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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Alex Alexandrou, Chief Management Officer
DATE: November 18, 2021
SUBJECT:
Extending and amending the City's contract with Groot, Inc. for refuse, recyclables and yard waste collection services.
BACKGROUND:
In December 2014, the City approved a seven-year waste management contract with Allied Waste Services of North America, LLC d/b/a Republic Services of Aurora. The 2014 contract represented a significant change from all previous contracts and was reflective of changes to the waste hauling industry overall. At that time, the city contracted Walter Willis, Executive Director of the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO) to assist in the negotiations. We are fortunate to have maintained an ongoing relationship with Walter and he continues to be involved in the negotiation process as our subject matter expert.
The most significant change for the community with the 2014 contract was the change from a sticker program to our current cart program. The 2014 contract also maintained popular community options like the senior bag program, periodic free yard, leaf and brush waste collection, free holiday tree collection and stickered bulk waste collection. The sticker price was also frozen at $2.75 at the request of the Council.
A common practice in the waste management industry is for competing businesses to exchange trash collection routes with each other through the assignment of contracts. Consistent with its option under the 2014 agreement, Republic Services assigned its Aurora contract to Groot Industries, Inc. Since the assignment, Groot has provided excellent waste management services in Republic's stead in conformance with the 2014 agreement and now seeks the amendment described herein.
Walter Willis along with former Deputy Mayor Chuck Nelson and myself were approached by Groot in late 2018 to consider an extension of the 2014 contract. We began negotiations shortly thereafter and our efforts continued after Ch...
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