the credit will be given to the city for the fuel surcharge. So you would get a deduction off of the amount that you would owe.

Gotcha, and then I'm assuming these are diesel vehicles.

That is correct,

They're not typically, okay. So we can wish, we can hope, but that's good. Thank you for that clarification. Thank you.

Councilman Driscoll. Thank you, Chair.

Real quick on this, going back to the point about bulk. I mean, Republic is also probably buying fuel in bulk somewhere, right? You guys are filling up at gas stations?

Correct.

So this table represents the Department of Energy's average gas price throughout the country, but it does not necessarily represent what Republic is paying. Is that correct?

Yeah, so this table is, these are based on the bid specifications.

So I get my point is you guys could be paying far less than what's actually reflected in the table. So if the DOE says the average gas price is $5.25 over the course of three months, we'd be paying a surcharge. But that may not actually reflect what is happening to Republic's bottom line. Do you understand the point I'm making?

Yes. I understand.

So

I don't know. It is probably something to dig into as we go through this contract because it could be the case you guys are we're paying a surcharge even though it's not reflective of reality. You know, I mean it feels like we might be kicking back to a company that didn't actually need anything, that they weren't actually paying anymore. And I mean maybe that's, maybe the DOE standard's the only thing that we could sort of agree on, so I guess it's an interesting metric in that regard. But if republic's not actually paying more, which could be the case, why the heck should our residents be? Does that make sense?

Understood, understood. So I think when this, and I can't tell you why this specific measure was used other than it's an industry standard. But I think there's risk on both sides, right? Because if you were a smaller company and your fuel was much higher than that, the risk could be higher on the other side for the company. I get what you're saying.

Yeah, I think this is something the administration paid real close attention to over the course of the contract negotiations. I appreciate the answer though. You.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to piggyback on what he was saying, I think what he was alluding to is they should kind of be based on the Toledo MSA, right? That's where we are doing business and where the gas prices are. So it would make sense while the national may not reflect our region think was the point. So if we can maybe look at this and have it adjusted to actually reflect the Toledo MSA that would be helpful. Thank you.

Absolutely. Moving forward.

All right we'll have Rick wrap up with service level agreements and any other questions at that point.

Okay, so I'm gonna go over the service level agreements that the city of Toledo and Republic have aligned in concept on the following ones. So the first one is monthly service completion rate. So that'll be a percentage of basically successful service. Failure to deliver containers within three business days. Failure to clean any scattered or spilled refuse or recycling matter within determined hours.

Service compliant response within twenty four hours, so that would be resolving an issue. It's what maybe that's been called in. Monthly annual data reports emailed to the city of Toledo by the fifth business day. The monthly average speed of answer less than a determined number of minutes. Failure to communicate to the city of Toledo and or customers on a planned and unplanned service delivery delays.

Republic Services will commit to attending a determined number of events a month. These events will consist of community or city of Toledo school events. And there'd be obviously, the timing, the hours is all gonna be determined in negotiation. Alright. Any questions?

Council Member Melvin.

Thank you. I do. I think the questions I have are like, what are they gonna be? I'm a little thrown. I gotta say, I was most excited to see what maybe were in the parentheses, like the X.

This is like concepts of a plan.

Yeah, we're currently working with Republic percentages would be that we would finalize as a part of the contract. So we have had some discussion ultimately when we proposed we said okay you can't miss you know x number of pickups per day. That's really hard to monitor as I mentioned earlier right. Like someone to go through and just like track every single truck every single day. So then we said okay these service level agreements best practice are usually they're done monthly, what does the percentage rate look like, what is it that feels appropriate for the provider and also for the city of Toledo.

So we are going through that right now. We're having some conversations. I think council will be a large part of those conversations and the experiences you've had specific to those district council persons and the members as a whole of the experiences and what you feel are appropriate percentage requirements based on the 94,000 households that are being serviced.

Okay, so since we are council and we are here talking about it, talk about it. Have a couple of thoughts or questions. One question is, no, not a question, a request, guess. On number seven, just to really define what it means to communicate would be really, really helpful. There's no point in like, oh, we did. We told them like on the website. And I'm not saying I you to be I want to be very clear. I'm not trying to come out or pop there's nothing I want more than for us to never have to talk about this again. There's nothing I want more for our residents to never have to think about it again. All I'm after is something that works and we're gonna partner and be working really well together.

