As a result of the Nov. 5 election, Ann Snyder retained her two-year seat on the board, and Bob Milner and Shelley Sekula-Gibbs also won seats on the seven-member board. John McMullan, who was vice chair of the board, and Carol Stromatt stepped down from the positions. They did not run for re-election this year.
Among other business marking the start of the new council's term, the board selected officers by means of written ballots. Gordy Bunch remains chair of the board, and Director Bruce Rieser was chosen as vice chair. John Anthony Brown and Ann Snyder were selected as treasurer and secretary, respectively.
At the close of the three-hour meeting, which included interviewing candidates for open positions on the township's Development Standards Committee, the board awarded a bid for solid waste and recycling services to Waste Management, its current contractor. In May, the board had directed a negotiations team to work with the contractors to establish a rate of $14.15 per single-family household per month. The price from Waste Management under the contract currently in place is $10.78 per month per residential household, and the budgeted amount for contracted waste collection services in 2019 is $5.16 million, according to information presented by the board in May.
Because the Waste Management contract ends Feb. 1, 2020, the company in May submitted a bid for a new contract to provide services for $14.51 per month. The projected cost of the services for 2020 was $6.67 million, and the eight-year term of the agreement with an annual maximum increase of 3% would be $61 million, according to information presented at the meeting. After consultant Lynn Lantrip of Solid Waste Specialists told the board he was unable to negotiate a lower rate, the board unanimously voted to accept the $14.51 bid. The increased cost was due to a number of factors, including the cost of disposing of contaminated recycled material and an increasingly challenging market for recyclable goods, he said. The bid also includes 30 Big Belly compacting bins to be placed in township parks.
However, John Powers, the assistant general manager for community services in the township, said the company is not obligated to sign the contract. The bid was conditioned on including a contamination threshold mechanism to account for the costs of contaminated material—estimated at 25% in The Woodlands—and a maximum 5% annual growth cap for its services, according to Waste Management representatives.
The board stipulated it wishes to keep the 3% growth cap in place. A representative for Waste Management said a 5% cap was needed because of increased costs passed on to the company.
The board stipulated it wishes to keep the 3% growth cap in place. A representative for Waste Management said a 5% cap was needed because of increased costs passed on to the company.
Bunch said the township could not accommodate an increase of more than 3%.
"This organization doesn’t have a more than 3.5% increase in revenue year over year for all of the services we provide," he said, referring to the 3.5% cap on revenue growth approved by the Texas Legislature this year and signed into law.
The issue will be revisited at the next board meeting, Dec. 4, with instructions from the township to Solid Waste Specialists to continue negotiating the deal to a mutually agreeable cost.
