Berkeley – Negotiation Assistance

R3 provided negotiation services to the City of Berkeley, who was seeking to arrange for the recyclables processing services currently provided by Community Conservation Centers (CCC). R3 provided support in the negotiation of a short-term contract with CCC to continue to provide recycling processing services as the City begins redevelopment of one of its solid waste facilities and the development of long-term solid waste policies via a Zero Waste Plan.  R3’s objective was to facilitate a contract that provides the City with a greater level of operational and financial accountability from CSS and resolves outstanding matters of dispute, including amounts owed to the City by CCC per the terms of the current contract.

For this engagement, R3 conducted the following main tasks:

• Established clear objectives and refine initial positions with respect to the City’s key interests and desired outcomes from these negotiations;
• Updated analysis of recyclables market conditions to provide the City with detailed cost estimates of hauling/processing recyclable materials at other facilities;
• Led negotiation sessions with the City and CCC over the course of three half day negotiations;
• Attended meetings with City staff, prepared negotiation session agendas, and attended negotiation sessions (phone and in-person);
• Reviewed and analyzed cost and program data presented by CCC and made recommendations to City staff;
• Drafted a new recyclables processing agreement for review by the City and CCC;
• Facilitated five (5) rounds of revision and comment by the City and CCC; and
• Assisted City staff in the preparation of a staff report to the Council presenting the results of these contract negotiations.

As a result of R3’s assistance, the City gained the following benefits:

• Excel workbook of recyclables market conditions estimating hauling/processing costs for three alternative recyclables processing facilities;
• Negotiation and finalization of a short-term contract between the City and CCC that clearly addressed CCC’s operational and financial accountability;
• Creation of a compensation structure that takes into account revenues lost from the impacts from China’s National Sword while providing assurances for the City that its hauler will be able to collect and market materials;
• Resolution of the amounts owed by CCC to the City per the contract (~$800,000);
• Cessation of CCC’s periodic requests for special payments from the City, which had been made outside the terms of the current agreement; and
• The creation of a coterminous Agreement with the City’s Agreement with Ecology Center for the City to make an educated decision of the future of its Agreements.