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02/03/2010 Regular Meeting SOLID WASTE ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING MINUTES ( !L 1 L �`' f ` : �� �'_ � February 3, 2010 @ 5:15 PM i/[ i j • Borough Conference Room U, 4PR 1 4 2010 Lt i d BnlPOi Ci h; ? ; Call to Order • Chair Harrington called to order the Regular Meeting of the SWAB at 5:15pm on February 3, 2010 at KIB Conference Room. Roll Call M. Barber conducted a roll call and a quorum was established. The following persons were present: Board Members Present Not Present Excused Harrington, Cindy ✓ Martin, Turk ✓ Owen, Marion ✓ Szabo, Nick ✓ Tracy, Donn ✓ Mahoney, Ed ✓ Niziol, Sebastian V Also in attendance were: C. Mahoney, Alaska Waste, Dr. Bob Johnson, Ex- Officio Member: Chris Lynch and W. Koning, Kodiak Island Borough. Reading of Mission Statement To assist and advise the Borough Assembly in identifying solutions to solid waste management by collecting and reporting varied viewpoints, sponsoring public outreach, and developing specific projects with a focus on waste reduction, reuse and recycling. Approval of Agenda It was Moved, E. Mahoney and seconded to Approve the Amended Agenda to remove Election of Chair & Vice -Chair until a full Board was present. Motion Carried by a roll call vote. N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \Minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc Approval of Previous Minutes — September 2, 2009 & November 4, 2009 It was Moved, E. Mahoney and seconded to Approve the Minutes of September 2, 2009 and November 4, 2009. Motion Carried by a unanimous voice vote. New Member Welcomes /Introductions Board members introduced themselves, told how long they had served on the Board and explained why they chose to be on the Board. Visitor Comments Dr. Bob Johnson told the Board he was there to see how the Board felt about where they were in the process and he thought he heard they felt positively of where they were. He hears mention of contentious issues and he felt every issue that was presented that involved significant change was contentious. He believed it was more about the change then it was about the mechanics of the issues that leads to the sometimes flagrant disagreements or criticism and doesn't feel there's any place for that. He said Boards are assigned projects, they assume the responsibility for that, work very hard at it for quite some time, maybe years and come up with a solution that's been open to the public all along and what happens many people haven't noticed or paid attention and when the proposed solution comes out it always or seems to more and more result in objections. He said he thought people looked at their own situation rather than the total picture and that's what leads to contention, but didn't think it was an issue and didn't feel it was the way it was handled. He said he thought the way the Board was preceding was very good. He said to accept what they had and to believe in their contractor, who seemed to be quite intelligent and willing to work with them in the future. Reports — Educational Outreach M. Owen told the Board that KMXT invited C. Harrington and herself on Talk of the Rock forum after the joint work session with the Assembly. They discussed things that were brought up during the meeting. She said it's difficult to be live on the air and think on your feet, you may not always get everything right, but you do the best you can. W. Koning said they did a great job. Old Business a. Letter to Assembly recognizing KMXT's community contribution re: the 3 R's It was Moved, D. Tracy and seconded to approve the letter to the Assembly recognizing KMXT's community contribution re: the 3 R's. Discussion followed. Motion Carried by a roll call vote. N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \Minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc b. Letter to Assembly in support of curbside collection contract It was Moved, M. Owen and seconded to forward the letter to the Assembly with changes in wording. Discussion followed and some points that were made were viewing the contract, change in wording in letter, role of the Board, purpose of letter and moving forward with support to the Assembly. Motion Failed, 3 yes votes, C. Harrington, M. Owen and S. Niziol, 1 no vote, E. Mahoney and 2 abstained, D. Tracy and T. Martin. c. Resolution for Recycling Initiative Chair Harrington explained the history to the new Board Members. It was Moved, E. Mahoney and seconded to postpone the Resolution for Recycling Initiative to the next meeting. Motion Carried by a unanimous voice vote. New Business a. Approve meeting schedule Chair Harrington explained to the new Board members the requirements of the Board to meet in KIBC section 2.145. It was Moved, E. Mahoney and seconded to adopt a new meeting schedule to meet at least once a quarter. Discussion followed and some points were; who can call a meeting, attendance policies, special meeting, bylaws and quarterly meetings. Motion Carried by a roll call vote. Visitor Comments None Board Comments D. Tracy thanked Chair Harrington for taking time to provide T. Martin and himself with orientation. He also thanked M. Owen for writing the letter even though it didn't pass, he said he just didn't feel it was appropriate for him to vote on it, but he appreciated the fact that she made the effort to write it and wanted to acknowledge it. M. Owen told the Board she had issues the last couple of weeks with some of the comments that Board members made in public and was pleased to see what N. Javier sent to them as far as what was appropriate for Board members to say "I'm speaking as a private citizen and not as my role as a member of a Board." She thought the information provided by N. Javier was very appropriate with what