don't try on. Good evening and welcome to our Public Works Committee meeting for APRIL 17th 2025. I would like to start with introductions with my colleagues to my left. Thank you. MADAM Chair Bear killed District. 23. They address pain district. 21. Thank you, MADAM Chair and moves district 3. Thank you. MADAM Chair Council Jerod Evans representing District 17. Thank you. MADAM Chair, d# # # Roberts took 4. Thank you, CHAIRMAN. Even colleagues and Nielsen District 14. Thank you. MADAM Chair run gives in District 8. Thank you. CHAIRWOMAN Jessica McCormack District 16. Good evening. CHAIRWOMAN Jones, Krista Carlino District, 11 West side, including the Times of Claremont and Speedway. Thank you. And I'm Kristin Jones representing District 18
proposal. Number 1, 0, 9, 2025 for its reappoint Kenneth Beach to the Marion County Stormwater Management Technical Advisory Committee. Kenneth is under the weather this evening. And so with consent, I would like to move this reappointment to our next Thank you. Next up, our new director director too. Ed Wilson will give us our quarterly update. MISTER Wilson, thank you. MADAM CHAIRWOMAN. Thank you, and thank you for giving us the opportunity share with you. The Indy dpw Quarter, one review. I you had the opportunity to review the slides that I'm about to walk through this evening. Also want to note that dpw
leadership is here present with me this evening prepared. This if any questions you MAY have after presentation. So we'll start finance the road funding distribution have been largely in line with budget projections and we're slightly above the 2024 mostly due to the annual gas tax rate and adjustments. This budget also contains fees from vehicle registration costs. The black line you see there is what the projections show and the Red depicts the actual dollars here through the 1st quarter. Here is our current staffing picture showing the our largest group of operations
holding about 50 vacancies positions with 18 positions currently in the higher process. You can also see the engineering of flea hold a large percentage of their group as vacancies as well. We're hopeful some pay equity decisions recently MAY on the technician sigh of the fleet services will help us attract retain these critical positions. So no vacancies are slightly down from the last report given. This for policy and planning thriving community programs. Federal program that we have been involved with for about 2 years thank you to CHAIRWOMAN Jones and counsel Robert for participate in today's site visit with the Drive in Communities. Team the 5 and
communities program was the serve up our corridor, resulting in an upcoming tech. Tech typical urban art in the right away project at 21st Sherman is pictured here on the slide. The community powered infrastructure application window closed and q one and we're reviewing those applications and now and there will be announcements regarding awards coming soon. The department also as doing a deep dive in the snow response operations, the department will be able to provide a detailed report on logistics and fiscal impact of the policy requirements. As we prepare our 2026 budget. Policy and planning is responsible for technology procurement as well. And, you
know, I love utilization and has been actively working on a number of tech implementations included stamps are and mobile in 4. So this is our office of Sustainability recently moment Reynolds has accepted the administrator administrator position for the Office of Sustainability will be able to give a report in the next Environmental Sustainability Committee. Moving on to solid waste. So are new solid waste. Garage is now under construction. We expect to take occupancy of at the tail end of this year, likely in DECEMBER. Our solid waste collections contracts have been successfully negotiated, awarded and signed ways procurement presentations arc to come after this as well. So would coming next. We are in the scoring and review process Containerized collection for
condominiums. And the other 3, we will be completed in 2, 2, the recycle roll off. The citizen Saturday drop-off site and tire disposal contracts have all been released as our peas by purchasing. The dead animal disposal has been negotiated and completed as well. This will conclude also weighs contracts that expired 2025. It's was All of our contracts was always. The team has responded to mortar won 5,100 service requests, which can issues regarding cart repair replacement, the dead animal removal, recycling, Freon and more. And the solid waste division has been continuing to help k ib with neighborhood cleanups as well as joint mtns for their
monthly cleanup events says the cleanups have abated. 25 tons of litter, which is more than last year with 2 more planned cleanup still remaining on the schedule. Bns works in collaboration with Kay Ivey to do a monthly clean up in a neighborhood on the last Thursday of each month being a staff, Kay Ivey staff and the volunteers work to clean up we drop off dumpster for in the morning and they will recover that dumpster and just pull that tracks. At the end of the day. Also, always, we have now received 4 of the trucks that from our last order that which is very exciting county wide, there have been about 3.6 million residential collections and q one and 1.6 million of those collections were done by our
own Indy dpw districts. Our forces have been very responsive. The total of 574 valid complaints have been received county wi with a success rate of 99.9 8%. A total of 363 valid complaints have been received on in the dpw only districts with the success rate of 99.9%, all 3 haulers have done an extremely good job of keeping valid complaints. At a minimum, especially considering the weather related issues. All 3 dealt with in JANUARY this year. Solid Waste Management and the Union collaborated on a pizza lunch in late MARCH for the entire solid waste division and appreciation of our hard work. Our crews did
all winter long. So the city of Indianapolis is one of the best host in the country when it comes to welcoming visitors. This is no small part due to operations making sure our city is clean and safe. Clearing right away street sweeping putting up barricades. Specially signs and banners. This event lives here as very small sample of the types of events we hold. We're looking at being the host this year of the wnba All-Star celebration in JULY and I was actually so proud lead dpw last month in the Saint Patrick's Day parade. And yes, you can see in the picture Next to me is my wife, Lonnie and our 2 dogs, Lincoln in Kingston and they walked in the parade with us. I'd also like to highlight the efforts of our group that handles forestry and storm water
operations. This crew keeps our waterways clear of debris. Fresh cut backs and tree removals. Our crews were on standby during a recent major storm event that had a reported tornado clipped the northwest corner of the county. Those help keep our water. Where clean? And they removed and hauled away over 200 trees in the public right away. So this is a slide for environmental services basically years and numbers on the top trucks. A top pox dropped collections. Hazardous household waste collections and some of the water sampling that we do in our waterways. Our traffic signs, markings and signal people keep us all informed safe and traffic moving as efficiently as possible. We can see here the
numbers at a glance of what they have been able to accomplish in early 2025. Also this amco deal has been on the horizon for some time now. And I'm happy we've made that transition. We now can effectively manage our underground facilities and protect from damage during construction projects. Keeping our roadways clean and clear of debris is important to all of us. We are swept over 3,494 Les Miles, picking up over 720 times. The debris also when available, we can mobilize for unscheduled sweeps and and to maintain infrastructure, installed for storm water, quality and retention. We have successfully implemented a permit Abul paver cleaning program that previously was done by cg. Our Street operations staff performed a wide variety of tasks. Important to everyone clean up illegal dumping sites. Snow
response, filling pot holes that strip patching are few of the core responsibilities of our street operations by the numbers. 4,910 linear feet of roadway mill impacts 155 times of illegal dumping removed 2,627 times of asphalt, feeling for 130,000 potholes just in the first 3 months of this season. And we've used 20 1000 tons of saw during Arsenal response as well. Our fleet services a crook critical to the mobility of our enterprise. We managed over 5,000 pieces of equipment completing 14,612 jobs with a 98% completion rate. In FEBRUARY. The b w received approval by the in the Mpo for 35 million dollars worth of Federal Highway Administration allocations. These funds will be used for various infrastructure improvement projects to this truck
beginning in 2028. Among the projects we plan to construct in these funds is the Monon Trail bridge over 86 street. The nickel plate trail bridge over 82nd Street. The new 71st and being and faced 3 expansion of the Eagle Creek Trail. And we have in the Raymond Street bridge over being creek. Nearly half of dpw engineering staff recently attended the 2025 Road School Transportation Conference and Expo. This year. We had a nice staff members either present or moderate during the day. We also have one staff member presented alongside one of council appointed board members. Police Lt on the tactical urbanism. So that was exciting. And then last month,
the dpw Engineering our next month. I'm sorry. Dpw engineer will receive a national Recognition Award and the American Council of Engineering c e c for engineering Excellence award on Emerson Avenue Corridor. Improvement projects recently completed. So a very few project updates. This is a sample of the projects that we have. The nickel plate trail, which is personally excited for me as I live very close to the trail. We'll wrap up in the mid year. Projects like this are huge catalyst economic growth for on the corridor. And also connects bike trail from the monon trail up to the county line to the fishers portion of the nickel plate trail. In
addition here, we have the Michigan and New York Street one-way to two-way conversion on the east side set to wrap up this year with multi-modal components of involved with that. And we also have the Madison Avenue Road Reconstruction Project in inner Urban Trail expected to start in Mike. The preconstruction meeting will happen next next month script. Patching crews are working daily. We know that all the work we do and dpw is important to every one of you. But we also know that there are projects that are near and dear to your districts. And the department is working through the project development. We will continue to work with you all as we finalize project construction and we ant to dissipate. Most of these projects will occur here. Yeah. In 2025. The next