One of the ways we're gonna do that better is if we are very clear about this page in particular. And so failure to communicate. I would just not say communicate and say give notice via our texting platform or give notice via email, whatever that means, be more specific about it. And then anytime we have this x percent or within x minutes, what quote did I hear recently I love so much, In God we trust, all others bring data, which I think is fun. And so what is the industry standard average on all of these things?

And how are we punching above our weight class there? How are we exceeding or meeting that average? I don't think any of us are interested in a contract that's like, we're gonna hold you accountable to being not as good as the average, right? So we would want it higher than that, but what is that? Chief Robson brought up a really good point. Relative to 94,000 households. We don't need a market that's like, well in this little suburb of 12,000 people, they crush it at this level and we're also not New York City. So we gotta just, what is that industry standard average? I'm no expert in that. Hopefully we're there.

And then also number four, service compliant. At first I thought that was almost a typo, does it mean to say complaint? But service compliant response within twenty four hours, just defining what that actually looks like. But I'd be excited to see this when it is filled out. Those are just my initial thoughts. And then the other thing I would say is, so this happens and this is now a question, and we missed in a couple areas and there was like a penalty. Councilman Sarantu brushed up against us earlier. What are we thinking there? What does that mean? Is it like at the end of the year we settle up and like, here's the service provided, here's the fuel surcharge because this pesky war lasted longer than someone thought it would, and gas prices never calmed down.

And then here's where we missed our SLAs, and you got a credit of eczema. Is that what we're thinking?

That is along the lines of what we're thinking. We do get invoice monthly, so we have monthly meetings, and that's where the information would be reviewed. And exactly along the lines of what we're thinking is, you know, whatever that SLA is, there's you have to meet 99.9% of all elections on every given day, right? So 99% for example of 94,000 households allows x number of misses. And if it's more than that, then there would be a penalty associated with that and we would work with Republic to determine then what that means that monthly invoice would be, just as an example.

And so let's say that at the end of the day the 11,700,000 turns out to be 11.5.

Sure.

What happens to that $200,000

So that is in the general fund. So that would be, so per the legislation that you have before you, you're authorizing the appropriation and expenditure of an amount not to cede x millions of dollars for the republic contract. If we weren't to do that on an annual basis, that remaining balance would stay in the general fund. It would stay in that appropriated line item until there was a piece of legislation that disappropriated it or until that year is complete and it goes back to the fund balance.

Okay, so at that point, I'm looking for all my colleagues to join me on bringing forward a disappropriation to send it out to 94,000 households in a rebate check, because they're the ones that lost out on the service, not us. Our budget didn't get hurt, our budget didn't miss garbage over Christmas break and have wrapping paper blowing all over their neighborhood in a winter storm, our residents did. So if it's $4 per household, yep, I'm gonna have some admin real mad that we're spending more than that on postage. I understand that's how it goes. But whatever that number is, and I'm sure Republic's like, there's not even gonna be a number. We're gonna hit the numbers. You're not even gonna have to worry about

Good for you, that'd

be easier work for us. But in the moment that there's money, I think we should give it back to the residents. So good to know that's the timing on it. I think I should be done now. Thank you, Chair.

You're welcome. I do wanna just acknowledge that when we were discussing the SLAs, we didn't necessarily come up with these on our own, They came from best practices elsewhere. And I believe by looking at communities similar to our size. So you know, we're heading in the right direction I believe. Council Member Gattis.

Thanks. Thank you for this. Number one, the monthly service completion rate, are you going to break it down into garbage can, recycling can, and bulk? Or is it all grouped together?

They would all be together.

I think it was all together.

So as long as you pick up all the trash cans and recycling, you can suck on bulk and do you see what I'm saying? Like, think there should be a goal for each one, especially in my district where we struggle on bulk because if we want to see the needle move, that's where the residents would like to see the needle move. Are the number three, the failure to clean any scattered or spilled, does that include liquid? Because I get resident I've heard a lot of feedback from residents of, like, liquid being spilled from the trucks. So will that include liquid?

Yes, that would include that.

Okay. And then are we going to, as someone dating a quality control engineer, are we going to do quality control audits with our auditors? Are we gonna send them out to neighborhoods to just double check? Or are we just trusting, like how are we?

