Agenda - 05-05-2005-3 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM 3 To: John L,it~k, County Manager Erom: Wilbert McAdoo, Public Works Director' Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Director Subject: Consolidation of Cowlty Solid Waste Services Date: April 28, 2005 The purpose of this memorandum is to present the issues relative to consolidating County solid waste services presently provided by both the Public Works and Solid Waste Management Deparhnents (Solid Waste). The working assumption is that should a consolidation occur, the Sanitation Division would merge with Solid Waste rather than Solid Waste merging with the Public Works Department. Baclceround The Sanitation Division of the County Public Wor]<s Department has as its primary mission the responsibility of managing and maintaining the six public solid waste convenience centers and collecting solid waste from these centers along with county govenunent buildings and the county schools and delivering the waste to the Orange County Landfll. It has also provided numerous other support functions to other divisions within the Public Works Department Solid Waste manages the Orange County Landfill and various ancillary waste management functions at the landfill, provides a broad range of recycling and waste reduction programs and services, and performs assorted waste planning, enforcement, and regulatory/compliance functions. Solid Waste was organizationally located under the Town of Chapel Hill until 2000, when it was transferred to Orange County and became a county department. At that time the Cotmty began maintaining two departments with significant solid waste operational responsibilities, In the summer of 2004 the Cowrty Manager requested a study that would explore the feasibility and associated cost of combining the two entities under one department It was anticipated that such a consolidation would result in a more efficient/effective provision of county solid waste services and eliminate citizen confusion regarding responsibility for solid waste services in the county,. Discussion It should be noted that Solid Waste is operated as aself=funding enterprise fund and Sanitation is funded tluough county's general fund and directly supported by county taxes. Any decision to merge the two organizational units will necessitate budgetary adjustment to the different funding sources. Additionally, any organizational modification of Solid Waste will require ensuring conformance with the Interlocal Agreement. The organizational assessment focuses primarily on Sanitation Division personnel, equipment and budget, with limited focus on azialyzing operational matters (hours of operation, collection methodology, site lease terms, policies, etc.) other than those operations matters necessary to