several sides basically project list by This first sight here are projects that depicts focused on pedestrian facilities like sidewalks trails, safety improvements, etcetera. This slide shows projects that focus on storm water management like colver and levees and our d# # # improvements. You see here larger storm, water related projects, including drainage improvements of our major thoroughfares. This list here shows our program as it pertains to our bridges to know upon completion of the 30th Street Bridge over White River. We will immediately close 16th Street overwrite White River for desperately needed improvements. This slide shows our list of economic development. Focus projects are job order, contracts, program and projects related to
multi-modal initiatives. These projects are roadway improvements planned around the county of know, we have planned 20 million dollars of residential reconstructions to big here in JULY this year. And our final slide here, Annie. This, this focus on traffic safety improvements as strip action starting MARCH. 3rd contractors mobilized to date. We have placed over 15,000 times of hot mix asphalt, which is where about 50% complete with the strip action program. So that concludes my remarks for today. And I'm happy to try to address questions you MAY have. Thank you. Director Wilson comments questions counsel Robert. Thank you, MADAM Chair and obviously a great job here. First at quarterly presentation. Also,
thank you, dpw, big time for council retire constituents, 82nd Street. As on the presentation as an outstanding job is done very efficiently was done on time. The day off. And I know people really happy to turned out once really small question here. I know we don't too much on here, but for the construction season. 25 last slide. There's something about deployment of mile vision Corps in my district is part of that. I don't know if familiar that program. I probably mispronounced it. But what is that? A program city thanks for the question is a good question. I'm going to acts are traffic folks to answer that question for you Nathan. Mentioned she engineering. So my vision is a basically video to detection that are able to deployed signalized intersections and so. There's older technology that's out
there. So we've got detection loops that are the pavement since when vehicles approach to a signal it will change a signal from red to green. There's what's called video. That action, which has a lot of other features available associated with that. So there's basically a camera this installed at the intersection can sense when a vehicle approaches to make that change. What can also do is allow us to do real-time traffic counts and then adjust our signal timings based upon those new traffic counts. So somewhat new technology. We've got a number of intersections that exist today. He actually travel through Delaware and market here. If you look up, I think it's on the southwest corner of the intersection. There's a the camera that's installed on the signal mast arm. That's what that actually
is. Council since. Thank you, CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Director counts rapper said called foot to see in this role first United we talked about talks. Drop-in just want to continue to emphasize the East side location closed for a number reasons. Just want look forward to continue working with you your team to find a another location for that because I've been surprised number of folks who reached out about folks, a lot of toxic waste, look forward continue work with you on a on a suitable location for that. I know it's not just a plug and play somewhere. So I wanted to elevate that. Next was I know we talked about a little bit today just about the So going to strip patching excuse me. So are the strip patching budget line items below 4 just thoroughfare. Is
that going to be for residential as well? So that's strip action program is focused on the thorough on thoroughfares, ok, ok, got it, Anderson. I know some stuff was was really since. We just appreciate the clarity on that. And then finally, finance make one comment. I'd be remiss if I'd an address that earlier today. You know that the General Assembly House Bill 1461. That's going to bring a substantial amount investment into the city. And so I just wanted to say thank you to the administration dpw for so many folks in this building to the Marin County delegation to legislators across the state who really recognize recognize the substantial needs that we have in our community. How unique
that is to our capital city. And then also just to say, I look forward to working with that same group of folks actually getting it implemented, right? That's going to be collaborative process with the fiscal body here with the mayor's office with off. And then, of course, when your team, but that's going to be exciting work ahead because I think this is going to be really great thing for the city Just want to say thank you. Thank Thank you. CHAIRMAN. CHAIRWOMAN Director. Thank you for the presentation. Just a couple quick questions. On a street sweeping that's actually a. Big deal to seems like there's just a lot of debris on the roads. It's been building up which anybody of public safety you need to work with impd on making sure after car accidents, the wrecker crews are picking up the debris because they're leaving it. I think they're under contract
to clean that up. By the way. But it's a part of that. Can you help me understand? Because I follow remember. So we did have street sweeping for about 10 years. I thought we brought the program back in 2018 MAY be announced in 2018 took effect in 19. And as I understood it, then it was contracting with cg to do it. And I thought that all areas of the city that had stormwater for to be swept. So I don't know if that's and as a part of that, are we still is it all in-house know? Are we doing both cg and in-house or what does that look like? We can Tim Kopra is going to help you with answer. The minister streets traffic
diversions. So the cso area which don't know the exact boundaries, big squiggly line around the center of the county. We were contracted the sweeping remove so much waste. Within that area. I missed what street you mentioned specifically I thought a recall. They presented us a map. The old city limits, especially the downtown. They were getting swept like once a week or maybe monthly and then dispersed out into the county any area that had stormwater drainage already built win, at least get swept once a to clear that debris. But I've particular, the Bridgeport roundabout gets a lot of debris built up into it. Yeah. So I frequently have to ask to come out. But more recently, I was told that that's not part of our street sweeping plan. I was confused because there is storm water with that
roundabout. Yeah. So Bridgeport Roundabout Bridgeport, Morse's, not part of the cso area that were contracted to sweep. For cg, but we do sweep arterials once a year. So that would include both Morse Street and Bridgeport wasn't years. You know, obviously debris will accumulate between those. I would encourage you to keep let us know if those, you know, pile up quicker the map. Just so I understand so seat. We have a a dedicated route for see e to perform dedicated area that okay area they have to perform and then we have our own in-house crew that MAY have a little bit more flexibility. No, no, I'm sorry. Cgm think cg Street Suite at all. We street sweep the entire cso area with the Marion County. The Arterials. Reportedly shape donut in the
center of the county. All the arterials that run through that we have those once a year from county line County line case extreme, for example, we'll remember Carol Road all the way to that it. But the areas within the cso area that's where were contracted to those those amounts of debris and how many miles we have to hit. But in addition to that, we yeah. And counselors say for the record chief financial officer for the department, you're not wrong about CDs involvement in this. They actually make a quarterly payment to the department that is supposed to reflect their obligations related to street sweeping. So we we are sweetening those areas and there. We have a contractual agreement with citizens which compensate us for some of the services.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, I'm going move on from that. But probably maybe had conversation offline bit more about street sweeping and understanding what capacity we have worked. We have a future plan to build that out. More. I think that's really important in keeping it's much debris off our streets and making it look as nice as possible. It's just something I noticed quite a bit director, the the potholes, the response our crews have done just phenomenal. They've done a really good job getting out there that said the because I don't want to sound negative, the response for a city like this. It seems that we need to figure our what in the council do to help with that because I don't want our citizens to have to wait until APRIL and MAY before really finally able to complete all
those requests. I reported some. More street and I try not to do this too much, I'm sure every counselor on here probably has potholes that were like, hey, we want right away because we get Sichuan's bring in our next to that in this particular situation, I phone call that in right away because I knew what was happening. People were going onto oncoming traffic to avoid because it's a two-lane road. One lane, direction. It took us 3 weeks. Fill those holes. And I just that response for city will classes. I think we are just doesn't seem like that's good enough. And I don't want to take that away from our people first now because I know they were working. Over time to address those. So it's like, do we need like more crews or could we look at possibly even contracting some of the at the beginning of the season, just
to kind of get that initial catch up because quite frankly, I know citizens. Have every thought in their head about what we do as counselors. I drive the same roads and I catch myself times. But getting angry like one like the fish like I'm going I literally start to the point where Mike, I try not to drive at night. And if I do, I only traveled roads that I'm familiar with already and know where those potholes and not gonna make suggestion to my my citizens that over so counter I I have the same frustrations course, our drive to Saint rose of And, you know, we focus our pothole, patching predominantly on the thoroughfares. First most travel road, hers. But there there is I mean, this is a big
