Tuesday, the borough assembly voted 8-1 to pass Resolution 2004-106 establishing 11 landfill positions within the Solid Waste Department. Those jobs must be filled by the end of the year when the current contract with Texas-based Waste Management Inc. expires. Those jobs will be offered in-house to borough workers first before advertising more broadly, according to Solid Waste Director Catherine Mayer.
Current employees of the landfill, some with years on the job, would have to wait to apply with the general public, though their experience at the dump would likely give them some advantage.
The borough has contracted with private companies for landfill operations for about 30 years, and Mayer said that had been a successful system for most solid waste operations. But it is no longer the most practical option, she told the assembly in a Sept. 28 memo.
Once a simple dump-and-bury operation, the landfill has evolved during the past decade to a much larger regional facility handling waste from 75 percent of the borough's population. Homer's baling facility and some remote operations, such as that in Seldovia, are the exceptions.
Most recently, the borough has been engaged in a major capital improvement of its landfill operation, a $7 million project that will leave the borough with a state-of-the-art landfill.
"The borough must protect that investment," Mayer said Tuesday.
The borough agreed, though several members, including Dan Chay of Kenai, expressed concerns about the addition of 11 new borough employees and the impact on future borough budgets their medical and retirement plans would have.
Ron Long, of Seward, said, however, that if the borough assembly wanted to take up the issue of employee benefit packages it could do so on a broader basis and consider the subject as it applied to all borough and school district employees. He noted that it was important to address the landfill problem now because time was running short.
The assembly agreed. Only Paul Fischer of Kasilof opposed the move, but only because the assembly had received a copy of a letter from a potential contractor expressing some interest in "talking with the assembly" about managing the landfill. However, no one from that company appeared at the meeting nor apparently made any other overture to the borough seeking a formal response, and the rest of the assembly voted to have the borough take over landfill management starting the first of next year.
The jobs to be opened include one landfill manager, two operator I positions, two operator II positions, one operator-general maintenance mechanic, one operator-mechanic, two scale attendants-clerks and two laborers.
In recent years, the cost of private contracts has been climbing rapidly, and the number of bidders seeking to sign a contract with the borough has dwindled. Waste Management Inc., which operates more than 1,600 landfill management subsidiaries around the country and in Canada (including Peninsula Sanitation Inc. here on the Kenai Peninsula), has been divesting itself of some of those operations. The company turned down an invitation by the borough to extend its current contract by six months to carry through to the end of the borough's fiscal year on June 30.
The cost of the borough takeover has been estimated at about $656,000 annually, though several factors, including the new and somewhat unfamiliar requirements of the new landfill might mean adjustments to that estimate in future budgets, Mayer said.
Nevertheless, it is expected that the borough would be able to operate the landfill at less cost than a private contractor, in part because profit would not be its intent.
At the Oct. 12 meeting, several current landfill workers told the assembly they favored a borough takeover, saying that each time a new contract was signed between the borough and a contractor, their jobs were in jeopardy. There was never any assurance they would be rehired by a new contractor, though that was often the case, nor could they rely on their current pay scales continuing. Those who testified said they liked working at the landfill and would likely apply for those jobs if the borough assumed management. They said they viewed becoming public employees as a more stable working condition.
The borough also:
Hal Spence is a reporter for the Peninsula Clarion.
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