Commission, county officials battle with how to move forward with landfill

BERNALILLO — A manmade hill of refuse was the focus of discussion at a recent Sandoval County Commission meeting because the Sandoval County Landfill’s request for proposal (RFP) was in question.

County Manager Wayne Johnson and Public Works Director Mark Hatzenbuhler were asking commissioners how they should proceed with the RFP in terms of should there be two smaller requests or one large one.

“The question of the landfill and its operations has come up multiple times through the years ... but at the last commission meeting, we had an update on where we were on RFPs for management consultation. I did send that out to the commission, so you have it. Tonight’s question isn’t really an action item, but the question for staff is whether to proceed forward with this RFP that we sent out to you earlier or, because we have an opportunity to go out to RFP on our current operational contract, to combine them into a single RFP,” Johnson said.

He said the RFP for management consultation is ready to go.

“We’re trying to get a feel from the staff and get the opinion from the commission get your opinion on which way we should go,” he added.

Commissioner John Herr noted his confusion on the difference between the two options.

“I’m, of course, new to this landfill discussion. I just know it’s an up-and-coming thing,” he said.

He asked for clarification on a few things, including how long the county has until a new landfill is required to open. Johnson said the current landfill will be done by 2036 and that they’d need to start winding it down by 2034.

“We need to make sure that we maximize the usage of our current space. That is one of the operational concerns to help pay for the new landfill we do have as part of our operational budget. We set aside money both for the closure of the current landfill, which we have to then go back and monitor for 30 years post-closure, and we have funds for opening the new landfill,” he said.

He added that the county landfill is “the best game in town” and that even though there is a program increase in the next year, it will still be the cheapest place to take trash on a regular basis.

Hatzenbuhler said having the one big RFP would prevent the county from having to file a new RFP every year as it would be recurring.

“So if we do it with the engineering, put it as one big RFP, it can be part of that whole operation. Every year, we do this process, they review it, make sure their decision is safe, there’s any improvements you can do at that time, that’s why they come up with one RFP instead of the two,” he said.

Johnson said the idea is to improve the efficiency of the operation and management with the landfill, as well as continue with the engineering contract visit.

Herr also asked if the county has the equipment to run the existing landfill and build the new one when the time comes.

“Is that like a juggling act or would that imply new equipment?” he asked.

The county has impactors that last about five years, according to Johnson.

“They’re $1.4 million each, and to rebuild them is about $600,000, so that’s why it’s a recurring deal, and that’ll be part of our plan. That’s our part of our ending this one, and moving over there, and we’ll be replacing equipment. So, we might have the equipment here, some over there. We’re actually starting on some of the development over there already at this time,” Johnson said.

Chair Mike Meek wanted clarification on how flexible the RFP situation is. Johnson said there wouldn’t be anything keeping them from combining them in the future if they want to. Herr said he would want to keep it as two for now.

Johnson further clarified that the RFP, if combined into one, would be a multi-year contract and the discussion is to just see where commission stands on the RFP.

Commissioner Katherine Bruch agreed with Herr.

“I kind of tend to agree with the direction that commissioner Herr is saying. Let’s give this a shot with two and see what our respondents are in hopes that we will get more options that we will be able to review and hopefully continue to improve our operations and our potential risk around the engineering side,” she said.

She added that she wouldn’t want to be tied to the three-year contract of the single RFP so they have an option when the year runs out.

Commissioner Jordan Juarez said the only problem that he foresees if the county goes to one RFP is how many bids they might get.

“How do we know we’re not going to also get multiple bids either way from different vendors from outside there, too?” he asked.

Johnson said that the county has successfully done a similar single RFP contract before, so this one would be similar to those.

“And is there any data that we have to prove that we don’t need anything longer than just a year for an RFP?” Juarez asked.

Johnson said he thinks they could get a lot of what they needed to be done in the year.

“We could build it in as a two-year contract or one year with an option for a second year. That’s just a matter of how we we structure that deal. If we feel at the end of that year, that we need some additional work or the work needs to continue longer and then we would have the option,” he said.

Commissioner Josh Jones’ concerns lied with the future and the timeline of the project for the new landfill.

“However, I still haven’t seen a definite plan on what that looks like and for me a third party, and I don’t care who it is, but somebody who is an expert in operations to come in and give us a path forward,” Jones said.

“I hear horror stories about what happened in Valencia County; they built out the new landfill, and from what I understand Waste Management came in and bought a fraction of what they put the money into. I want to ensure that one, we have adequate planning for the current landfill that we have and then the future landfill,” he said.

With that in mind, he also said the two RFPs would be better.

Johnson and Hatzenbuhler did note that the landfill is getting more customers, and Johnson agreed to proceed with the two RFPs.