resources are limited for us. Our crews have been put into an hour days all week this weekend. You know that next. We do continue. Morton are potholes. We had some favorable weather this year to get through that. I know is this winter has been challenge for weather as well. Not just the snow for rain. So when it's raining, we can't get out there and fill potholes. So we lost over 20 plus states that we last year and actually possible going to. I know the weather played a role because I've not been walking as much. Yeah, Appreciate you're important. Knows I do you know, suggests we make maintain appropriate speeds leaves space behind the car in front of you. So you can see these polls coming and we're going to do the best we can to get those taken care of. I just want back to, as we come out of the season where got we've got this year. But as we
look to 2026, would be nice if we could come up. Some of come up with some additional means to address unmet. Whether that means like going to call on additional. If you curse for contracting to help us out initially some point because we're getting probably just as many into the residential areas as well. And I do on the front and tell them, hey, we gotta get through thoroughfares before we can move into residential but, you know, everybody wants take care of own residential streets get thank you. Kuzma court. Thank you, CHAIRMAN. Congratulations. 1st quarter we want to echo my I'm so thankful for you. The team got crews that have been out take care potholes. I one of the things I wanted to bring up is maybe like with the mix to the pot holes. I know there's been some technology advances. And so I think there might be some conversations that we can have
about a more efficient or longer serving purpose for our patches. And so I would be happy to joining conversation if if you're open to that, because I think there might be some opportunities there. Just just ask. So I'm very excited. Girls. Current project is going to start on the West side anybody has been over lightly, especially if you go his high school, you feel like you're on a rumble strip for the entire but mild her throat. Do we have estimated start time on that and where we're going to start because it goes from perimeter all the way up to 20 for. So it's a long Just folks in the less I can know where it's going to start and kind of when. Yeah. If get that would be great. I put my head down the 16th Street bridge. I think it folks can start thinking about planning for their other out
to or whatever they might need to do another some folks that would like to play for that. And the last Very excited about the trails that are investment that's coming in this year. The being out and Eagle Creek actually cross in my district. So they overall press in my district and run through all 3 of our is the culprit figures that out yet. So thank you for that investment and the world really sad about that. And some comments. Thank you, director and shout out to the team who came out late hours early hours and help clean up from the storm. Clermont was hardly hit that Northwest corridor. Definitely citizens were very appreciative of the response. I think there MAY even still be some trees hanging out in some alleys. And so working with residents
to make sure we have everything cleaned up. But thank you. That was and that was really nasty. I'm glad everyone was safe. I wanted to actually piggyback on something that counselor Nielsen brought up. About talks drop. I think not just in that area. What I've seen county wide director is and I know my especially the South side, too lines are incredibly long due to the demand due to the lack of access long lines wait times and individuals that becoming a barrier to doing the right thing. And that's that's a concern to me. I think the long lines also present, you know, traffic issues in the public right of way. You know, and candidly, my strategy is like wake up 0 Dark 30 and get there before
the crew set up. And I'm lucky to be able to do that. But I don't think that's that's. You know, a solution to the general public can. So as as counselor Nielsen said, I know you can't just stand up some of these facilities in the boxes and things I don't see. Yes, I see you hiding back MR. Joyce, but I know you as your great work. But this is something that I think is contributing to illegal dumping as well and then ultimately costing the city more dollars if residents waiting willing to wait in long lines to do the right thing. I think we should do better to accommodate that, you know, and do more than maybe just Saturday rotations and think about expanding that. I think what that would also do is, you know, provide jobs as well. And there's really highly trained
professionals. I can do this disposal work in so leaning on Republican our partners over there to help realize what an expansion might look like. I think at least can speak for counseling, meals myself. We would be in support of that. As a council walking alongside you in funding that. And then finally, CHAIRMAN Evans is right like those residential roads. I know the major thoroughfares are heavily traveled, but I leave my driveway multiple times a day and have a large hole in my own driveway every day. And so I think that's incredibly important, too. Is that, you know, those connectors streets to use the snow removal map like yes, it's a residential road, but it is a connector street as well. And so we're talking about school buses, large larger equipment. And then again, just heavy traffic
because it's into a connector street in Seoul, maybe prioritizing those. Secondarily, before we move on to, you know, residential street that maybe has 5 neighbors on That would just be my my final comment. But thank you to you and your team and asked me cruise for getting out there doing the heavy lifting of not only the hot mix, but some of these trees, trees on the northwest side were pretty wild and gnarly. So thank you very much for your service. Appreciate your comment. If you have up date on took Just watched history of construction for dpw engineering. So project St. 29. 0, 2, a girls school road from Road. The 21st Street is scheduled to bid the one 2025. With construction scheduled start 9.15, 20. We know both parties are in the
south full. Unfortunately, scammers given preference or does mind this was my project? What did you find Thank you, Madam Chair, couple quick comments in a couple quick question. Thank you. Director. Just echo what we've heard physically with I think sweeping and street sweeping because particularly with all the pothole problems creates a lot of gravel. Becomes then becomes a safety issue for biking, lockers cars. And I know it's impossible entire county, but maybe haven't request system. So if there is an area that's particularly heavy in gravel, we also know without sweeping we get we Extra trash weeds grow.
Cracks, cracks crumbled, pavement and concrete. And that just exacerbates and accelerates the deterioration of some of our infrastructure potholes. Got an answer in my area. The Boy Scout troop self patched several chuck holes in the neighborhood know I know you don't like probably not legal, they were so motivated because of neighborhoods was so frustrated. Boy Scouts came out and just with the lows and got a bunch of self passion and how long that lasts. I don't know that. So. Back to the connectors just to confirm design. I understand our pothole filling policy Mears closely are no snow removal.
We got our honorees. Thoroughfares connectors. Then residential is the last 3rd tier. Is that accurate? Yes, sir. Okay. And then finally and finance issue. Looking at your first scream. I know I heard this before, but I'm forgetting why into 3 of 20? See the budget projections with such a significant death. That is the start of this state fiscal year. And so they say their portion office copy or distribute it to the season. And that always happens in AUGUST. Well, of course they do. All right. Thank health survey. Thank you, MADAM Chair, and thank director congratulations on first quarterly report going off counselor Evans said because I think I said almost every public works committee meeting. Complaints about our
roads is 95% of my inbox and it's 95% of Mike constituent correspondents. I want begin conversations with council. Here's my hope to talk to you about it. And probably before meeting like this. But why do we not use contractors to fill potholes? Because I know. Dpw crews are working as hard as they possibly can, which means they need more help than what they have now. Yes, we do. We absolutely need more could be, you know, a multiple reasons, you know, financially could be a reason, you know, just paying those contractors get out there and it's just resources we're lacking the resources tackle and in timely manner. Why don't we use and that? That's great question. We can explore that opportunity and see what that looks like. Yeah, I think that's definitely a conversation that. But we have to have because I know I've been told that it's this
week's to fill a pothole, but, you know, you know, you directly about one the other day that had open requests since JANUARY. And you know, you and you have fix the next day. You know what? You know, that's not really an appropriate way of. Functional. So meeting on to that is the amount damage that the potholes to. 2 vehicles of our tax paying citizens. And I know we have a tort claim process to wear. Someone can file claim with the city. To get reimbursed for that. I know that's through the Office of Corporation counsel. But I have to imagine there's an interaction with dpw. Throughout that claim process. You speak to that at all. I cannot speak confidently right now. The winds are so my firm up operations there can speak to tort claim process. Serve chief financial officer for
the department. For the record, like Director Wilson. I can't speak in much depth about that. Her claim process because it is entirely handled through occ. You know, they're the legal advisors to the city's only legal matter runs through them. When citizens tort claims their the office of processes it. So in terms of like. How often those claims are successful or not, information that we are how we are are charged. Our budget is charged back to the extent that all of the settlements, the city pays out our responsibilities. They try to reflect the cost each department's we're pretty hands off in terms of who actually manages that. Yeah, because I almost every year that's less than one percent.
