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Alachua County Commission confirms new Assistant County Manager, approves rate hike for debris haulers, and takes responsibility for debris collection in 7 cities

The Alachua County Commission met on October 22

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their October 22 meeting, the Alachua County Commission created new positions of Assistant County Manager and Executive Liaison for Public Safety and Community Relations and discussed the need to increase rates paid to debris haulers to compete with offers from areas hit by Hurricane Milton.

New positions

During announcements, former Human Resources Director Heather Akpan was introduced as the new Assistant County Manager, a new position that replaces the position held by retiring Deputy County Manager Carl Smart. Smart will serve as the Executive Liaison for Public Safety and Community Relations. 

The consent agenda, which was unanimously approved, included an item to waive recruitment for the newly-created position of Assistant County Manager – Chief Transformation Officer and to confirm the appointment of Akpan to the position effective October 21. The position, which will have overall responsibility for Court Services, Human Resources, Equity, Equal Opportunity, and the Innovation initiatives, pays $194.560.21 annually; another item in the consent agenda stated that the pay range for the position is $117,192.40 to $197,029.46.

Smart’s new position has an annual pay rate between $90,522.02 and $143,495.46, although it’s not clear how many hours he will work. The board also created another new position, Tourist & Economic Development Senior Office Director, paying between $100,371.44 and $163,930.00.

After she was introduced, Akpan said she’d had “the idea for a role that had a specific focus on culture and innovation,” and she and County Manager Michele Lieberman had discussed it for about a year until Lieberman “agreed that these things were in alignment with the goals of the board.” She said she and Lieberman agreed that she would do some of the things she was already doing, along with some other responsibilities, “as long as I got to do the innovation and culture things – a lot of things, but culture and innovation are so important to an organization.”

Communications Director Mark Sexton said the County “said goodbye to long-time Deputy County Manager Carl Smart this morning, there was a beautiful breakfast in his honor, but this new position [of Executive Liaison for Public Safety and Community Relations] is exciting, too, and I’d like to introduce the recipient of that new position – Carl Smart.”

Smart said he was “looking at staying connected, even though I’m retiring,… through this new position, and looking forward to working on those projects, particularly the Truth and Reconciliation, the Community Remembrance Project, working along with Commissioner Chestnut and all the volunteers and staff and the gun violence prevention project.”

Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said, “We still need your work in the community, and we’ll be calling on you often.”

Status of debris removal

Commissioners next took up a request to approve a resolution for unanticipated revenues from FEMA for damages from Hurricane Helene; the board had previously approved spending $4 million, and staff requested an increase to $9.75 million with the expectation that the funds will eventually be reimbursed by FEMA.

Solid Waste Director Gus Olmos said the County initially estimated that they could make a first pass throughout the county within 30 days to pick up about 350,000 cubic yards of debris in the unincorporated county and all the municipalities except Gainesville and Alachua, which are handling their own debris removal. Olmos said that as of October 21, they had collected about 50,000 cubic yards. 

The County has now opened two drop-off locations for yard waste and has also changed its instructions to GFL, the company that has the year-round yard waste contract. Initially, GFL only picked up leaves in plastic containers, while the contracted debris hauler used mechanical devices to pick up the big piles and bags; Olmos said that was because FEMA would not reimburse the collection work done by GFL. Olmos continued, “Since we’re falling behind, we’re changing strategy, and now GFL is also collecting the bags, and we asked them to collect small piles of debris.”

FDOT is paying higher rates to debris collection contractors

Olmos said that although Milton did not leave a lot of debris in Alachua County, it had a significant impact in other parts of the state, and “the number of resources available to respond to these kind of events is fixed. Once Milton hit, the need doubled, tripled, quadrupled, with the same amount of resources.” He said another issue was that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) had entered into a debris collection agreement after Helene, and “the rates are significantly higher than the rates that are in most of the local governments’ agreements.” Olmos said the County pays $9/cubic yard, and FDOT is paying $15/cubic yard. He said that because of that difference, contractors are accepting contracts at higher rates, and “we’re losing resources locally.” Olmos said many local governments have agreed to pay the $15 rate. 

Full FEMA reimbursement only applies to the first 90 days from Helene

Olmos said that even if the County does not lose any of its current contractors, it will take six months to collect the debris, but FEMA is only offering 100% reimbursement for the first 90 days, starting September 25. Olmos also mentioned an Executive Order issued by Governor DeSantis on October 14 that “essentially said that local government had to be on the debris removal job 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or come up with a plan to finish up everything in 90 days.”

Prizzia: “I think six months is just not acceptable”

Commissioner Anna Prizzia said, “I think six months is just not acceptable… It also causes fire hazards when we’re getting into the dry season… So I really think we need another solution.” She wondered whether the County could work with local landscapers and tree companies at the $9 rate.