was aired on KMXT and what showed up in the Daily Mirror recently. In particular she was interested in number 3: A majority vote decides an issue and any group, each member agrees to be governed by the vote of the majority. She recalled when J. Selby spoke to the Convention and Business Bureau Board and said the intention of being on a Board was to N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \Minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc work as a team as a group and if that group decides on anything it's not their (the members) place to publicly tear down the vote the majority of the group had agreed to. Somebody told her recently on another issue that it's a lot easier to tear down than to build up. A case in point was an interview aired on KMXT with D. Tracy, which peaked her interest because she wasn't sure if what he was saying was true. She said she went online to KMXT and transcribed the MP3 file that they had and wrote it down. She stated she did what she felt they all should do as a member of any Board, which was: before you speak out you should check your facts and the proper way to do that was to contact staff because they're supposed to know; whether they're City or Borough, whatever the issue. She said she went to staff with some of the comments that were made and asked if they were true. She felt if you're going to air comments or get quoted in the newspaper, you have a responsibility to the best of your ability to voice what was true, otherwise the ramifications are confusion and a very divisive community and people that don't know what's right and what's wrong, who to believe or who to trust. As an example, she quoted D. Tracy in saying costs had actually increased substantially over the last several years. She asked staff if that were true and was informed the residential and commercial rates were last increased in July 2003. These rates had not been increased before that since 1996. Commercial dumpster rates increased again in July 2005, fees charged up until these increases did not accurately cover the cost for the landfill maintenance (it's an enterprise fund and like a business the P's & Q's have to add up) and closure post closure needed for regulatory compliance as well as escalating collection costs were necessary, at the time it was just an automatic 2 %. She told the Board another statement that D. Tracy made was that it seems the cost of solid waste disposal keeps increasing and under the proposed contract it doesn't appear there are any assurances to cap any of the costs. It remains to be seen if the Borough will generate enough revenue in dump fees at the landfill to match the revenue received in the current contract and he would like to see the Borough and the Assembly if they decide to vote for it that they give that contained cost and give the community assurance that fees won't substantially increase during the seven year period of the contract. She said that's when she learned that because the landfill was an enterprise fund, like a business the fees cannot be capped. She stated for a Board member to give their opinion in public without really knowing the facts was very hard on a community like ours. She suggested the SWAB disband, because she felt they had done their purpose and had done their work and she thought if anyone on the Board didn't want to work as a team or had their own agenda they should resign or don't say anything that wasn't true or that the Board had voted on as a group. E. Mahoney said he didn't hear any of that stuff, but he concurred that the rates had gone up. He felt another issue in talking about D. Tracy was he wasn't sure if he was a Board member at the time and felt it was nitpicking to clobber someone at their first meeting. He told staff he appreciated the report at the last meeting he attended of where they were and hoped it would N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \Minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc be on a continuing basis. He welcomed D. Tracy and T. Martin to the Board and said he looked forward to working with them. T. Martin said he was curious about the protocol of the Board member comments. He said all Board members in some respect have personal agendas for certain topics. If they could convince him, because he cared about what was going on he would be able to go out and try to convince other people. He stated his water, sewer and garbage was all lumped together and over the last five years he believed it had gone up $35 or $40 dollars, but he felt they were digressing because everything had gone up. He said he was happy to see where the Board goes from here and doesn't think they should disband. C. Lynch said she thought it's important to read N. Javier's memo to them. She thought it should be taken to heart that when you step up to sit on a Board, regardless of your own opinions you become a team member and she thinks it's a slap in the face to the rest of your team because it is majority rules and you're trying to convince the rest of the players what you're doing. She thinks they need to provide a united front as a Board and it's very important that if you don't understand something or have questions before individuals make public comments they really need to think about how that affects their team as they are Solid Waste Advisory Board members. She wanted people to understand they were a team and she hoped people took that seriously. S. Niziol said the Board had an important role to play, not necessarily looking at the fine details of contract work which was the issue he had earlier with the letter that they don't have a role in coming up with the contract and working on that but they want to have broad plans for the community and the direction that they want to move the community