Tort claims they get paid You know, if we're not going to take the proactive measures of getting contractors out there and expanding our. Workforce to get the potholes filled. Then we have to start reimbursing our citizens because I kind of knew it as attacks the citizens are having to pay. For the poor road conditions. I had a single mother lives a low-income apartment complex. Send me a picture of a receipt for $2000. She does not have. To fix a vehicle. It's only means of transportation. And those are things that, you know, I think kind of get lost on us when we talk about route case on and has a real financial impact. On our citizens. So I think have to seriously have that conversation about the
contractors I know. Counselor New Nielsen mentioned 14 61 passing and the most important bill that they passed this year. Actually part of that is a 50 million dollar match that the city has to come up with funding. That's not already going towards infrastructure and has been spent, you know, on asphalt or concrete on actual vehicular. Rosa can't be used on trails. Are storm water or anything like that. Given just passed today. I know you probably have had official conversations about. What that looks like as far as its effect on our budget next year. I think we also have to start having conversations about where we're going to look at within the city budget. For I don't see a need for us to raise our wheel tax. Come up with that. 50 million
when we have a 1.6, 5 billion dollar budget probably going up to 1.7 or 1.7 to for this next year. And I think we really have to have the conversation now. We're going to come up with that 50 million dollars. And I don't know if you've already started having those conversations as the bills moving for 4 months, but love your feedback on Yeah, I know this is a historic time for for us as a city and the state pass bill today. We are very excited, excited to be. It's a good time to be the you helping to get this workforce ready to actually perform and spend that money. Now, financial piece on how we raise that money, we have not
gone in depth with the conversation on that? I know we'll be having that conversation starting probably tomorrow, you know, definitely keep this body informed on those decisions. Now we're going to make that that work. But yeah, it's very exciting and we are a lot a lot of work to do as far as the tort claim process and how that works all little deeper dive for you, counselor and let you know or come up with for process. Because conversations with you know, our caucus attorney, our counsel attorney on it as well. And, you know, we're paying out less than one percent park Lane's. I guarantee more than one percent of the tort claims due to the poor road. Conditions
are Thank you, counselor, with just Thank you. Quickly, I'm sorry. I meant mention this earlier just of Maine reminded me. Has to do with the Mac. I felt like a broken record here, but I think the Mac needs a lot more attention and support. Because it is the most public. One of the most public-facing. Enterprise is, if you will, that has a regular interaction with the city. One of those citizens, should say. But yeah, I get probably the most complaints between roads in the Mac. Because the Mac has difficulty I understand the database. Pothole request comes Gets a case number. They bounce it to whomever on your end. And then it's closed. Well, the citizen calls back a week later. My case? What's going It's
closed. It hasn't even started yet. And we're told the public you cases are closed. And I just endless frustration from people on that. And so to the extent and I'm sure I don't know the stats, but I would tend to guess most of that Mac. Calls are going to be pw. Yeah. So I think it would behoove all of us to improve that process and make it more truly a mayor's action center and not a mayoral. Take your message to maybe someone will get back to you. I just wanted to say one. We greatly appreciate the Mayor's action center. My team has been working very closely with the Mayor's Action center on exactly what you're talking about. So essentially one resident calls and to the mayor's action center or puts in request or quest MAY. That comes over to our team and we assign those work orders. It has been our kind of standard
process that we close them out because they've been assigned as work orders. So then when that's showing publicly, it does obviously create some confusion for residents. And that's completely understandable. So that's something that we've been working through with their team. And we're trying to come to kind of a better public facing solution because that is not something that we expect residents to understand in terms of internal processing. The other thing I wanted to mention with closed out cases is duplicate cases. That is a hot topic. So when those reports coming through from Africa takes a report and it is a duplicate that still
taken down. That being said, there's the the work order that it generates internally in any of those other duplicate reports are going to be automatically closed out to the residents. That doesn't mean that we're not getting them. We are getting that data and that is a work order on our end. That's just again, how that technology is interacting. So these are all issues that we are aware of. And we're working through with the Mayor's Action Center. There's a lot of technological components with the way that are various software is interact that we're having to to look through. But I'm really, really excited about the collaboration that we've had Alex Rolo, the administrator of the Mac and
her team. And I just want to thank them for all of efforts that they've put into working with to to resolve these issues. Right. And you MAY not be the right person asked this question but center standing there. You're the lucky Last year we allocated some additional money to the Mac for what we were told the soft grey or software upgrades. Might that appropriation have anything to do with what you just spoke of so do what we on years here. But they did make a transition in their software also reflected in the request. India might remember it used to look very different and be a lot less user-friendly. It's sense created sort of these branching requests and been able to provide a lot more information to residents as they're going through putting
in cases. So with that, there have been some things that were just working out in terms of our and getting very and the weeds now. But service level agreements with the Mayor's Action Center, which is essentially these are the case types. These are the work orders that we can take And here's how they 2 residents. So that is something that we've been working through with that. I think they would say it's going really well. I think we also agree, but obviously, any time you're transitioning, you know, your your external facing software or internal, there's going to be some hiccups and bumps in the road. So we're working through that with as well. Wonderful. And I do appreciate you mentioning how its the administrator. She's a proud constituent of my district and she is working 24 7 to try to
improve conditions with Mac and get more money to the people that deserve it. Working on her staff. Thank you for bringing that Thank you. MADAM The Yeah. My recollection is that years council groups in last year's budget that there was a software related a 3. Whole reason this happens is that Salesforce we've got there's like and dpw databases and back to base. They don't talk to each They would finally talk you can actually get a status. Congratulations, director on your first quarterly report. Congratulations to Mo. That's that's exciting news for site. The We had counselor Roberts and currently brought this up. I particularly for the reasons that counts are currently no
talk about talk straw and with the storms, it really made worse than it's already been. So my my ask, guess, would be. I'm supportive of additional locations. But to the degree that Perry Township Government Center is one of only 2 were like this past month. 1, 1, But can we get the frequency? But so we used to have I think it was 4 and then we have 4 Saturdays a month Talks drop and now we have 2 sites and will go into Saturday's could we even if we don't find in the more locations, can we at least running twice is often because come council prono point out it in Perry Township Government Center is in a residential area in traffic loops around backs up and the neighbors are fan of it I think that if we just weren't putting a city of a million
people into it, residential neighborhood on one weekend a month. I if even if all we do is that's the location to 4 times a month. I think that theory that would reduce that's Saturday traffic. 75% on list of projects. I hope this is an oversight, but the I looked through the district's for the different quadrants Vice PRESIDENT Brown and my district are not listed on their that's just an oversight and that we are, in fact, getting residential repaving if and then to build on the street sweeping conversation I I am supportive everything. Council Evans talked about eye and we used to street sweep. I don't know if it was all the streets, but certainly all the streets that
have storm water drainage. And I can tell you that street right outside my house is residential. In the years that it has been since we have swept that street. The amount of stuff that is building up is I cannot clear that storm drain enough because every time it solidifies want fries and then it rains and turns back the mud and then immediately close the drain. And then the street floods. And if happens during wintertime, you can freeze. I I agree with all the comments we've heard where I personally believe that is accelerating the deterioration. The roads I also I want to see if we have whether it's a map, if it's sort of like the snow forced viewer with when the street sweeping is occurring. I am
surprised by some of the statistics where there saying we're sweeping 41% of the Les Miles and that we're doing county line. The county line because one of the top complaints I get in my district is Madison Avenue, particularly because of the bike lanes and it is it feeds into Creek see a tremendous amount of stuff just a gravel The glass from accidents that just trash people's are out the window. So I really would love maybe next quarter. We could dive deeper into the street sweeping because I see the numbers that are in here. But it doesn't match what we're seeing out now. A city there. That was it for me. And
this first. Thank you. Causing Just wanted to mention. We are actually already working on that technological investment to reflect for force viewer in real time. A lot of people don't know, but that is actually our our folks that are out in plow trucks are calling into our data analysts and they are updating that. So those are folks that are working overtime working with a system that we are hoping to upgrade. That is all part of you know, it was mentioned briefly, but ours. I'm sorry, technology that is hopefully going to be able to feed into a more real time if you are. So we're hoping that there will be opportunities in the future to maybe expand as well. So that is something that is currently being worked
and we'll be able to continue providing updates. Okay. I appreciate night. Yeah, I think it's just out on the my recollection was last year. I think last year, spring fiscal that we had been leasing 5 street sweepers. I know there was the but there's big discussion about that. The bear, Honey badger, something like And then thought the formerly leased unit. So it's my understanding. We now have 10 trucks, five-on-five least. If we have 10 trucks where we have 5 years ago. Are we going to double the amount street sweeping parents can talk about, you know, the actual assets that we yet. Else are we can get you bigger break down on the size of our fleet age of the equipment and stuff like that. Just clarifying point, we a lot of the times
for heavy pieces of equipment like this to these least, please financing in almost every case. We only equipment at the end of that lease agreements. That's basically just like a five-year short-term financing structure. And I believe we have all 5, 5, pieces of equipment that was procured through that last round. And out they're deployed on streets. I think one of them was mentioned earlier in the presentation that the Patriots Weaver, that offset services that were previously being performed by cg. So thank CHAIRMAN. So just clarity, we really have 5 street sweepers. Supports Yeah. Yeah. Have 16 locate. Find latest round of got okay. Great because I are we started the program and a tear They
give us a map they showed us what was being done. Weekly monthly and what would be done yearly. But director, I just want to say real quick and the audience know so many of you and it has to just be You have to just sit there and look at us and thank GOD I'm so tired of this. Just know that we are representing and flowing information that comes to us each month from our constituents and trying to represent them the best we can. So I hope nobody takes it. Personal. We're just conveying what we're hearing and seeing ourselves. On that note, I did want to give a shout out to Zach his responsiveness, giving us the pothole update information. It's not always something make public because I don't think
they would. They don't care. At this moment, but it is good for us to see it to see the information. How many of the potholes are being filled throughout the city and stuff of that nature. It's it's been this is really good information to have someone to get a shot out in that area. And I very much to looking forward to how we are going to be addressing House Bill 1461. Given that while it's good for the roads, we also know we have some cuts coming due to their property tax bill. So I don't think it's going to be easy thing to achieve. Somebodys going to cut people MAY be losing jobs as a part of this process, potentially nothing of a it's a it's just simply not a simple as finding 50 million and matching when we know that we're going to probably be getting somewhere
