Deltona delays final vote on Waste Pro contract; commission directs further review

The Deltona City Commission on Sept. 8 voted to table action on the proposed solid-waste collection agreement with Waste Pro, directing staff to continue negotiations and return to the commission at its Sept. 15 meeting with further analysis and comparisons to recent contracts in neighboring jurisdictions.

Commissioners debated contract provisions that staff and a consultant said had been removed during recent negotiations, particularly enforcement and administrative fee language that some commissioners and a consultant said were important for holding the contractor accountable. Redmond Consulting Group principal Bill Redmond, hired previously by the city to assist in solid-waste matters, told the commission the draft contained the removal of numerous administrative enforcement items and recommended restoring several; he said his earlier cost estimate had been slightly higher than the draft presented to the commission.

“I initially thought maybe a rate around $16.50 would be somewhere in the ballpark,” Mr. Redmond said during public comment; staff later confirmed the negotiated number presented to the commission was $15.94 per unit in the current package, lower than Redmond’s earlier estimate. Waste Pro’s representative, Tim Dolan, said the updated draft retained the service level and that some administrative fines in the prior contract had been duplicative; he noted the agreement includes a 5% cap on CPI increases and said staff and Waste Pro had negotiated language to avoid duplicate or redundant penalties.

Commission discussion highlighted two competing priorities: (1) keeping costs to residents as low as possible while ensuring the contractor is accountable to performance standards, and (2) meeting the statutory deadline needed to include the assessment on property tax bills. Staff advised the commission that the final assessments for solid waste must be set by Sept. 15 to be included on the tax roll; if the commission did not finalize an assessment rate by that date, the fee collection would need to move to monthly utility billing instead, which staff said would be administratively more complex.

Commissioner Caldwell moved to table the contract to the Sept. 15 meeting with direction for staff to work with Mr. Redmond on contract language and to provide a clear accounting of what services were changed or removed in the new draft; Commissioner Avila Vasquez seconded. The motion passed 4–2. The commission also requested that staff prepare a side-by-side comparison of the proposed contract language against the prior contract and provide examples of how enforcement provisions would be applied in practice. Waste Pro and Mr. Redmond were both invited to provide supplemental details to staff for the Sept. 15 discussion.

Staff told commissioners that adding back enforcement mechanisms will likely increase the proposed contract rate, and that commissioners should expect that restoring removed administrative fees may raise the cost above the current draft. Vice Mayor Harriott asked staff to provide a breakdown of the effect on the per-unit rate if those enforcement provisions were restored.

The tabled item remains on the Sept. 15 agenda; staff will return with the requested analyses and, if possible, options for a short extension of the current contract while the commission completes review so the city can meet the assessment timetable.