Runner-up in Western Placer Waste Management Authority bid race calls foul on process

The Western Placer Waste Management Authority recently selected a new operator to run its Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and Western Regional Sanitary Landfill. The Western Placer Waste Management Authority is a regional agency established through a joint exercise of powers agreement between Placer County, Lincoln, Rocklin and Roseville to own, operate and maintain a sanitary landfill in Lincoln and all related improvements. The Western Placer Waste Management Authority serves residents from Colfax to Roseville. At a Nov. 29 meeting, the joint powers authority board approved beginning to negotiate an operations contract with FCC Environmental Services, citing it was the top-ranked firm. GreenWaste of Placer County, the runner-up in the race for the contract, said the selection process focused too much on cost and not enough on a technical analysis. According to an authority news release, the selection of FCC was the result of a "competitive procurement undertaking." As part of the request-for-proposal process, firms submitted conceptual designs for facility improvements and modified operations to meet Western Placer Waste Management Authority's goal of complying with new state requirements for diverting organic materials from landfill disposal. FCC was deemed the top-ranked firm and invited to negotiate terms with the authority. In a letter to the authority, GreenWaste stated, "The selection of an operator for the MRF and landfill is the single most important decision this Board will make; a decision that will impact hundreds of thousands of local residents for a decade or more, a decision that has the potential to have lasting financial implications if the selected contractor is not equipped to deliver on its commitments." The procurement process for these proposals began in 2020, when the authority tapped Placer County's Procurement Services Division to issue the requests for proposals for the change in operators. The mission to keep organic materials and food scraps out of landfills was imposed by the California Legislature through Senate Bill 1383. Acknowledging the significance of SB 1383, the Materials Recovery Facility's request for proposals required firms to guarantee and demonstrate how they would meet CalRecycle's "high diversion organic processing facility" performance requirements. GreenWaste, after requesting to see FCC's proposal, said it believes the proposal is inadequate. "Their design is insufficient to accomplish the purported diversion, they lack the technical expertise and experience to design, build and operate these facilities, and their cost proposal is insufficient to deliver on the representations made in their proposal," GreenWaste's letter stated. According to a Western Placer Waste Management Authority memo, the evaluation committee of the proposals was comprised of representatives of the authority and member agencies and they were tasked with reviewing and ranking the proposals, participating in interviews, design concept meetings, viewing final presentations from the firms and conducting site visits. GreenWaste questioned why the authority did not use R3 Consulting Group, Inc. of Roseville, with which it contracted to provide technical assistance during the proposal process. "This unusual staff deviation from standard practice resulted in a proposal evaluation that assigned scores solely based on Evaluation Committee members impression from facility tours and the proposers unsupported representations," GreenWaste's letter stated. In addition to questioning the process, GreenWaste also alleged the Western Placer Waste Management Authority did not follow the Brown Act at its Nov. 29 meeting. GreenWaste's letter alleges the board made its decision based off of data, which was not provided to the public 72 hours in advance. In a statement provided to Gold Country Media on Thursday, GreenWaste stated its intentions with these letters. "It's our hope that the Authority will reverse its decision, have its third-party technical consultant prepare the thorough analysis it was charged with completing, and revisit its choice of a proposer once all of the factors have been vetted," said Greg Ryan, Chief Operating Officer of GreenWaste of Placer County. After the Auburn Journal contacted the Western Placer Waste Management Authority, Program Manager Eric Oddo said the board plans to address the allegations at its Jan. 13 meeting. The board packet with details of its response was not available ahead of the Journal's deadline Friday. "We are looking forward to taking the item to the board and being as transparent as we have in the past," Oddo said. "We're confident in our decision and our practice and our process and hope that when we get everything out there that we'll remedy the issue."