around 30, 40 million dollars in cuts as from Senate bill. One. So I think it's important that as you're working with the administration on addressing not that we're sort of in the loop on. What we MAY be looking at. Thank Thank you comments about Zack. You know, if you set your seat, your guys see before he's a big asset. Department. Thank Absolutely. That's come. Thank you, MADAM Chair, and thank you, counselor Cahill for her. You know, bringing to light the residential neighborhood nature of that neighborhood. So their 2 current locations for talks, Trump North, North west and south. And so it was actually West Side resident who called and they're trying to go down to Perry to do the right thing because they couldn't. They can go on the regularly scheduled one. So again, even from a constituent with relative access compared to someone from maybe from the
east side. What have you that it's just not really acceptable. And then the final thing came to mind when we were talking about residential earlier is that before your time director, the team provided the counselors with a residential road map that was sort of color coded in heat like, you know, sort of stoplight highlighted to I think it was based on old pci, but essentially as we make our decisions for to work with the department on some of the residential road work that's happening through the d 4 team. It would be really helpful to bring some of those back. I know the boundary maps have changed since then, but we know we haven't done work
in those neighborhoods. So they you know, red or orange. I think the colors for the worst neighborhoods at the time. It would be helpful to know. I also think since the maps did change due to the drawing of redrawing of the map to do to the Census data for new counselors that are in coming. But also never saw that map for their district, but also for those of us who were on but maybe acquired new territory through precincts that we didn't have before and not knowing sort of the work history with those neighborhoods in terms of the the attention that they've received from our streets team. So that's something that I think not only have I requested, I believe back in FEBRUARY, but I think members
of this council not just on the committee of all, 25 of us would really appreciate as we work with the department's to to do some of those things. I think that we want to make decisions together, but also, you know, really prioritize an area of need that's needed it for a while. So with that, I'll I'll yield back my time. MADAM Chair, thank you. Thank you. COUNCILMAN. Making Piggybacking off of the comments that CHAIRMAN Evans made regarding Senate bill, one of the property tax cuts. I think just for. Education. The most recent draft Senate Bill, one that the governor signed. And county are 2026. It would cost Marion County costly. I say costs. Money that taxpaying citizens get to keep is not our money. It's theirs. It's 43 million dollars. But that's not 43 million dollars to the city
County budget. It's the entire county and property taxes mostly go to our township schools or civil townships. And it also includes are excluded cities. So when you look at what portion the city County enterprise budget is of 43 million for county are 26 actually be pretty minimal. For county are 27. 32 Million. And for county are 28. It's actually only 1 million dollars. So it's not actually that much of a tax haven for our citizens and and say that's probably a bad thing. But also means that it's not much of a cut for the city county budget either. We have other rural counties. They're actually been cut more than we are. Thank you, counselor. Any final comments or questions for Director Wilson in the
quarterly review. Alright, Director Wilson, thank you very much for being with us this evening. And present team. New mess. Thank you we will move on to our solid waste procurement review. I don't have it we'll try pull it up on own. If you could just stand by its relations first for I agenda. It will one of the And share this with you just in case is about. I mean, I just like know the part of 3 years. The problem is I was going up. Yes, it's going work toward little stays there. Not? It $100. 300 just cover still going 100, Seeing a lot of nation coming off
started over summer and for I hope order put he showed the of the services that is. Do we have photo? Earlier? I was doing best to like it was than just so let's northeast region starts with Other supporting local Thank for is houses. Everyone far in the we come every year. That's We are All got to hand it over. Brady. Thank you, everyone. Presentation has been a long time coming and there has been so much work that is going on a behind the scenes to get us where we are today. So thank you all very, very much. This has been a years long process and there's it feels great to
be in front of all of you and be able to get this presentation tonight. So thank you for allowing the time. So as I alluded to, this has been, but this is the solid waste procurement, a presentation, by the way, don't know of actually said what we're talking So as I mentioned, this has been a years long process to get us where we are today going back as early as 2021. We hired our solid waste consultants they began conducting the solid waste. Minimization study and helping us with early procurement planning. Then we move into late 2023 early 2024. When we released the rfp for disposal and processing and then into mid 2024, when we release that Rp for collection services. At the
end of 2024. In an early 2025, we contracts for disposal and processing 2 And then in MARCH of 2025, we've brought contracts to board for collections. So looking forward JANUARY one 2026. That is when all of these new contracts go into effect and then beginning 2028, we transition transition subscription recycling service to universal curbside recycling. So I want to first begin by giving an overview of the procurement team behind the scenes so are procurement review consisted of 2 members from dpw, solid waste. 2 members from the dpw policy and planning 2 members from dpw Finance and 2 members from the Office of Sustainability. And this process has also
overseen by the city of Indianapolis Purchasing Division to ensure that we were following city and state statute. Additionally, we didn't use the consultant that I mentioned before to assist with both that sideways. Minimization study and just the overall procurement process. Members of the solid waste procurement team did sign nondisclosure agreements throughout this process. That is standard for procurement processes of this size to ensure that we are maintaining the integrity of the process and also ensure it for a more Pettit process as well. And also officer divisions scored separately of one another. Again, just to remain as fair and impartial as possible. Maintaining the integrity of this process. That was something that was really important to our procurement
team. And we tried to go above and beyond in various aspects of this process, including by offering a 30 day public commentary window and approval of the draft rfp by board for the collections agreement which is not required by statute. I did want to touch on sustainability in this presentation. But I do want to begin this by saying that we will be presenting to the environmental Sustainability Committee on APRIL. 21st. So we'll be able to dive a little bit deeper into the sustainability elements of this always procurement process. Then. But just so everyone knows sustainability was a consideration through the review and scoring of proposals. We did ask vendors to provide sustainability reports with their proposals we looked at elements such as
contributions to the circular economy. Public education and outreach especially as it's associated with universal curbside recycling. Local that economic drivers such as job growth and then an area that is near and dear to my heart, which is the technological adoption or or options that each matter what offer. We also looked things such as a turret, alternative fuel subscription organics. And again, that technological component. So to kick it off, we wanted to discuss the solid waste disposal and processing. This is the side of things that you're residents probably are thinking about as often as they're thinking about collections, which we'll get to later. But that is what is done with waste after it is
collected from the residential streams. In JANUARY of 2024, dpw released the disposal and processing rfp, which invited proposals for processing of solid waste, recycling and organics. NOVEMBER of 2024. And agreement with w w m which is formally known as Waste Management was approved by the Board of Public Works for processing of recyclable materials. And in JANUARY 2025, agreements with 3 world formerly Covanta Southside Landfill were brought aboard for disposal of solid waste. And in the case of Southside Landfill, Four-leaf disposal as well. All right. Thank you. So going to briefly touch on the vendors that we've selected for the services deputy director just outlined
first and foremost, real-world again, formerly known as Kobe this is a facility that the city's had decades long partnership with their the primary place that we take our non-recyclable solid waste. Their model is that they convert waste a steam energy using incineration. That's what they're selling the steam power to the downtown Thermal loop, which is one of the largest in the United States and the city actually receives a rebate from the energy sold to the downtown steam. With that, I'll touch on a little bit more when we go into financials in terms of, you know, why this vendor is used beyond the steam revenue date. You know, there's no perfect slate solution to what to do with solid waste. It's got to go somewhere. There's a diff. There's different options that, you know, we had to look
at throughout this process. Ultimately, these waste energy facility what they're known as are regulated by the epa. There's requirements that MAY have to comply with that I can get into a lot more details on presents in front of sustainability committee next week. So she can go into details a little bit more than Southside Landfill is going to continue to be used as the secondary site for solid waste disposal. So we take our trash to real-world if they are not able to accept the trash it because of the nature of the material or because of the status of their plant. It gets diverted to Southside Landfill, which is nearby. And so that relationship is going to continue. Southside landfills also going to
continue to take are are getting materials, which is mainly leaf collection during leaf collection season, which is we'll talk about a little bit more later is unchanged through this contract. And then finally Wn is an existing vendor with the city on the collection side. But they're actually going to be playing new role for us as part of pool of contracts there going to the company that takes our recycling stream. So right now that would include recycling taken to the drop-off sites around the city. But later on would include materials from the curbside recycling program as part of that, they are planning to build a new 60 million dollar facility here in Marion County. This is a material recovery facility. It's going to be a state-of-the-art recycling center that we feel very excited about. Obviously just
because of the technology that will go into that facility, but also the economic impact on the community and and we're really excited to have them as a partner in the recycling site, too. So with that said minute, turn it back over to Natalie, not about the services of the collection site. Now we're moving into the area that you're residents probably know very well. And that is the collection side that is setting out your trash cart, having it picked up, hopefully on time and on the day that you expected it to so trash collection refers to the collection of residential waste and disposal at these contracted facilities that we just discussed. So trash collection for districts. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9.10 As you can see on this map here were awarded to Lrs Lakeshore recycling systems. And this accounts for about 157,000 total units. As Sam mentioned,
this does include Leaf collection in the districts. The remaining districts, 5, 7, 8.11 will continue to be serviced by dpw solid waste and asked me local 7.25 And that accounts for about 120,000 total The way to talk about this with PRESIDENT Says if you currently have a private vendor servicing your household, that that will be transitioned over to s if you're currently serviced by dpw, you can expect to remain to be serviced by dpw. So this is a point that we want to drive home very hard and that continuity of service are key goal throughout this process was maintaining existing services with minimum disruptions or alterations. So
what that looks like is that residents currently eligible for residential trash collection through that city or a city contracted vendor will continue to receive those services trash carts. And this is it has been a big questions. Trash carts are assigned to each household. So if you currently a household that is receiving. City, solid waste services, that carts belongs to that household. So that is not going to change. And we will continue to replace or repair any stolen or damaged carts as well. All residents with either Republic Services or w m our current vendors. Will receive a new cart prior to the lrs contracts going into effect and those will be uniform carts throughout the county. So that's a big change that we're excited about. And the city is actually going to retain those cards at the end
