Solid Waste Advisory Commission

Athens-Clarke County Minutes of the Meeting of the Solid Waste Advisory Commission Wednesday, January 25, 2023 Present at Meeting: Commissioner Patrick Davenport, Taylor Maddalene-Myers, Matt DiPalma, Jared Harper, Jere Bowden, Abigail West, Suki Janssen, and Susan Lyon (minutes). I. Welcome and Introductions Commissioner Davenport called meeting to order at 5:41 pm, due to technical difficulties. II. Approval of Minutes: November 16, 2022 Due to the lack of quorum, a vote was not taken. Deferred to the next meeting. I1I. Public Comments - None. IV. Division Reports Printed copies available for members in attendance for review. No questions. Suki reported that recycling markets are down. The ACC Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) is twice as old as it should be and is having tremendous mechanical issues. V. Old Business o AAH – Last clean-up produced 6 bags of trash, 1 bag of recycling, and a large pile. Many plastic bags documented. Susan will send out a Doodle Poll for future clean-up dates. o By-Laws – No update from the Attorney’s Office. o Suki gave out redacted customer complaints log from 2018 to 2020 as requested by Matt at last meeting. o Patrick composed a Pros and Cons sheet on Franchising based on the presentation at the November, 2022 meeting and it was included with Division reports. Additional pros and cons can be added to the list by sending an email to Susan. o The next step for the commission is to make a recommendation to the Mayor and Commission. o SWAC is currently meeting monthly while working on franchising but will look at going back to quarterly after February’s meeting. o Members should review the PDF that was sent out on 12/16 by Suki of the study completed in 2018 on franchising. Commissioner Davenport gave an overview of the process if SWAC makes a recommendation to M&C to pursue franchising. The recommendation is given to the Mayor, who will review it with staff. At the following M&C voting meeting, the Mayor will assign the task to the GOC (Government Operations Committee) or LRC (Legislative Review Committee). The committee will review all of the information presented and may ask SWAC any follow-up questions, and then will decide if they wish to proceed. The process can take up to a year. SWAC is tasked with only making a recommendation to the M&C. o Matt has received many calls on the subject, including questions on who will dictate the pricing, how will the transition happen, who purchases new containers, etc. o Suki explained that the process of franchising could take two to three years. VI. New Business None Meeting ended at 6:21 pm. Respectfully submitted by Susan Lyon: 02.16.23