Yeah we would love to live in the world of just trusting but we have quality control specialists who are going out and auditing know grass and other items within urban beautification. And actually we've already been doing audits with our bulk collection and the changes. So we would utilize some sort of mechanism there where we would be checking through like an audit type process.

Would any of that information hit counsel's desk?

Oh I would imagine when we do some type of quarterly update and when we're talking about the service level agreement commitments and where they stand, all of that information would be included similar to some of the updates we have given the council previously on where our bulk collection stand for missed pickups and what our blight team has had to handle etcetera. Yeah I would anticipate it would still be that shared information that we're providing the council now.

Okay I appreciate that. Thank you chair.

Of course, Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you and I think that there should be something in this contract that talks about emergency pickups. You know like the tornado that it was experienced in my community, like the power outage. I think there should be something. I know that you know, I know that it was a human response to help, okay? And that's wonderful, but if you don't quantify it in a contract, it doesn't exist.

And so I just wanted, I would like to see that in there. And then when can we expect these X's to be filled? When are they going to be filled? Like I don't know that I can vote on a contract if I don't know the specifics of that. So you know, when can we expect that?

So part of where we currently are is we need the authorization from counsel to be able to enter into contract with Republic. And so we are having as much conversation and negotiations we can at that time. But there is a piece allowing the expenditure, allowing us to enter into contract with Republic that we need to move forward with so our legal teams can get together and continue this. We would hope that we would have this as soon as possible. Our current contract with Republic ends in August as we know, so we would love to have this in place before then.

So I guess I just wanna make sure I'm understanding. You're asking us to authorize you to enter into the contract and we're gonna pay the money, right? I guess I'm just trying to understand just for everybody to be on the same page.

Sure. So the legislation in front of counsel is authorizing the expenditure of an amount to not exceed, I don't have it right in front of me, believe it's 13,000,000 on an annual basis. And also waiving competitive bidding allowing us to enter into contract with Republic Services for a refuse and recycling contract that would begin on September 1 for a term of five years with five one year annual renewals is what you would be allowing us to do. Once that's approved we would then work of course with our team and the legal teams both at the city and Republic to complete a contract. Within that contract there would be service level agreement commitments, there would be the fuel adjustments, etcetera, that Jaimani had mentioned before and all of the legal terms that both parties would need to adhere to.

And I'm sorry, I've got a migraine today. So you want us to vote on this without having these X's finished? I'm not saying you personally, but in general. This is what we would be doing.

Council is allowing us to enter into a contract with Republic Services for curbside refuse and recycling collection in the city of Toledo starting September 1.

But without the service level agreements defined? Correct. Okay. Okay, thank you.

Councilman Martinez. Thank you Mr.

Chair. So just a few, I think everyone pretty much has touched base on some of my questions, I don't want to belabor the point. But I guess my question is with enforcement, is there an independent third party to do audits or anything like that?

At this time we do not currently have a third party. We have quality control specialists who are City of Toledo employees who when we, just an example, they do lots of work on a daily basis. One example related to Republic specifically is we had them go out and do spot check audits when we switched our bulk collection services to the five items.

Great, so we're relying on Republic's data and we double check it randomly.

Yeah we have data as well. Okay.

So is the shared data in real time or is there a delay? So the reason I'm asking, if we're gonna do an audit you know we get the stuff a month later and then we go back and double check everything Or do we have real time

No everything is recorded in real time.

Okay.

If that helps answer your question.

Sort of but I get it.

We meet monthly. So everything, all the data is recorded in real time. We meet monthly with Republic Services to review that data. We don't meet on a daily basis with Republic Services.

Gotcha. But your inspectors, you will, your quality control specialists, how often do they audit or go out I in the

not sure on the time period but they were going out routinely in every single district and they were looking and we were doing some random spot checks for them to go multiple days.

How quality control personnel do we have?

Currently we have three quality control specialists, three quality control specialists.

Okay.

And then so the enforcement comes from the administration in terms of if they have any findings?

So the enforcement as far as Of the public SLA. Contract or any penalties, yes. SLA. Yeah it would be something that we would know, data would tell us that information. The idea here is for the city of Toledo and Republic Services to be partners and to provide the best service for our residents. We would be in with Republic Services and as we're checking on those SLA monthly, I wouldn't anticipate and hope there wouldn't be any sort of severe disagreement on what the data is telling us.

