Town council to consider trash hauling deal; housing committee process
When the Paradise Town Council meets Tuesday night it will be asked to alter its franchise agreement with Northern Recycling Waste Services, as it relates to customer satisfaction surveys.
When the town and the company entered into the franchise agreement in 2007, there was a clause in the contract that allowed the franchise to be eligible for an extension if 85% of the town’s customers favorably rated the company in a customer survey.
Those surveys were to be done in the fourth and seventh year of the agreement.
The company is asking the town to alter year four of the survey, given the constraints they’ve encountered since the Camp Fire.
The company says since the fire it has had impacts on its business that are beyond their ability to control.
It notes that post fire the company had service delays, which continue to occur due to the extraordinary amount of construction that has affected the routes both in building and infrastructure that they had ever experienced.
Because of those factors, the company is asking for the clause to be reduced from 85% to 70% or some other mutually accepted percentage.
The company says it’s not asking for it however, but staff has suggested that the year for survey requirements be simply eliminated from the agreement.
According to the agenda, staff notes that the company is actively trying to engage other solid waste haulers to take over the contract due to its financial difficulties.
Town staff has also suggested that the year for survey be moved to year nine, following a year seven survey that’s already in the agreement.
According to staff that would give the town two different satisfaction surveys from a new hauler instead of just the single year seven survey.
Housing
The council will also be asked to provide staff with direction regarding the recently enacted internal housing urgency organist exceptions committee. Or provide a different direction to the town.
In September, the council approved an exceptions committee that Councilor Steve Culleton and Vice Mayor Jody Jones will run.
The staff has drafted an exceptions committee application form that is broken into three sections or pages.
According to the agenda, page one captures those sites that are either part of our current code enforcement efforts or have recently had their Temporary Use Permit expire on Sept. 30 due to on- going noncompliance with the health and safety standards.
It gathers information regarding their current compliance with the minimum standards and gives them an opportunity to explain why they are not complying with the adopted standards.
The code enforcement sites are a compilation of two town- wide surveys ( parcel by parcel) as well as complaints from the public.
If an applicant marks “no” they have not received a Notice of Violation or Citation, it is likely that RV was placed more recently which is information the Exception Commit tee should know in their decision-making process.
Staff said that page two was created in response to Exceptions Committee member Culleton’s feedback on the standards for the application.
He would like to see the ability for new RVs to be brought onto sites when the RV occupant is a displaced resident and they are meeting one of the five previously adopted Alternative Thresholds which are:
• A submitted rebuild permit (not issued).
• Contract with a licensed builder.
• Contract with a manufactured home dealer.
• Contract with an architect or plans designer.
• Applications submitted with the state or town’s Housing Division for a housing program or grant.
Page two of the exception form has additional writing space for all applicants to explain why they are requesting an exception to the urgency ordinance.
Page three of the form is for staff use where it would verify, as much as possible, the statements made on page one ( by occupants of existing RVs) and add any additional notes that may prove useful to the committee members. The application would then be scanned and forwarded, electronically, to committee members Culleton and Jones for review and decision making.
If they reject the application the applicant will be notified and it will not be sent to the Town Council for review.
However, if both Culleton and Jones approve the applicant’s request, the full Paradise Town Council will review that recommendation at the next avai lable Town Council agenda as a consent item and will not be discussed.
If the committee members split in their recommendations, that will be forwarded to a Town Council agenda as a consideration item, with public discussion.
Those approved applications have a 30- day deadline to meet the conditions of their approval unless both committee members recommend a longer time frame.