HomeMy WebLinkAboutWaste Management Letter FINAL 1-7-21CITY OF .......
DIAMOND BAR
January 7, 2021
Cheryl Lautman, District Manager
Waste Management
13940 Live Oak Avenue
Baldwin Park, CA. 91706
CAliFORNIA
Transmit tal by email to: Clautman @wm .com
RE: MODIFICATION TO WASTE COLLECTION SERVICES
Dear Ms. Lautman,
This letter is in response to an e-mail received by the City of Diamond Bar
("City"} on December 24, 2020, from Teri Muse of Waste Management. In that
e-mail Waste Management apprised the City for the first time that effective
December 28, 2020, it was modifying collection days for collection of green
waste and recycling from weekly collection to every other week collection
presumably due to impacts from COVID-19.
The unilateral implementation of a change in collection services is inconsistent
with the existing franchise agreement between the City and Waste
Management ("Agreement"}. This letter serves as a written notice regarding
the lack of advance written approval for recent changes of service made by
Waste Management that went into effect on December 28, 2020, and that
under Section 11.1.E of the Agreement, such changes may be considered a
default by Waste Management. In particular, Section 4.6.1 of the Agreement
provides:
"Contractor may not make exceptions to Collection days and times without
advance written approval from the City."
Na ncy A . Lyons Ruth M . Low
Mayor Mayor ProTem
Andrew Chou
Council Member
Stan Liu
Council Member
Steve lye
Council Member
City of Diamond Bar I 21810 Copley Drive Diamond BarCA 917 65 -4178
www.DiamondBarCA .gov I (909) 839-7000
Waste Management
Cheryl Lautman, District Manager
January 7, 2021
Page 2
"Change in schedules and routing shall not be implemented without City
approval and not until at least fifteen ( 15) business days following notification
to Customers."
Section 5.2.3.B under Customer Service Standards provides that:
"Sufficient telephone line capacity during normal office hours to ensure that
all calls will be answered in less than an average of thirty (30) seconds.
Contractor shall insure that all incoming calls are answered courteously and
promptly during the office hours stated above. Calls will be answered in less
than an average of thirty (30) seconds, and thereafter will not be placed on
hold longer than an average of one ( 1) minute before talking to a customer
service representative of the Contractor. This standard must be measured
quarterly, and the Contractor shall not exceed this standard or it will be
considered a separate violation of the Agreement.
Section 11 .1 .E of the Agreement provides that an event of default includes:
"If Contractor ceases to provide all or a portion of the Collection, processing
or Recycling services, or any other Solid Waste Collects Services as required
under this Agreement for a period of seven (7) consecutive days or more,
unless, and only to the extent, performance is excused pursuant to Section
11.4."
Section 11 .4 excuses performance due to force majeure events as defined, but
only if the force majeure event has also impacted "other services delivered to
properties in Diamond Bar (such as and without limitation electricity, gas, water,
or commercia l solid waste collection services) have been similarly disrupted as a
direct result of the catastrophic event."
The City is unaware that COVID-19 has disrupted the delivery of the services cited
above to properties in the City and as such, COVID-19 is not a force majeure
event under the Agreement and Waste Management's performance of
collection services is not excused. The City is not discounting the potential of
COVID-19 impacting operations, but under the Agreement, Waste Management
Waste Management
Cheryl Lautman, District Manager
January 7, 2021
Page 3
was required to obtain the City's approval before modifying its collection services.
The sudden action also resulted in significant customer service call disruptions.
Given that Waste Management sent a letter back in March of 2020, stating that
COVID-19 may impact operations, there is no reason for Waste Management to
have not followed the Agreement and approached the City, advised the City of
COVID-19 impacts and proposed changes to collection services and provide
proper notification to the customers prior to implementation.
The following corrective actions should be taken effective immediately and, in
any event, no later than five business days from the date of this letter:
1. Submit a formal operational plan with requested service changes,
necessary metrics or other conditions that need to be achieved to restore
full services, and a planned end date.
2. Identify an appropriate credit for affected customers and identify how that
will be implemented.
3. Provide written notification to all customers with information on service
schedule modifications and any fee credits to be offered once the
operational plan has been approved by the City.
4. Provide weekly updates to City Staff on service impacts and adherence to
the approved operational plan. Weekly updates may be held in
coordination with other San Gabriel Valley cities that are experiencing
similar service modifications.
Waste Management
Cheryl Lautman, District Manager
January 7, 2021
Page 4
We know that these are challenging time for us all. Your efforts in resolving this
matter is greatly appreciated. Please feel free to contact me at (909) 839-7010
or via email at dfox@diamondbarca.gov.
cc: City Council
David DeBerry, City Attorney
Ryan Mclean, Assistant City Manager
Anthony Santos, Assistant to the City Manager
Teri Muse, Public Sector Solutions Manager