Rolling Hills Estates – Performance Review

In early 2016, R3 was engaged by the City of Rolling Hills Estates (City) to conduct a Performance Review of their franchised hauler, Waste Management (WM), with the objective of assessing WM’s collection operations prior to the Franchise Agreement’s (Agreement) expiration.

Overall, WM received a positive review, although R3 found that they were out of compliance on vehicle weights and diversion standards, and they were substantially undercharging for manure collection and processing, which in turn negatively impacted their other required services.

Rather than seeking competitive bids, the City opted to work with the hauler to correct the compliance violations and renegotiate the contract, because of the City’s unique service requirements (e.g., unlimited multiple container sizes for recycling and organics at no cost; required use of smaller collection trucks; and required no-cost service for hard-to-service areas). R3 subsequently worked on the City’s behalf to negotiate the new Agreement, which assists the City in complying with state legislation (e.g., AB 939, AB 341, AB 1826, and AB 1594), prevents negative impacts on customer rates, and includes these beneficial features: a very specific public education program; a contamination monitoring and reporting program; and universal rollout of organics to all commercial and multi-family customers as a base service requirement.

R3 is currently assisting the City with modernizing and streamlining the language in the City’s municipal code to include legislative requirements for recycling and organics diversion (AB 341, AB 1826, SB 1383, and AB 1594).