Totally understand that. We check but verify. And previous experiences makes us even more, so you gotta understand where we're coming from.

I 100% understand where you're coming from.

So I just wanna make sure that while yes, they've asked for a second chance. They have support from their members and their employees and we're willing to do that and work with them. I just wanna make sure we are holding them accountable and we have a mechanism to do that.

Absolutely. I think throughout this process as we've had discussions as member of council, as we've been discussing it would be a goal that we would get to utilize all those wonderful employees that work in our blight team for other areas of the city. That would be a goal of mine, right? That is the level of service I would like this contract to provide to our residents. So that we're not only helping our residents with their waste, with their recycling, we're educating our residents on best practices and how to recycle materials properly, right?

But we're also seeing some savings internally. We're able to utilize those wonderful employees in other areas of our urban beautification team and they're not out there picking up bulk and blight that is being missed. So I know it is difficult because we don't have those percentages in there and it's this weird time period where we need to work with the attorneys on both ends to get them in there. But please know we want to provide the best services to our residents. We have internal goals to make sure we're meeting those requirements and working with Republic to move forward as partners and do what's best for the community.

And that's great but I want to know what the mechanism to actually hold them accountable is.

Sure, Mike.

And that's fine, but then how do we do it? Do we have this enough support internally to actually do it?

So one tool that we will have in this upcoming contract that we haven't had in the past is that portal. So they showed how there's gonna be red dots and yellow dots and blue dots. So that's a tool for us to go in and virtually do spot checks, right? And it's not just looking at what color dot there is, but those dots are associated with video. So if we're getting feedback from district three, we can spend some time on that portal and start looking at those dots and saying does this really seem like it's matching up with the data we're getting from Republic?

It might take a little effort on our time, but it's a tool we can use if we have any inkling that there may be some irregularities in that data that we're receiving.

Okay, that's great to know. And so now my question is, so we have a tool, now we just gotta make sure we have enough manpower to actually do it. And that was kind of what I was alluding to. Okay. So okay.

I'm a little bit more comfortable now that we we have a we have a mechanism, we have a tool to use, we have some support staff, just to double check anything. And I guess my other question is really to Republic in terms of with these new SLAs, SLAs, you know, how does this actually impact the workforce? So I wanna make sure that everyone's comfortable with this new agreement that this you know, that we're working with the Teamsters in lockstep so there's no surprises moving forward that we have a a workforce that was very, very adamant about keeping this contract. We're very supportive of them. We wanna make sure how this new contract at least I wanna know how this contract is gonna impact them. Can you are you able to answer that?

I think I mean, you you you said it already. They're excited to continue being partnered with City of Toledo. I think that and if you're referring to staffing, we're in a great level at state level right now and we'll continue that through this. We're constantly looking that and constantly adjusting as needed.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Thanks. Because of time and because Councilwoman Kramer hasn't asked any questions yet, I will call on you. The rest of the lights that I have I'm gonna hold until after public comment. There is a meeting in this room at 04:00. I So definitely wanna make sure we make the space for the public. So councilwoman Kramer, the floor is yours if you could be as succinct as possible.

Thank you. I will be very succinct. Thank you for the presentation. I really appreciate it. My question goes to kind of a lot of the other concerns here with the Xs on the SLAs. And I guess this question is maybe for Megan is could counsel have input in what those numbers are?

Absolutely. As far as percentages.

Because I think that's a hang up that some of us have up here. Like these numbers could be anything and we wanna make sure that we're providing our residents the best service that we can. And so if we could have some input on that, that would be great.

Sure. What we could do is we have some ideas that we've been tossing around as far as what are those percentages look like and how they equate, right? So okay, if you're allowing 99%, you wanna meet a 99% threshold as far as collection services on a monthly basis. Like what does that mean? Okay that means a thousand households could essentially be missed, right? So we wanna provide some of that data, some of that information and then have those conversations with council members. Think we are having healthy discussions and communication with Republic and we expect that to continue.

Okay, thank you.

Thank So you first up for public comment I have Deanna Schreiner. Diana Schreiner. Looks like an E, my bad. It's been a long time since I've seen cursive, you know.

I'm here to speak concerning the set outs and the evictions. In Bancroft Hills, we have plenty due to the students moving out and subsidized housing moving out. The students bring furniture that they intend to use one to four years, and then they leave it. And then the subsidized housing, they have furniture, but they're unable to move it because they don't have the money, so they just leave it and move. Landlords in both cases just set it out in any fashion what they they can to have republic pick it up.

