The Cypress City Council by a vote of 3-2 Monday proved that Valley Vista Services can still generate enough votes to stay off the city’s radar, at least for now.
The Council, on a split vote, removed from consideration an item that emerged from their recent strategic planning meeting as a priority to be considered in the next six months.
The action came as a surprise to council member David Burke, who said he had been working with city manager Peter Grant to develop best practices around the sourcing of solid waste contracts since the previous council’s award estimated to be worth $100 million no bid contract to Valley Vista had generated so much controversy in the city.
The precise motion would have allowed the establishment of a two-member ad hoc subcommittee to study the best practices for the future awarding of waste-hauler contracts.
The Council’s strategic planning meeting was held on Sept. 18 and the best practices ad-hoc committee was listed as one of the strategic priorities, among others like the Myra Ave. pumping station, audio crosswalk signals, unfunded pension liability payments, business park modernization, etc.
However, in a twist, Council member Bonnie Peat made a motion to accept the strategic priorities without the waste hauler item.
“All right. I’ll make a motion to approve the six months strategic objections less the item related to item two, related to establishing an ad hoc subcommittee to identify best practices for building a solid waste franchise,” said Peat.
“It says recommend establishing an ad hoc subcommittee to identify best practices for bidding and awarding replace franchise. I know she had proposed that it’s not an imminent thing. I don’t know what happens with the contract, but right now I believe it goes to 2037,” said Peat.
“So I would like to propose that we push that out, at least to the next strategic and really have a discussion as to timing as to why we need to do it right now. I don’t see with everything else that we’ve got on our platter and some of the major activity we’ve got that it doesn’t hurt to move it out and to have a proper discussion.”
Mayor Anne Hertz-Mallari, who was attending the meeting virtually from Chicago, said she agreed.
“Thank you for bringing that up. I look at the complexity and quantity of the items in the six month strategic plan. I really think we have to consider staff capacity and ensure that we have enough time and resources to do the things that are the most urgent and important,” she said.
“I think this item should be deleted from consideration tonight,” she said.
An exacerbated Burke said all the staff time was already spent.
“Since we agreed to put it in strategic planning, however, I want to provide context. So this idea is something I’ve been working on since I got elected. And it’s an idea pertaining to make sure that we have good the best practices in place in terms of bidding and awarding or solid waste franchises,” he said.
“My colleagues have expressed concerns about our bandwidth and the amount of work related to this. So that I would say that the City Manager and I have been working on this for months, and I’ve already received input from department directors who considered comparable ordinances from other cities. And so I say that most of what I would consider heavy lifting on this item is already done,” he said.
“Given a lot of discussion in the community in the past couple of years around the issue, I think it’s important to be responsive to a lot of things that have come up and to take an opportunity to make sure that we have the best practices in place,” said Burke.
“I just I don’t really see why we wouldn’t have the ability to consent, he added.
Scott Minikus, Mayor Pro-tem, weighed in on the side of leaving it alone for now.
“My concern is that a lot can change in 10 years. And the Council at that time, which none of us will likely be here, could change course completely on that as well. So my concern is, although a lot of the upfront work has already been done, I think maybe not saying no to it but pushing it off for another six months,” he said.
“I concur with councilmember Burke,” said Council member Frances Marquez. “I think it’s really important that we hear the voices of the people and follow up,” she said.
“As a council member, when you participate in strategic planning, we all want our feedback to get into consideration and given that Councilmember Burke has been working on this for a while with the city manager. I think it’s critically important that we move forward with it just so that people feel that we’re doing our job and addressing their concerns,” she said.
The council voted 3-2 in favor of Peat’s motion to strike waste hauling contracts from the strategic planning agenda, with Peat, Hertz-Mallari an Minikus voting for the motion with Burke and Marquez voting against.
“I was surprised the item was removed because I was not proposing some radical idea. It was simply that sometime in the next six months, a subcommittee would explore options for how to improve the way the city awards solid waste franchise agreements in the future,” said Burke after the meeting.
“I think we as council members owe it to residents to—at the very least—have conversations about issues they have expressed concerns about, so I am disappointed, he said. During the recent election, eventual winners Peat and Minikus were criticized for independent campaign expenditures from the Safe Neighborhoods PAC which records show were funded by VVS officials and companies, according to local resident Edwin Kraemer in a warninghe made to residents in a Letter to the Editor then. “This is just one, recent, eample of the disturbing influence that money is having on politics and management in our city.”.
Minikus received more than $17,000 in independemt election assistance from the PAC while Peat received more than $7000, election records show. The contributions were perfectly legal, election officials said.
