Editorial | Due diligence
If Cape Coral City Council’s consensus stands, the city will take a look at solid waste service providers who would like to collect trash, yard waste, recyclables and other refuse within the city limits.
Waste Pro, which has serviced the Cape since 2010, has requested a five-year contract extension for their agreement set to expire Sept. 30, 2027.
A council majority says it favors going out for requests for proposal, a type of bid for services.
We agree that is a good choice.
This opinion is not a based on Waste Pro’s performance.
It is simply fiscally prudent.
The cost of doing business for, well, everyone, has spiraled. In terms of trash collection, Cape Coral residents and businesses are looking at a substantial increase — possibly as high as 94% for residential pickups, according to numbers provided by city staff related to their contract extension negotiations with Waste Pro.
The current residential rate equates to $13.72 per month this year.
According to the city’s solid waste manager, Terry Schweitzer, it was discussed that the residential pickup rate would increase by either 72% or 94% while the commercial rate would increase by 29.6% or 62.7%.
Those are pretty big hikes.
They are, though, not unexpected as Waste Pro’s contracted rate in the city is about half of what is average, according to Mr. Schweitzer.
This means a rate hike is likely whether the city extends its agreement with Waste Pro or finds a new provider.
So why does it make sense to spend the time — and money — required to vet potential vendors?
Fifteen years without a competitive analysis is a long time for any vendor-based contract. Twenty years, to which a contract extension would bring the city is, literally, a generation.
Taking into account the city’s 94,000 households alone, this is a huge contract.
Going through the RFP process is more than fiscally prudent: It’s due diligence for those who pay the rates.
Waste Pro, which says it has the advantage of no transition period and “unknowns” is, as city officials pointed out, welcome to join what, hopefully, could be a crowd.
Breeze editorial