I have pictures if you need any. I believe it should be that they get a dumpster with a limited time level and take care of it that way because if they because it is a tax deduction. The landlords put it out, and if they put it out in plastic bags, we have the scrappers come by. They slice the bags, throw the stuff everywhere, then the landlords are probably out of town or out of state, and so they don't come back and they leave us this big mess. And and there are no laws to prevent the scrappers from doing this, Cause I saw it in broad daylight.

We I called the police and they said there's nothing they can do, and they became aggressive when we approached them. But a dumpster would eliminate all this. The bags would be inside and the garbage would be gone. Often landlords are out of the city or the state, so they don't care how things look in our neighborhoods. Once they do a clean out, they're done. They may not be back for weeks until the nuisance abatement inspector comes, which takes time. He sends him tickets. That takes time. The landlords may comply, and they may not. We live with the mess.

Then often, the blight team has to come, which also takes time. It is not a republic issue, but a landlord one. We are trying to keep our neighborhoods clean and beautiful, but we need your help. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments. Up next, Fannie Effler.

Hello, City Council. It's been a busy time for trash these last several months. Fannie Effler, 2830 Collingwood Boulevard and I'm in the Toledo Old Town neighborhood and and Republic has been great with us. They've come to our neighborhood meetings. I've I've never had any complaints. I've I've advocated for Republic to have this contract. I'm I'm glad things are going well, but I'm asking city council, please stay on this contract. You're the guys who are having all the problems, all the phone calls, this and that. We handle a lot within our own neighborhood, so I don't know that you've gotten a lot of calls from us. But those of you who have been complaining, you stay on this contract.

I know East Toledo was advocating that it be a two year contract, not a five year. So I think, yeah, just be I'm glad to hear the questions. So Republic's been great. Here's my issue though and I didn't hear it today. This $18 you're raising us our refuse fee, is that another hearing date or is that supposed to be today?

It's a slide coming up next so you're ahead. But it's okay.

You can't you're kicking us out at four. How do you come up? Alright, well so here good. Okay perfect, great. So I was really pleased to hear your council president say we're saving $8,000,000. So give us a break on this 60% increase in our refuse fee. Everyone said, well the homestead. The homestead is great for us old folks. How about the folks who aren't old? Do you know 18 a 60% increase. And I want you to think about it within the context of what we do in this city and county. We sit on delinquencies, city, Toledo, water delinquency 50 mil, I understand. They're trying now to collect great, but all these years, $50,000,000. Now $18 doesn't sound like a lot, and then you say you're phasing it in. No.

60% this June I think, 60% increase to $18 then maybe a dollar the next year and a dollar the next year up to 20. Okay, and I just get my info from the blade. That's all I know. But give us a break. Think of the context. Collect the delinquent. Now the county does the same dang thing with taxes. A $150,000,000 in delinquent taxes until they get their money to demolish us. No. Get proactive city and county. I'm lumping you guys together. Get a partnership. Collect your delinquencies before you hit us with new expenses. Those of us who are paying. I live in a neighborhood of multi unit properties.

$18 per unit that so if you got a three unit $54 a month for a refuse. I love our refuse. We need it and now though we have to get dumpsters too. It's like oh my gosh. Do us a good faith favor. Don't raise us 60% on our refuse. Get the city to keep doing its action of collecting delinquencies and I want you to know the word on the street because I do a lot of work on the street in my neighborhoods. You don't have to pay water. You don't have to pay taxes because nobody does nothing. You don't pay gas.

You don't pay electric. Guess what? They're on you fast. Taxes, they're never on you until they demolish you and then you're they're still not on you. Water, I've got neighbors who I just had a neighbor leave last year, left just left her house owing $2 in water, $2 in taxes and walks away and that's it. I'm sure there there I know there are lots of people. They're the last bills to pay if you ever pay them, water and taxes. So within that context of all the money that's owed to everybody in the city and the county, Give us a break those of us who are paying. I mean $18 doesn't sound like much in the context but you have to think about it. Just phase us in a little bit, okay?

That's all I have. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Janice Flaiff.

Very good.

Thank you.

You did it. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?

We can.