of the contract. So currently as it stands, if you are serviced by a vendor, you have a a vendor branded cart and this is going to be a cart that looks much more uniform across the county and that will help us on the communication side as well because the carts will be the same color and especially as we go into universal curbside recycling. That is an important thing to note. Heavy trash collection will continue as expected. That's 2 items per month. Residents will also continue to be able to purchase a second trash cart at $65. That's something that is offered now. Any residents who have already done already have the second part will keep their cart when you purchase that cart. That is you are
stone outright. So we will be providing messaging when it comes closer to that transition period as to what residents with that second car do with it to make sure it's not jumbled up in that transition process. And then finally leaf collection will continue at 4 weeks a year. Moving into a very exciting topic, recycling and organics. So buy weekly recycling will continue to be offered on a subscription basis in Twenty-twenty 6 2027. At a slightly decrease costs. It will be serviced by lrs and they are working with the current vendors on making sure that again, we're able to offer continuity of service there and there's seamless transition on side. Beginning in 2028, the city in partnership with U.S. Will begin to transition to universal curbside recycling big question that we've gotten
is why 2028 so first and foremost, I've mentioned that before mention it again, continuity of current services is our key priority right now. And so that means as we transition to a new vendor, we need to make sure that things like car transitions making sure that vendor is able to get drivers and vehicles and learn their routes. That's all the focus as it stands right now. And that will continue to be the case come JANUARY one as we begin to see, you know, boots on the ground actually out there and out there picking up. Residents, trash. So that being said, in addition to needing to maintain continuity of service and needing that to be the focus in that first year. We
also mentioned previously that Wm is constructing a brand new it's what we call it materials, recovery facility. So we have to allow time for that to be constructed. And that is going to be state-of-the-art and a really great investment in our in our city. And we're really excited about that. And finally, and you're going to hear me say this a lot. Years to come. But education and outreach is key. A universal curbside recycling program is only as strong as the education and outreach. We're going to get into this a little bit more later. But contamination is a huge concern when it comes to recycling and specifically universal curbside recycling and limiting that contamination as much as possible is not only better for the recycled materials and
making sure that those can actually go into the circular economy and be reused. But also it helps the city's bottom line. If we have less contamination. So this is an area where we are going to be requesting your help frequently because we need to make sure that our residents are as informed as possible before that cart hits their doorsteps. Finally, the contract includes the option to roll out a subscription organics collection program. The exact timing on this is still to be determined in consultation with the vendor. But we will keep this body updated. All So just to touch on the vendor in question here. So unlike the 3 previous offenders that I discussed and the disposal and processing side, obviously lakeshore recycling systems. Lrs is not
a current vendor of the city. All get into the financial information on the slides that come after this. I think it will make it pretty clear what some of the reason was for this decision. But this is a major, solid waste collection provider. They currently operate 8 states mostly in the Midwest, their largest contract as they pick residential recycling for the areas that the city of doesn't serve us with their own staff. Have a similar set up like here where certain districts service by the city uncertain or service by the vendor. And that's over 600,000 homes. So that's actually bigger than But this contract will be obviously they provide hauling services in over 125 localities that are experienced with with doing
significant transitions of so. Their proposal also was very strong in other areas beyond pricing and service area. Obviously, you know, with the recycling component of this education sustainability is a major factor. They have pledged, you know, significant resources, resource commitments towed towards those efforts that we can go into again more its sustainability committee. I think this is a good venue for that. So they've been a great partner to work with both through the proposal process. And now as we get into transition activities, they, you know, came with pretty specific plans about how they would handle transitions both with workers and capital investments. And so we're really excited about this
relationship. Moving on to the financial peace. Just to take a step back. These contracts that were talking about collectively here are big deals they represent about 60% of our total solid waste budget. So obviously a very significant financial implication on how we do business. And when we started this process along the metal, showed you the timeline slide. This has been a very long process. You know, we weren't sure what we would get in pricing and we thought there was a chance we'd be sitting here telling you we have a big cost increases for existing services. And, you know, we didn't know how things will shake out. And so we're very fortunate relieved and happy to be in a situation where we can talk about something where there are significant savings for current services because of the very competitive
proposals we received, obviously, you know, there there are companies that really want to business with us. And I think that that going to live you know, big win for the residents and press a city. So to that end with this graph shows the red line is are per unit per month Price we pay under the existing contracts. So we pay right an average of 11. 25 a unit per month for trash pickup. The blue line shows will pay under the new contract. So starts off at 7.88 per unit per month. To be very clear about the red line is that's not a different vendors proposal or anything like that. That's just extrapolating out. The current contract. If you were to continue it over the next 10
years. So the great bars reflect that. What that amounts to an annual savings. So over 7 million dollars in 2026, growing over 10 million dollars a year by the end of this next 10 year term. And so so those are obviously non trivial savings for the city. So really excited about that. On the proposal and processing side, for non-recyclable waste. We're still using real world. We're still using Southside. The pricing hasn't changed appreciably it. It goes up. But basically as if you would escalate the current contract. So no big difference will say on the steam revenue that continues under the new contract with free world. As I mentioned earlier, amounts to 10.8% of the value of this team revenue. They generate
comes back to us as a rebate. And I think it's very important. Understand that is not dependent on a certain tonnage being delivered. It's not up her ton rebate. There's no incentive for us to send waste there instead of recycle it or anything like that so that it's built into the contract as as true revenue sharing agreement with the company so that that is that is good that that continues. Obviously. On the processing side for a cycling. Things are a little bit different and hard to project costs for. So right now to be clear, where where process we're paying the process, the materials at the drop-off sites only starting in 2028. Really think the process materials for this new universal curbside program. So the street the size of the stream is increasing you know, in theory that amount of trash is sending. These other places is going down by the same amount because you're
diverting waste. The reason it's hard to project cost for this is how it works as we pay a processing fee to w m to sort dispose of and, you know, figure out what to do with all the different types of materials that go there And so we pay a processing fee and we get a rebate back based on the value of the recycled materials. So contamination rates are very important, not just from an environmental sustainability standpoint, but they actually impact how much you're paying to process everything. So that's why it's just very critically important to get that piece, right, because it affects the bottom line. Implications of this contract. The other thing that we don't have control over is
just commodity values of different types of recycle materials, very sometimes wildly over time. Somebody way smarter than me would have to get into that subject. But suffice to say that's an important contributor to how much you paid it process that these materials. Finally on the collection site for the new service for recycling. As Natalie mentioned earlier, subscription would continue in 2026 2027. It was another unknown going to this process. Whether we have to announce big price increases for people once again. Very good news is that not only is it not going up, but people actually pay a little bit less. I know going from $10 a month to $9 a month isn't a big difference. But to be able to say, like, hey, you're not going to have to pay more for this. In fact, it'll be a little lower just from an education and outreach standpoint. It would have
really not been good to say we're doing this new service in 2028. But in the meantime, you have to pay more for it. So I think it's really good that it helps with the messaging that that service is an increase in cost. And then for the universal program, we paid 3.87 per unit per month. That's about half of the trash cost. It's half because you running half as many routes because it's every other week. So pretty simple that fee would be paid directly to the company like it works for trash service. It includes the cost of car delivery for every house that would receive the service at those carts would actually be owned by the city at the end of the contract. That is another thing that we were very adamant about in in our proposal and and a request for proposal, should say so. That's a that's a win for the city as well. And if you do
the math on 277,000 units that's per unit cost, you come up with them. About 13 million for the first full year service for that. And also just add biweekly collection is pretty standard for municipal recycling collection for recyclables. And it looks like even the data kind of shows that it's not a huge difference in the amount of recovered materials that can be used. If you go from biweekly to weekly. But it's a pretty significant costs. So that is kind of why we landed on biweekly. And I don't think that will come too much of a surprise to folks that are familiar with other cities. Universal curbside recycling programs. It's a pretty significant cost to go to weekly, but also the trucks are out there running on the
roads, using fuel, you know. So it's it's trade-off truly like the cost benefit analysis and whether that's worth it to do so. Finally have some information on the current status of our vendor which I believe our deputy director of solid waste is going to give an update you've ways, you know, seems that we started the transition process already. We've had multiple meetings with lrs here in town. They are in the process of hiring ground staff management to work here in town because they're Chicago, as we get closer to the transition, they will have several of their head office team moved Indianapolis for about 6 months to make sure the transition goes. We've also facilitated 3 meetings with those real-world in
Southside Landfill to kind of just break the ice and make sure they understand how those contracts are going to work. We have again met over Carpenter. Their main Carpenter will be Cascade, which is vendor that we have used in the past and they will be doing the deployment for So we're very happy about that cascaded our deployment. We do 0.60 thousand cards back 2010. So I know doing It shouldn't be a big issue. We're working through cart specs car designs. All of that stuff. We're excited about that. And we've also had numerous discussions with current vendors and Republic services about the transition. And we've offered to facilitate any meetings between them and arrests as well. So we've got biweekly meetings going right
now. And as we get closer to the end of the year with weekly. Thank you from me issue that. And with that, I think we are ready to take questions. Thank you very much for your presentation. Coming up. Thank you, Sam. And Natalie, this is exciting for a lot of reasons that my 2 questions and I don't know if I missed it wma already acquired the land for the Murph. And if so, where is the location? And believes they are working through that process? I do not have the location, but I can definitely get. Maybe Daniel has not raced from Stevenson, a straighter strategy intact with not that is actually going to replace the old raised trash services facility. There. There. Walmart is getting a place
with a brand To have the nearest Cross street. Remind you where that is that, it's just a So that's where okay. So it is Westside. Okay. That's what I thought. Okay. And then my second, thank you. Good to see you. Thank you, Daniel. My. I love that. That's good. And then what? This MAY be a little too. We in closer to the transition. But what are what is the plan to encourage? What are we doing with the old carts and that's sort of a sub question below that. I'm channeling my my inner John buys right now. Are we going to encourage recycling of those with those old trash carts? Okay. So a big part of this is we do not cards at the end of the contract. Residents do Republican wma those guards.
