St. Pete City Council went ahead and approved a three-year contract with Consolidated Resource Recovery, Inc. for yard waste grinding services despite some concerns raised about the lack of competition for the job and the overall cost effectiveness.
The contract would have sailed to swift approval without an iota of discussion had it not been yanked from the consent agenda by former City Council chair Charlie Gerdes.
Gerdes questioned whether or not the city could use the $427,700 minimum annual cost to instead purchase grinding equipment and take care of the service in-house.
He estimated that two used yard waste grinders would cost about $500,000 and figured doing it independently rather than outsourcing the work could create jobs for at-risk youth who could bag the resulting mulch for sale at $1 a bag.
The city currently gives most of the mulch away for free.
“I was raising it as a possible way to create some employment,” Gerdes said. “I just thought it was a low-tech business that had a constant demand – people are buying mulch all the time.”
Gerdes even came up with a potential name should the city get into the business of selling mulch – Sunshine City Mulch.
But Gerdes’ proposal comes with some concerns – namely that maintaining the grinders is costly and difficult. According to the city the machines are extremely specialized and require near daily maintenance because logs placed into them tear up the machine’s innards.
Regardless of the potential setbacks, Gerdes’ question did prompt some action. The version of the contract approved by City Council includes a way out of the contract if the city so decides.
And it raised questions about the competitiveness of all city bids, not just this one.
Only one company bid for the yard waste-grinding gig and that’s not uncommon. According to city staff, it happens fairly frequently, mostly with specialized services like air conditioning.
City Council member Steve Kornell compared it to the carts used by School Resource Officers on school campuses he said cost more than his car.
“I know we’re doing things legally,” Kornell said. “But are we getting the best deal?”
City staff left with the promise to look into the city’s bidding process and to possibly identify ways to create more competition.