My thanks to all here today, city council members, city representatives, sergeant in arms, republic representatives, members of the press, and fellow Toledoans. Thank you. I wrote this before the meeting. Now I know I got more questions. You're gonna hear from me. I'll be polite, I promise. My name is Janice Flayeff. I've been in Point Place for twenty eight years. I'm thankful city council has worked well on this proposed, contract, especially the part that Republic's, control. It will be up for renewal each of the five years pending quality of service.

Thank you. Also, I believe Republic will build on the good they've done the past year. I know you have tried to keep costs under control in light of fuel, labor costs, and lord knows, we don't have any control, especially fuel, and I shall say no more. However, the initial annual increases, I really think this is too much for the average Toledo one, and that's all I'm going say because you've heard a person before me. So and I ask that you please revisit charges proposed, including the recycling and landfill, and consider doing what you can in reducing or cutting anything in the proposed budget that is not in my humble opinion for the common good.

You all aren't going to agree with me. I'm not going into details for the sake of time. Oh, it changes so many times. Anyways, in closing, I wanna thank you all, everybody, for listening, not only to us, to each other, and continuing to work for the common good. Blessings.

Thank you so much. Up last, have Mark Schmiehausen.

Thank you, mister chairman. As you well know, I myself have a vested interest in what is going on with this contract. For the last ten months, I've had many conversations with some of you along with Republic and the mayor. One of my concerns is after doing my own research is one of the city's own documents which is appendix b which is the rules and regulations issued by the director of public service regulations governing refuge in recycling collection. Specifically article two section two zero nine that speaks to bulk pickup.

And that has been the hot point of this discussion since it started ten months ago. There's been council men and women that have asked, what are we gonna do about enforcement? This document guides the solid waste director and city council on how to enforce the rules and regulations that it's the agreement between the city of Toledo generated by the city of Toledo and any provider and the residents of the city of Toledo within all districts. So whatever rules or SLAs that are generated, will that reflect that in this document? And will city council in solid in the solid waste director enforce these rules?

Because it is the landlords that are creating this problem and everyone knows it. No one's doing anything to enforce it. There's a fine that speaks to enforcing the rules. And I would ask the next time we meet to give us, the residents of City of Toledo, what has city council done to go after folks and find them? And how much money has the city collected over the last five years of this extension on this renewal?

It also guides us on what you can put out and what you can't. Councilwoman Morris asked about a refrigerator. You're not allowed to put refrigerators out on the curb per your rules. You're not allowed to put washing machines out on the curb. You're not allowed to put light wears out on the curb.

It guides you on what you can and cannot put out on the curb, but there's never been any enforcement. So if we're gonna work together and seeing a positive direction in cleaning up the city of Toledo, then I would ask everybody to follow what the city has put together. Also there's been some discussion about creating an ad hoc committee back in March. I think that's extremely important that the representatives of the districts, the block watch captains, representatives from the city, republic, and the teamsters union meet once a month, quarterly or whatever we feel that's appropriate to keep an eye on this. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. I wish that we had time to continue the discussion on the next piece because I think it speaks exactly to what you're saying in terms of our enforcement on bulk. We have a proposed ordinance in front of city council. We're not gonna get to it today. I anticipated that we might not take a vote on it this coming Tuesday at any rate.

So we will have enough to schedule another hearing so we can make sure we get that opportunity. It's clear from the folks who came forward that that is a concern and identifying where the problem is. So we very much believe that we are heading in a direction to tackle these issues. I think that these discussions have certainly illuminated an awful lot about the processes that we've had in the past. I think that importantly, the best part of the discussion that we're having right now is that we're adding in service level agreements.

We're taking time to put some teeth into a process that previously for us had none. We had no mechanisms. So I'm grateful to the administration folks who have taken the time to research all of these items. So I'll just quickly say thank you to Megan, Ryan, Jenny, Joe, Abby, all of you for pushing us and pushing Republic quite frankly. And on that note, very grateful to Republic as well for coming to the table.

Think in good faith it's not been, it wasn't easy going into this for any of us, any of us. But I think that we've certainly been able to work well together through this process. I think that what is clear is that accountability matters more than almost anything. And so we will be doing our best to hold everyone accountable. But I think that the reality is that there's a lot of energy around this on both sides to do the right thing.