forward and make those recommendations to the Assembly and of course the role of trying to inform the community at large. He said when it came to the letter from N. Javier regarding speaking as individuals and not as members of the Board, while he agrees that they need to work as a team and recognize that they are working as a team, when the Board comes up with a resolution they need to be able to present that as a Board, but as an individual regarding the letter outside the meeting they do not follow Robert's Rules, parliamentary procedures is within the meetings not outside and when it comes to matters of personal opinion when you're outside the meeting itself he felt it was important that they are able to still offer their differing opinions. While they have the opportunity to present their opinions during the meeting, which is important they could see in their attendance record there are very few people that attended the meetings outside of the Board members and not much of what was discussed at the meetings ends up in the public's view, whether it be in the media. He didn't feel the public, not that they didn't care, they don't have access to it. He said when the media comes to them as individuals requesting their opinion he thought it was important to still be able to offer their opinions, but with that in mind N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \Minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc knowing that they are part of a Board at least be able to present the Boards view as well, because this was a matter of public concern. W. Koning told the Board he was pretty positive of the steps they were going to take. He was very pleased with the contractor and his experience and his approach. He said that he thought what had happened here historically was that someone said our garbage system was a mess and what's happened lately since he's been involved was our garbage system was a mess, the Assembly said we need to do something about it and directed staff to hire a consultant to help them come up with a plan, which staff did and passed it by this Board for all these different opinions and different ideas. The plan was presented, changed and amended then finally approved by the SWAB, then it went to the Assembly and they approved it. He stated we didn't have all the answers, but the consultant that helped them produce the plan told them that this was their recommendation looking at it as economist, lawyers and engineers. This was what they thought was the Borough's best approach to improving their solid waste plan, but the numbers are estimates, the costs that were being presented were estimates and they wouldn't know what the numbers were and the costs until you get an RFP out there and select a contractor that's going to be speaking with his wallet, he's saying he can do that. He said there were so many solid waste experts in the community it was amazing. The contractor that comes in and says he can do this scenario for this amount of money and he's willing to sign a contract for that amount is what the Borough was waiting for and they got that in the contractor and luckily, he thought they had a really good contractor. They are a solid company that's been around a long time. Kodiak residents think they're unique, our bears are bigger, there's snow and ice problem, there's long driveways and high winds, but he said he has a lot of confidence in the contractor; he's willing to be flexible and wants to work out those problems as they come up. They can continue in Board meetings and letters to the editor about what can't be done and what the problems are, but if they look at it with a positive attitude the human behavior is the key factor and he would hope that the Board could help with outreach and education so the public knows how to behave and to start taking responsibility for their trash and waste and pay their own way. The system that the Borough is working towards is a user fee scenario, if you only generate one can of garbage you pay less, it's fairer and more equitable. It's what they are doing all over the country and they're doing it in difficult places just like Kodiak. He told the Board he really appreciates all the time and effort that has been put in to get them to this point. It's not an easy thing and there will never be a scenario that everyone is going to love, but what their trying to accomplish is to provide a system that does the greatest good for the least amount for the entire group. Chair Harrington told the Board she appreciated everyone's commitment and your candor and having an opportunity to discuss what was on their minds. N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \Minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc M. Owen apologized to D. Tracy for stating his name. Chair Harrington said she totally agreed with W. Koning that the only way they're going to move forward is by positive outlook. The Board should represent consensus, it's the way they're supposed to do things. She told S. Niziol that she understood his question and understood the gray areas about public meetings and agree with some of that, how does it really drill down to how do I get to be two people, but where she differed from his opinion was when it came down to the media contacting them, personally she didn't think that that was when they are to offer their personal opinion, that's when they offer the consensus that they've agreed with the Board, because she felt their role was to positively move forward for all the reasons they've talked about. Their role is to be part of the solution, to move forward and help educate the community about why these decisions and choices are being made. The Board needs to make sure that the public doesn't feel they're being forced fed something, they