Council awards five-year refuse contract to Waste Management but keeps billing with city

The River Falls City Council approved a five‑year refuse and recycling contract with Waste Management on Oct. 28 but amended the contract so the city retains customer service and billing responsibilities rather than transferring those functions to the vendor.

City staff recommended Waste Management as the lower-cost bidder; the recommendation included an alternate proposal in which Waste Management would assume billing and customer service. Council members raised concerns about recent service lapses and asked whether penalties in the current contract had been enforced; City Administrator (speaker 10) said penalties had been invoked three times this year and that complaints declined after schedule adjustments.

Council member (speaker 2) said he would vote no as a protest over recent collection problems and asked staff for periodic performance reporting. Council member (speaker 14) moved an amendment to retain billing and customer service with the city (status quo) and that amendment passed. After that amendment passed, the contract award to Waste Management for collection services passed by voice vote.

Council asked staff to provide monthly or quarterly performance reports that capture on‑time pickups and any penalty assessments. Staff said the change retains weekly recycling and large pickup events and that the alternative with Waste Management taking over billing would have been slightly less expensive to the household but not materially different.

Next steps: Staff will finalize the contract with Waste Management under the council‑approved terms; the city will maintain customer billing and service handling and will add a fee (approx. $1.25 per household) to cover city billing costs if needed; staff will report contract performance going forward.