I think we need to continue that energy and the momentum that we have and the communication that we have moving forward. I agree the quarterly ad hoc could be a great solution. Mean I've even been reached out to recently by Lucas County Disability Organization who said that Republic used to meet with us and now they don't meet with us. So you know it's like little things like we could probably bring all of these people to the table and really work together. So I'm looking forward to that.

I do anticipate that we will vote on the contract and the refuse rate on Tuesday. So I just wanted to put that on the record. I wanna call on these last names but I would love for you to show the last slide before we before I do that and we will adjourn at four for whoever's talking. Do you wanna quickly recap?

Sure. So as you can see on the slide, the municipal solid waste fee is the dedicated funding source for curbside collection, recycling, and operation of the Hoffman Road landfill. The fee was last increased in 2016 and has not kept pace with the current labor, fuel, equipment, and disposals costs that we have seen. To address a nearly decade without adjustment and avoid even steeper increases, the proposed legislation that council has currently in committee our increases are six fifty to ten fifty for homestead exempted households this year, $11.25 in 2027, and $12 in 2028. We'll then see $11.50 to $18.50 for non homestead households this year, dollars 20 in 2027 and $21.50 in 2028.

The proposed fee structure keeps Toledo within the range of comparable cities and with planned increases, the city will gradually close that gap to get close to our balance of where we're seeing those revenues versus expenditures by the year 2028. Just to give council members an idea of some other municipalities and the fees they have. Lima is currently charging residents $24.86 per month. Detroit is currently at $21.67 per month. Fort Wayne is $20.32 per month.

And then we have other communities like Troy and Akron who are around that $18.5 or $20 per month. So we looked at some other cities that are somewhat comparable, of course cities around the city of Toledo to see where our proposed fee would be.

Thank you so much. Council Member Gasher, gonna get the last comment.

Thanks. I appreciate you making time. I just wanna push a little bit more on the service level agreement for number eight for the community block watches and schools. And I really appreciate you coming to the block watches. It makes a difference.

But unfortunately, it's the same, group of families. So I really wanna push you to think about festivals, block parties, sporting events, and even our park activation activities because you're gonna get a different clientele of people that come to those places, whether it's just a a table set up. So as they're coming by, they you have an opportunity to educate them, but it's gonna be very different from our block watch group. So if you could think outside of the box with that.

Just I think it was this week or or or late last week, we shared a big list of public events. There were opportunities for them to participate with the community and share information. We also reached out to city council, Lucy Frank, helped me with a list of town halls that you folks are hosting so that they knew about them, particularly in Districts 3 And 6 where we're struggling a little bit with bulk collection. Sometimes it's not it's that it's not being set out right. It's cars are blocking it.

They can't get to it or there's construction. So we we actually got together and had a little working session to figure out what challenges are they facing with their bulk collection and how can we work together to resolve those issues.

Thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you,

Chair.

Yeah, absolutely. Council Member Melden, I asked the chair of the next committee if we can have one minute. So you have one minute.

Well, hey. The irony was I was actually just gonna give kudos to you and council member Gaddis on your trash talking We have two minutes. It's funny. No. I just wanna say, you know, I had probably more questions and more bloviating up here than most anyone else, but I just wanna just give recognition to a lot of my colleagues who have been in this conversation a lot more deeply than I have. I at every single turn said, yeah. It's a big deal. Yeah. It's the number one amount of complaints I get. And I don't have landlord set outs as much in District 5 and there's still issues.

So this is multifaceted. So I wanna give a lot of credit to my colleagues here. And then also say you know, to the workers that do a job that's harder than I even know or could imagine and to a company like Republic who's trying to manage how to take care of 94,000 households every single day and every single week. It's complex. But, I don't know, we signed up for it. No one made you go work at Republic. No one made me run for council. No one made you say you wanted to be the chief of operations for the city of Toledo. We all said we're gonna do it. And so that's the spirit I bring to this conversation to figure out how do we make this as best as we possibly can.

Because the bottom line is, we all district folks, right, represent 45,000 residents. And they're going to work thinking about something else. They're not thinking about, I wonder what would be the best way to communicate with people about trash. They're just not thinking about and we are. So I'm glad that we're doing it together and I'm sure we'll find the right way forward. That's all I wanted to say.

Thanks. Absolutely.

Thank you. And thank you to those who attended today. Thanks to all the public comment that we had. Thank you to the Teamsters for your involvement. Thanks to Republic and the administration for the time. This meeting is adjourned.