Solid Waste Advisory Commission

Athens-Clarke County Minutes of the Meeting of the Solid Waste Advisory Commission Wednesday, October 19, 2022 Present at Meeting: Commissioner Patrick Davenport, Michael Brugger, Taylor Maddalene-Myers, Matt DiPalma, Jared Harper, Heidi Davison, Susie Nowells, Jere Bowden, Abigail West, Stacee Farrell, Joe Dunlop, Suki Janssen (via Zoom), and Susan Lyon (minutes). I. Welcome and Introductions Commissioner Davenport called meeting to order at 5:34 pm. II. Approval of Minutes: September 14, 2022 One change: remove “citizen” from the title of the minutes. Taylor made a motion to approve minutes as presented with edit; seconded by Michael, approved unanimously. I1I. Public Comments - None IV. Division Reports Printed copies available for members in attendance for review. Error in reporting on landfill tonnages. Correct data: 2022 – 8,064.00 2021 – 7,695.69 2020 – 7,245.50 Recycling audits are conducted when a SW Driver reports excessive contamination in recycling as seen on truck cameras. Staff will go to the street and conduct a visual audit of each roll-cart on the street and educate residents. Commissioner Davenport expressed concern that recycling bins are used as trash bins on home games during tailgating. Would like to see more recycling containers available. Repair Café this Sunday (10/23) from 2:00-5:00 pm at the CHaRM. Free to public. V. Old Business  AAH – Upcoming clean-up scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 29th at 9 am.  By-Laws o Terms – Approved ordinance allows for two (2) year terms with no term limits. To add term limits, must amend the approved ordinance before adopting by-laws. In order to change by-laws, an agenda report would need to be sent to Mayor and Commission to amend the ordinance. Davenport recommended no term limits. Members must reapply after 2-year term and be approved by M&C. Heidi recommended passing the by-laws as presented, then amend ordinance at a later date to include term limits. Consensus to amend ordinance to include a three (3) term limit of (two) year terms. o Voting Members as approved in ordinance – minimum of 7, maximum of 10 o Currently have 7 members and 4 ex-officio members o Compensation: Compensation for BAC members has not been approved by M&C.  o No voting by email unless the member is a participant in the meeting. Email voting by members outside of an official meeting is not allowed by law. o Public Comments – Not allowed at meeting. Comments can be emailed to Chair or staff liaison and forwarded to members before meetings. Agendas are posted online. o Code of Conduct – Attorney recommends clarifiying the process in the by-laws. Attorney recommends that SWAC recommend the removal of a member by letter to the M&C. It is the responsibility of the M&C to officially remove a member for a violation and not SWAC. o Motion by Jared to approve the by-laws as presented with discussed corrections and for Suki to send to the Attorney’s Office for review and submit an agenda report to M&C for amendments to the ordinance. Michael seconded. Passed unanimously.  Plastic Bags Will not address currently. Still collecting data through DebrisTracker for analysis. Taylor will assist with said analysis. VI. New Business  Franchising – o Suki will work with GIS and IT staff on the discrepancy between the number of residences reported by each departments. Believes the number of 23,884 customers in the general service district as reported by the IT department to be correct. According to this number, that would indicated 34,000 residential homes in ACC. Using the data submitted on the Waste Minimization Fee reports by private haulers, the current numbers indicate approximately 11,000 customers are not receiving collection services. Need clarification on how townhomes and duplexes are reported by IT and GIS. o SW staff has supported franchising in the past in an effort to stop to illegal dumping, prevent litter, save infrastructure, and for the safety of the community by having less trucks in neighborhoods. o Suki will send Powerpoints used at previous franchising public meetings to members for review. o Private haulers and Gwinnett County staff to be invited to the next meeting for input and to answer member questions. o Davenport to invite at least two (2) residents from District 1. He also recommends that the next meeting be two (2) hours in length to allow time for discussion o Members to begin initiating public comments via email to Susan immediately. o Heidi recommends a clear definition of franchising.  SW staff member, Lavoris Huff, won first place in the automated side-loader category at the International SWANA Road-E-O in El Paso, TX.  SW staff submitted a grant application to the EPD Trust Fund to expand compost collection/operation. The grant will be open again in January and staff will submit another application for MRF improvements. A motion to adjourn meeting was made by Heidi, seconded by Jere, and approved unanimously. Respectfully submitted by Susan Lyon: 11.16.22