need to let the public know they have access to information so that they can understand decisions that are made. People have come up to her and asked why aren't you doing the transfer station and I told them it's in the Plan to do later, they ask why aren't you doing recycling and I told them it's in the Plan to do later. Well I'd like you guys to do something else and she told them the Borough can do anything they want, but it's going to cost money. What the Borough was charged with was to hire an expert to do the most cost effective way to remove the garbage and that's what she keeps telling the public over and over. She told the Board she's been as frustrated as M. Owen with what has gone on with the process as late. She appreciated the memo N. Javier sent out to the Board and hoped she sent it to the Assembly as well. She sees the frustration at the Boards level of what can be said about the progress, but yet she has seen some outrageous behavior from some Assembly members that kind of surprised her, so the Board wasn't the only ones that were confused about how to represent consensus and how do they also have their own concerns and issues. She stated if she had issues with her icy, steep driveway she would take them up with the contractor once the contract was signed on an individual basis and I'm certainly not going to write a letter to the editor about those issues. She told the Board if she's still Chair at the next meeting she was really counting on them to be strong team members, because it makes her look ridiculous out there in the community when people say "Hey your part of SWAB, I've seen this in the paper and that in the paper, what's going on with you guys ?" She asked the Board to buckle down and show the other groups the right way to talk about consensus, the right way to move forward. If they didn't want to do the Plan they should have pulled the plug on it a long time ago and then what's another idea. This is where the community is going, there's a contractor that seems to be extremely knowledgeable and experienced. They said the Plan was a pilot, if it doesn't work they can go back to the drawing board. She stated for the Board to operate by consensus, take responsibility for how the public perceives our role, which is outreach and N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \Minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc education, facilitating what's going on with them and making it easier for them to understand what's going on. D. Tracy told M. Owen there's no need to apologize. He wanted to clarify his remarks and the context he stated they were made in public comments to the Assembly at a public meeting, he didn't identify himself as a member of SWAB, but as a private citizen and the affiliation was made by the Daily Mirror and then replayed on KMXT. He told the Board he had a long history of involvement in this process and totally agreed with M. Owen and others that if you use your position on a Board or any type of entity that is involved in Governmental affairs, it's egregious to use your position to undermine the consensus of the group and if you're going to do that you really don't have a place in the group because you're not representing the group you're representing your own personal individual agenda. He said you still have to allow people to have personal opinions within that capacity as long as they don't overstep their bounds and use good judgment and discretion. He stated if anyone heard his remarks, he didn't express opposition to the contract or opposition to any elements that had been endorsed by the SWAB. The main thrust of his comments were that he was concerned with the potential costs for services and the facts are that the Borough, again he didn't specifically state the cost increases were solely related to user fees, the facts are the amount of money the Borough has spent on solid waste disposal in the last three years has gone up almost exponentially, and the primary reason for that was the extension of the current contract with Alaska Waste that resulted in tremendous cost increases to the contractor. The Borough found it necessary to opt for those extensions because the solid waste management plan hadn't been finalized at that point and time. He said that was the context of his remarks specifically and in regards to what E. Mahoney said, even though he was a member of the advisory committee he hadn't participated in any of the activities of the Board and tried not to imply any affiliation with the group, but he completely agreed that once a group reaches a consensus on a particular issue if in your capacity representing that group you have to use good judgment and discretion because people would perceive your comments as representative of the group if you aren't careful. He said he's dealt with that his whole career working with the Dept. of Fish and Game. He appreciated the time to respond and wanted to clarify the context. C. Harrington told the Board the Borough had published a press release and asked the Board to work in a positive way with the media. She thanked the Board for their incredible commitment. W. Koning thanked M. Owen for her work in developing the press release. Meeting Scheduled The next regular meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, April 7, 2010, 5:15pm in the Borough Conference Room. N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc Adiourn There being no further business before the Board the meeting was adjourned at 7:20pm. SUBMITTED BY: A1 .. < Date: LI I—) 110 Mary J. Barb I •tary ll KIB Engineerrn: Facilities Department APPROVED BY: jir _J flak Date: y' -7 - I (� Cindy Harrin :ton, Ch: Solid Waste Advisory Board N: \EF \Baler Facility \Solid Waste Advisory Board \FY2010 \Minutes \Minutes 3 Feb 10 Draft.Doc