The Cottonwood City Council moved from its normal place at the City Council Chambers to a much larger room at the Cottonwood Recreation Center for its work session on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Even with the extra space, the meeting was standing-room only, with dozens of Cottonwood residents showing up to talk about the only topic on the agenda: Trash. After a request by the Cottonwood City Council in April, the city’s municipal staff took a look at the city’s solid-waste hauling systems, with an eye on how to better protect the city’s streets. According to a background report prepared in advance of the meeting by the city manager’s office, the current system with three major providers chosen by residents leads to four to five trucks on Cottonwood’s streets every week.
Since a fully loaded garbage truck weighs nearly eight times the weight of a passenger car and spends much more time idling on the road than a car, an engineering study from Hubbel, Roth & Clark cited by the city found a trip by a garbage truck has a more than 1,000 times greater impact on streets than an equivalent trip by a car. City staff recommended to the council to consolidate its hauling operations to a single hauler, with an eye towards reducing the amount of miles driven by garbage trucks in the city and therefore significantly cutting down on wear and tear for the city’s streets.
According to the city’s management analyst Morgan Scott, Cottonwood is an outlier among similar cities in Arizona, with only nine of the 33 researched by city staff leaving its hauling industry unregulated, with the remaining 24 using a single-hauler system like what staff proposed.
The council opened up the discussion to public comment, finding many residents opposed to the project, mostly due to a desire to allow for consumer choice and protect free market competition.
“My issue is very basic. It’s called freedom of choice. It’s called free market competition,” Cottonwood resident Nancy Hottinger said. “I would be willing to pay more in taxes to fix the roads than to take away my ability to choose with whom I do business.”
“I believe that having competition in the area is a way for price to be stable,” Jonathan Jauregui said. “It is a citizen’s choice to choose who they want based on services provided and customer service.”
Chris and Tandy Taylor, who own Taylor Waste, made a case against the
change, arguing that ending the competition for hauling could lead to prices rising for consumers, and possibly putting them out of business if a different hauling company were chosen in a bid process by the city.
The couple highlighted their strong roots in the community and examples of their company giving back to the community.
Other speakers, such as Helaine Kurot of 360 Automotive, made the argument that with so many other large vehicles going through the area, the wear and tear of the roads would be little influenced by the garbage trucks. Numerous speakers backed them up, and pointed at local companies like Taylor Waste as part of what makes the Cottonwood community great.
Every single speaker who rose to lend their voice opposed the change. After the public comment section was over, Mayor Tim Elinski asked the crowd, “Are there any brave souls here that are in favor of the city going out for an RFP [request for proposal]?”
Not a single person raised their hand. Elinski did say that he had received some emails in support but had also gotten far more in opposition.
Even with so much opposition, the idea still found some support from the council. Councilwoman Deb Althouse expressed support for the RFP process in the hopes of finding a bid that could perhaps be lower than current rates and save residents money. Councilman Michael Mathews similarly expressed a hope that economies of scale could perhaps lead to lower prices. Both expressed support for Taylor Waste as a company and pointed out that if the city went to a single hauler, Taylor Waste could certainly be the hauler that wins the bid.
Councilman Doug Hulse argued that protecting the roads is a necessary project of the city, and that taking advantage of the waste system, one of the few causes of wear and tear on the roads that the city could control, could be worth doing.
Others, such as Vice Mayor Tosca Henry and Councilwoman Jackie Nairn, supported the views of the crowd in opposing the proposal.
“We were elected and/or appointed to represent you,” Henry said. “This is the third time this issue has come before council and it has been just as strongly opposed each time.”
Councilman Ruben Jauregui made the case for wanting to hear more from people in the community who might have felt intimidated by the one-sided views of the crowd at the meeting.
In the end, Elinski made the case for continuing to look at what a bidding process for a single hauler would look like, with the understanding that this was not a permanent decision. He urged staff to move towards a Request for Proposal.
“I’m at least willing to explore it on your behalf,” he said. “This will continue to be an ongoing discussion.”
The meeting was a work session, so the council did not officially vote, but by instructing staff, the process of moving toward a potential single hauler is going to continue.
“We’ll bring something back in the future,” City Manager Ron Corbin said.
