North St. Paul City Council weighs bulk pickup, apps and customer-service options in solid-waste RFP

At a city council workshop, North St. Paul officials reviewed responses to a request for proposals for solid waste and recycling collection and gave staff direction to interview the top two bidders before negotiating a contract for council approval.

Dan Winnick, the city"s finance director, told council members the city received seven proposals and that staff and FA Consultants scored each on qualifications, price, community values, past performance and value-added plans. "We received seven proposals," Winnick said, and staff tabulated a weighted score with the top proposal scoring 8.9. Winnick said the proposals are competitive enough that the city may be able to avoid a rate increase for several years.

Winnick summarized the next steps: staff will invite the top two shortlisted vendors to interviews, negotiate contract terms that reflect council priorities, and aim to return a finalized contract for council action in June or July so a new vendor could begin service Sept. 1 if selected.

Councillors focused much of the discussion on several "value-added" options that vendors proposed. Bulk curbside pickup drew sustained attention: staff noted proposals ranged from two free items per year to two items per month at about $0.72 per resident. Council members discussed frequency, item limits, winter suspensions and mechanisms to prevent abuse, such as issuing stickers to mark scheduled pickups. One council member said they would entertain adding a bulky-pickup program funded at about $0.50 per resident per month as a workable middle ground.

The council also debated whether the city or a vendor should handle customer service. Staff described the current approach — the city fields resident calls and forwards requests to the hauler while retaining billing — and reported some bidders offered to take over customer-service calls. Council members generally favored keeping billing with the city to avoid residents receiving unexpected vendor charges, while asking staff to seek vendor reporting and analytics if customer service is outsourced.

Staff described additional features some vendors proposed, including a resident app for schedule changes, vacation holds and bulk-pickup scheduling and truck technology such as GPS route maps and in-cab cameras. Council members said an app could reduce routine calls, but they were split on paying an ongoing per-resident fee; one council member said an app would be acceptable up to about $0.50 per resident per month.

Winnick emphasized that many of the options discussed are negotiable and that contract language can require reporting, service metrics and timelines for new features. He also noted the RFP required participation in Ramsey County"s green-bag yard-waste program and that respondents included yard-waste, recycling and dumpster services in their bids.

No formal award or contract vote was taken at the workshop. Instead, staff left with council direction to interview the top two proposals, incorporate the council"s preferences into negotiation priorities (including bulky-pickup parameters, app expectations and customer-service reporting), and return a draft contract for council consideration in the coming weeks.

The council approved the workshop agenda at the start of the meeting and adjourned to reconvene at 6:30 p.m.