Okay. Because them up. So yes, what we will be doing is prior hope they'll start doing the deployment probably in OCTOBER, OCTOBER and NOVEMBER. And then a little bit of DECEMBER by the first week of DECEMBER. The goal was to have all the new cards out, but we're asking residents not to use the new car continue to use their wma republic cart until Republican. Do you take so sometime in DECEMBER, then they will go back and take those cards, still take ownership of them. They will recycle them because there is value in them. So they will recycle and that was a big key with us. A agreement. I want to make sure we on the cards at the end of this agreement because we do not currently okay. I do agree. I think it's
absolute I do that. I'm glad that that's well. And it also means at the end of this agreement, if we go back out and we end up with a new we don't have to go through all again. And that's I think my concern in hearing that, you know, thank you, Sean, is. Essentially. We could be. Because I have w m so we could basically have 2 carts for up to 3 months, possibly for a brief period. Yes, you will have 2 MAY. I don't know exactly. It's just I know some residents and neighborhoods are very tight and small active, especially around the waterfront neighborhoods in and we are going have theirs and they have stories want And what we'll do is our us will work with the current vendors
and let them know where they're deploying. So any point once the card is deployed, they'll more Republican, come back and get to the other one its kind on them as to when they're going to do it. Kept sorry, Council. Obviously a lot of very important logistical details to work out. You know, those initial conversations have been had with tell us about plans for a lot parts of conversations. Obviously starting with the existing vendors. We are, you know, I see these transition discussions being a routine feature of the the updates to this committee. We we understand that there could be a lot of a lot of those little details to work out and we want to we want to hear about your concerns to make sure that we're incorporating them in this transition plan because this is a big deal like we're not. We're not gonna lie. Appreciate as a very It's going to be a lot of work in it. And and what
ultimately, you know, I'm envisioning is on a very narrow road where there's already MAY be under a on trash day of 16 plus cards, you know, and maybe in certain neighborhoods that they're always there. We're looking at maybe 32 cart sitting there for 3 months thinking about kids at the bus. Stop thinking about inclement weather, you know, possibly through that time. But I appreciate that. I'm not as concerned honestly about the rollout as I am the collection part of it just making sure we're really working with partners to be very overt about like maybe you're on vacation and have trash this week. But we're picking up. This will we are taking your cart. Get it out there. Have a neighbor. Get your card out there because what we don't want to, I think trash carts left in
neighborhoods that never be picked up. So maybe even a plan c where it's like, you know. Working with with someone directing, you know, yeah, take a Take your old it. Bring it here where if you want to recycle it ringing here for How we handle it and saw couple years calling Yeah, he's just some of that. If this the square footage issue their their big hearts. So I really appreciate and especially people have 2, 3, So thank you, MADAM Chair, and thank you know what shot on a lot of kudos when we are working through the rfp process and having these discussions, he was was on top of it when it came to the car transition conversation. And that was very top of mind. And he make sure all of us knew like it sounds really simple, right? Just swap out cards. It's never that simple. So
thank you so much, Sean, for for making sure that the entire team behind the procurement process was aware of that. And it was something that we were considering throughout that process. Thank you. Thank you for your efforts on that. Roots. Thank you, MADAM Chair. Couple questions comment. So I understand Lrs is going to step here soon. I MISS The starting date. JANUARY one 2026. With respect to recycle material. We byproduct will not that will not be a city as direct. Yeah. So we provide the you know, we collect their recyclable materials from residences. They are brought to the wma processing facility. They then process them and that is taken by w m for that. Circularity of those material, counselor So that's again, part of the with a processing fee is calculated is we get a rebate based off of the materials that are
delivered. So they're in essence, paying us back for whatever we deliver because we're getting are going to resell it. And as I understand it. The recycling by recent here. Have to go out of state because we don't enough supply locally. So is that doing to help address that problem? I think any additional facilities, obviously having a universal curbside program in a city as large as Indianapolis obviously putting a lot more recyclable materials in the stream and then having a state-of-the-art murder that is able to then process again, like state-of-the-art, newest technology able to recover as much as possible of those materials. And you know, so
the back within, I hopefully the region. You know, that is something that wmd presented to us. That's something that we would be able to bring to the Environmental Sustainability Committee as well. And that was real consideration. I huge shout out to now and office of Sustainability because I know way more about recycling now than they did when were specifically processing that I did. And we started this and that was a real area of interest that she school does it quite a bit is is how the circular economy works after you, you know, put that water bottle. I think that, you know, so will just a couple real quick we'll see not hook comeback is probably education. Campaigns doing a a good. He did lay up understanding of same Yeah. But you bring up a great
point. I think obviously, you know, the primary cause of litter is is not necessarily folks just throwing it out of their their windows. Obviously, all seen that and that's terrible. And I sometimes talk about and I got really But, you know, making sure that folks are disposing of both recyclable materials and their standard residential waste properly, making sure that their standard residential wishes bagged. And so that way, we don't have things like napkins flying around like this is very important. And all of this is, you know, intermingled in the sense you know, it doesn't just a go away. Once you put it in the bin it it has to go somewhere. And I think it's important that our residents
or where. And I think there's also a corporate aspect of that. Some of the big litter abatement issues in my area, at least are. I'll just name names. You dollar stores. Walmart's those plastic produce bags, Kong, everything. And in I don't know what's economically friendly. I've heard lately the paper bags aren't necessarily any more friendly because it takes more energy to produce them. Even though there more easily recyclable. So I think the education sides important get by I have worked with some of the Walmart management to try to get them be at least more cognizant, maybe offer people, you know, you need especially the way
they are Walmart to give you 15 plastic bags and put one thing in one. And another thing, you know, it's ridiculous. And then half every Saturday morning, my local groups are out there picking up all those bags, a blowout. So I think that's an important part. And finally, kudos to you guys for this program. This recycling program is a grand slam. Really is. And I've told all my people actually out of it from the mountain top that seldom does a city come to you and say we're going to prove what we do for you at less cost. So congratulations to the entire dpw crew. Can survey. Thank you, MADAM Chair
thank you know, and Sam what's life span the life cycle of one of these carts. How long do they last? I think John with love part by generally by the parts they come with a 10 year warranty. So that's the general election cycle. Last for women to work like, you know, I had my car for 15 years and only comes out 1, pick It's going to the 15 years. But the ones that staff 3.65, they cracked break. But they do come with a 10 year one. So I feel like the benefit of postponing it at the end of the contract all the way on covid and now you know, it's not our job to figure out what to do that. That's welcome public Republic's taking a right where they're going to take the carts. If we're going to have to go through this transition placing 150,000 carts and getting 150,000
guards picked up by owning and at the end of the agreement, then should we get a new vendor? There's no transition. There's no switching out. It's all just right there. And then through the entire life of the contract is putting out the cards for us and they will. They will maintain and replace them is needed in their distress will continue to do ours permanent. You know, I do appreciate the cost savings with the new vendor. It was that the primary reason we're going with or s word, baby, most affordable proposal Council for you yet. Councilor Pena Casas. Absolutely. The largest they, you know, obviously. Presented a really competitive proposal compared to compared to their
competition. There were other major factors. I mean, just because that just like with any product or service, just because something's cheap. Doesn't mean that's what you want to buy. And so vetting out their team, their their current service areas, their transition plan, their sustainability efforts their ability to deliver on what they're they're offering was was very important to So we obviously different. You know. The cost savings is obviously a huge factor in event. Were they the most affordable proposal? Person. Only hesitate because I've been in this this procurement process for so long that I forget exactly what questions and a lot to answer I also do not know what exactly we're allowed to say. I think that the vets but suffice to to say their pricing was extremely
favorable for the city. I will. I will make sure that I'm 100% allowed to 100% transparent on this. And I will follow up with you. It's push And then I noticed it sends $3 and $0.87 a month for 2028. Is that on similar? Projection over the course the next 10 years as a lot on the that Yeah. So so arrests has a has escalator. That's over the course of the contract by 3.3% a year, which a little bit less that are contracts escalate out now. That's why like on this chart, you see it going up. So it's that it's the same with recycling, although it's growing off of a smaller So total cost doesn't grow by quite as much of a collective contract. But yeah, yeah. So do you think Ken? So
