Lamenting “buyer’s remorse” over delaying a long-term recycling contract, the Clovis City Council may award a 10-year deal to Mid Valley Disposal after all.

In February, the council held off, wanting staff to consider splitting the contract for separate residential and commercial collection.

To do so, the city would need a temporary extension with its current recycling provider, Republic Services. That 10-year contract expires July 31. The cost for a short-term three-year contract would be $1.2 million total.

That cost gave heartburn to some councilmembers, who voted Monday to reject a short-term deal and reconsider MVD’s offer. Joseph Kalpakoff, president/CEO of MVD, said the deal still stands.

“When we come back with the split contract, it could be significantly higher than the bid that we got, and we’re going to have potentially buyer’s remorse that we didn’t make the decision with the RFP (request for proposal) we had in hand,” Councilmember Drew Bessinger said.

Bessinger joined Vong Mouanoutoua and Diane Pearce in the reversal.

The 3-2 vote means the council will reconsider the MVD contract on April 21.

Bessinger’s vote was a change of heart from Feb. 18. He voted with Lynne Ashbeck and Matt Basgall against initially awarding MVD the long-term deal so the city could  explore splitting the contract.

Republic Services’ Contract

Republic Services bills the city for residential services, and in turn, the city bills the customer. Commercial customers are billed directly by Republic Services.

The company provided three options for an extension, at one, two and three years. Each would create an increased cost — the three-year deal would have the lowest residential cost increase at 30%, about $110,000 — which the city said it would absorb.

Mouanoutoua and Pearce wanted to “undo” the February vote, and eventually got their wish.

Ashbeck said she was “embarrassed we can’t figure this out,” which caused momentary tension with Mouanoutoua.

Kalpakoff told the council he changed his position on the contract delay, saying “this is not right,” even though his 10-year proposal was the lowest among MVD, Republic Services, and Caglia Environmental.

“This is not the Clovis Way of Life,” Kalpakoff said of splitting the contract. “Now you got unintended consequences.”

Ashlee Cawley with Republic Services, and Richard Caglia of Caglia Environmental also spoke, advocating for their companies.

“What they did last night flies in the face of what the council intended to do at the last meeting, which was to divide the RFP, so a service provider could actually bid the residential, the commercial or both. And that’s the process we were expecting,” Caglia told Politics 101 on Tuesday.

Caglia said he is “contemplating next steps.”

“Republic remains a committed partner to the city of Clovis and will continue to provide excellent service as the city explores its options,” Cawlee told Politics 101 Tuesday.

Related Story: Clovis Delays 10-Year Recycling Contract as Controversy Erupts

Clovis Establishes Measure Y Sales Tax Oversight Committee

Five members of the Clovis community will provide oversight on a new $26 million-a-year sales tax.

The five-member committee — each councilmember appoints one — will meet at least twice a year to review Measure Y expenditures. Voters approved the measure last November, with 66.92% of the vote.

Requirements to serve include living in Clovis for at least two years at the time of appointment and being at least 18 years old. There is no term limit, but members could be removed by a majority vote of the council.

Because the Measure Y tax goes into a general fund, an oversight committee was not built into the law. For the coming fiscal year, more than 92% of the tax initiative goes to public safety, with police receiving 60% and fire getting 33%.

The 1% sales tax went into effect April 1, raising the city’s sales tax to 8.975%.

The 5-0 vote on Monday will come back at a future meeting for a final vote.

Related Story: Wired Wednesday: Clovis Sales Tax Hike Starts April 1