13 ish million. A lease for 2028 on the recycling. And I see we have a savings of 7 Million. Yeah, or at least some 0.6 2028. Imagine part of that will backfill at least paying for that. With the additional dollars needed to cover universal recycling, be able to be met within our current existing revenues. Releases are expected forecast. So so great. Great question. You know, obviously these 10 year contracts on the processing side in particular. There's, as I said, quite a bit of unknown. That is part of the fully realized Costa, the program are you paying more to process? The materials are less than you would be if it were going to the landfill. So that's obviously a big
important factor here. You know, we have a situation where we were presented with such favorable pricing that like if you add up these great bars, you're actually paying less for all collection services over the first 5 years of the contract, then you would be under our current contract for just trash. So we really saw this is generational opportunity to fulfill a longstanding city priority in a way that is the most cost-effective it's ever going to be. And so we felt like it was very important to take that step forward as a department. That's a city, of course, in the long run, you know, 6, 7 years from now, like with any. You know, major municipal service. We're going to have to have discussions about the budget for solid waste. You know what resources are allocated to the division. And and I'm sure that we will have those conversations. But
at the moment, you for the next 5 years, we're paying less to collect materials than we otherwise would have been in doing And so you're obviously very excited about that opportunity. And just the last parting comment only was I used to serve on the Sustainability Don't anymore. But I remember going through presentations former director Mickelson. About the current recycling process we have now. And least to me, it was a very ow of trash that had to be diverted and that's who out people who are that are the most motivated to recycle given that they're paying for now. Just really encouraged education, be. Probably the top priority when it comes to this because of war giving everybody. Easily becoming a
second trash can absolutely. And we so we have been working with the recycling partnership, which is a national organization and they have been incredibly supportive throughout having discussions about education and outreach, specifically that is really there like bread and butter. And they've been amazing to work with so far. And we even brought this timeline to them. And we said, you know, you know, we know that we're going to get pushed back. We know that there's going to be folks are saying that this isn't fast enough, but where look, we're trying to look at this as realistically and sustainably as possible. And we do feel like this time is necessary for education outreach and they concurred with that 100%. So that is seriously such a a massive part of the next 2
years. And I'm really looking forward to all of your support and helping us get the word out about how to correctly use the service. Thank you. Council Nelson. Thank you, CHAIRMAN. I just be super brief because the councilor main went to my line of questioning on the on the budget. Appreciate you getting right there. So good questions. I know we'll get more into this. Come. Come fall. Because I know I know right now where were, you know, this program or was is a is a subsidy program for the for the department based on our solid waste fees right and so just on that I think we need to continue to be mindful of that. I'll save comments in that conversation for us. We get to the budget so similar to as we're kind of learning how to communicate this transition to our our constituents. I assume that
the I know we've got us a little bit believe that the recycling. Car transition will be similar to the hammer public right now over in Irvington right? That will be a similar kind of communication in transition with Lrs, right for cycling. That is my understanding, Sean. I don't know if that's come up specific. Okay. Yeah. It just still be a similar kind of like double period. Yes, it very similar to try to be the same. A goal. We've talked about Republican million about sharing their their curbside subscription names, addresses, information so that we can get to so we make sure everybody gets ok, transfer Thank you. And then Simon are in line with that. If you are paying for. So if you're a few republic, fewer public public cycling right now walking through kind of mice, mice, there would be. So I have republic recycling. Now I'm going to get our a# # for 2
years optional. Is the payment transition like what is the what is that was the house was a taxpayer have to do to ensure kind of a continue value thinking about when you have a alone, your loan servicer changes all the sudden. It's company was now servicing that we're going to be dependent Republican Derby and defecated customer information with or So then they consider reaching out and setting up their own billing system with you to say, you know, the Senate, Dana, 10, 50 a month, you're going to pay $9 give everything transfer. Okay. Great. That is something just for, you know, anyone who's watching at home, sars, obstruction service as it stands is that is an agreement between the resident, the participating resident and come at service. So is reflected here is we as the
city negotiate the rates that are being paid. But then beyond that, it's between those private vendors, which is why with that one, we are encouraging as much collaboration between existing vendors and lrs as possible. But obviously that's tied up in their internal systems that are a little bit more of hate yet because unlike than Alec is starting in 2028, going to be $3.87 a month per goal. We will pay lrs directly once it over to universal service like we like, we pay Republican who came out I think that fantastic question again for anyone watching at home. This is at no additional cost resident, right? Okay. Okay. And that's I know we're kind of getting in the budgetary side. That's going to be the work ahead. Yeah, thank you
for for this. This is a great thank you Starting out. Thank you. MADAM Chair Council, his might reserve is question or comment. But all the so. Can you tell us in? So every every fall into the winner, we have to just switched to a fiscal to subsidize solid waste because we don't charge. We've not touch this feeling. 35 years and it's gone up trying trash collection. Stop is is the savings in calendar. 26 27 before we start universal recycling. Is that enough to either completely or mostly meant reduce that or will it reveal results are post during those years it was the scale
of the savings So Great questions. Head on a couple topics there. It's true that the department has come to council 40 schools associated with. Paying solid waste spenders. It's also true there are property taxes going to solid waste services beyond the user fee everybody's familiar with schools, at least since I've been here have been more targeted. What's what's really been more of an accounting issue with the fact that over time the department not having Appropriation in its budget to cover several invoices at the end of the year. Last year, we approach council with a of fund balance fiscal from solid waste for for underspend that occurred over several years. Utilize that money to substantially catch up with
our existing vendors. We didn't know at the time which vendors will be selected to this process. But we thought it was important that as we got towards the end of a 10 year cycle that we were is current with those vendors as we possibly could. So that was the purpose of the of the large fiscal the end of last year. Just to be clear. In terms of in terms of the savings, I mean, the numbers, the numbers are here. So, you know, in Twenty-twenty 6 2027, you're correct. You have you're spending less than you were before. And savings are currently. Same goes for the out years. But starting in 2028, as you start to roll out that new service, you have a new cost that starts to offset this. And so as I said, if you add up the numbers here for the like 2026, through 2030, you get to a little under 40 million dollars of less spending on trash service. If you add up that 13 million and
change per year for the first few years of recycling it a little less than 40 million dollars. So it you know that the savings are allowing us to start this program in a way where there's no budgetary impact for over half of the life of this contract, which is again, a situation that couldn't necessarily predicted when we started this process so so hopefully that answers your question. I don't if you have follow-up spent. Yeah, no, I I guess I appreciate We have been subsidizing through the property tax revenue where we could be charging a fee that. Covers it. So I guess I I hope that we will have that conversation at some point that that we will that we can
get to a point where we're not subsidizing an already limited resource. And frankly, I guess from my perspective, looking within the world of dpw that. Money that I wish was going to roads. We have to collect the trash right But that's a critical service. But if we can charge an appropriate user fee to actually pay for expenses. Yeah, I hope I hope continue to have that conversation so that we can free up revenue. They can go to wrote. Comments, questions. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. MADAM Chair. I really likes hearing that we're working with the recycling partnership and I think a lot of your comments, counselor Cahill hit home for me literally. So I would encourage us to maybe do some Ps a's and pushed education into our k 12 schools, at least in my house like recycling in sorting and making sure that those stream
is Queen falls on my freshman. My high school freshman. So, but, you know, she was once elementary school and like helped me then to I think that would be really important to help parents and students figure out how they can do this and make it even cool in school, too, because I think that we could really have a good impact on clean streams and recyclables in other spaces in places not just our homes. And I know if you need me or call me on that yet. New way to see my eyes light up. So the point person that Lrs has introduced us to that would be helping us with the sustainability, education and outreach actually is a former school teacher. And that's kind of what has inspired her to get into this work and they've shown us coloring books and a bunch of other really stuff. So that is that was part of their proposal.
Something we're really excited about. Thanks Thank you very much for bringing this exciting news and and project and presentation to our council and for extending that information to our constituents and for the public that is watching. And please keep us posted how we as the council can help you and keep that information stream rolling into our council districts in and out to the county. And we look forward to working and serving alongside of you are this exciting news. So I'll take a motion to Thank Thank you. Good night. And evening here.