Commissioner Chuck Chestnut agreed that six months was too long and added, “If we have to come up with additional money, I think that would be well worth it, and it would cut down on the complaints.”

Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby said there are concerns about getting FEMA reimbursement for picking up debris in the municipalities, but his staff is working with FEMA to make sure they follow the correct procurement process. He said a lot of the local landscapers are already working as subcontractors to the County’s major contractor, and increasing the rate per cubic yard should help the contractor attract more local subcontractors. He said the procurement staff is not “real comfortable” with changing rates, but if the board wants them to do that, they’re “willing to take the risk” and try to get it done in 90 days; however, he said, there is no guarantee that FEMA will reimburse the higher rates. Crosby said, however, that in the past, even after they’d been told something would not be reimbursed, “FEMA has kind of backed off.”

Prizzia said, “If we’re going to pay more money, I want it to go to our local businesses. I don’t want to pay a contractor who’s holding me over a barrel, telling me that I have to pay him more or he’s going to go down to Ocala or… to the coast.”

Olmos said that when landscaping companies want to help, the County directs them to the contractor because “if we were to do an on-the-fly procurement with local landscapers, the risk of not getting reimbursed just increases astronomically.” He said he estimates it will cost $12.5 million to pick up all the debris, including the municipalities.

Chestnut said, “It seems unfair. You know, if you take a contract, then you should fulfill that contract.”

20% of the debris collected after 30 days

In response to a question from Prizzia, Olmos said they’ve collected 20% of the waste, and they’re 33% through the allotted time. Chair Mary Alford said, “I just think we work as hard as we can, as fast as we can, and pay what we have to, to get it done.”

Prizzia said, “I think we ask our contractor to get creative and to work with our local landscaping companies and our local tree companies and try to find subcontractors to solve this problem. If we have to pay more, we have to pay more because we need to get this done… I mean, honestly, if we deployed all the landscaping companies and tree companies that we have today and told them, you know, fees are waived, or whatever, bring the debris, come on – it would be cleaned up in a couple months because all those landscape companies would pay their people to go haul it away because they’re sick of seeing it, or we could pay them to haul it to our place and drop it off, and we’d be set… I just can’t see how we can’t deploy [the local businesses] and, like, be a community that, like, solves this problem.”

Number of available vehicles “just keeps going down”

Olmos said it should take 2-4 months to pick up the debris if the board opts to increase the rate per cubic yard to match FDOT. He said the County has fewer vehicles than they had when they started, and “that number just keeps going down.”

Alford said, “We can’t make people work that could go make more money somewhere else,” and Chestnut responded, “But if you have a contract, you have to honor your contract… That’s price gouging, to me.” Prizzia said, “They know they’ve got us over a barrel.” County Attorney  Sylvia Torres said the 90-day deadline came after the County negotiated the contract with the debris removal company. 

Prizzia: “If we’re going to pay them more money, then I want them to meet that 90-day goal”

Prizzia said she could support paying the higher rate, but “I want them to meet our 90-day goal. That’s my point. If we’re going to pay them more money, then I want them to meet that 90-day goal, like, by Christmas.”

Crosby said it was “probably next to impossible to accomplish all these scenarios that we’re talking about.” He said he didn’t know whether the debris contractor would agree to any changes or additional conditions like hiring local landscapers. He said the County has the money in fund balance if FEMA doesn’t reimburse part or all of it and that his staff would try to make it work.

Prizzia asked how long it would take to collect the debris if they offered the $15 rate, and Olmos responded, “Assuming we were able to keep the resources we’ve got today [at $9],… that’s where the six months come into play… With the additional money, we’re looking at three months, four months.” He said they could put a deadline for a first pass across the entire county into a contract amendment.

Alford said, “I was Chair of the Utility Advisory Board during Hurricane Irma, and for five months, five entire months, the biomass plant burned hurricane waste, basically ran for free for five months – and none of this is going there because GRU isn’t burning anything. And I know that has nothing to do with you, Gus, but I wanted to say it out loud because it makes me frustrated, because if we didn’t have to haul the waste so far, we could haul more waste in a shorter amount of time and burn it and make power and clean the air at the same time. So anyway, I am frustrated about that, so I want to say it out loud.”

GRU CEO Ed Bielarski addressed this in a social media post: “People in the community who should know better are throwing around lies about GRU’s biomass plant (which we call DHR) and how it is operating. First of all, after Hurricane Irma, it’s not true that the plant ran for free on the waste product for months.  TOTALLY FALSE. Second, currently DHR is not running because it is in a scheduled outage for the 10-year inspection of the turbine, which, [by the way], is an industry standard. We take outages in the fall so if we find any problems, we have time to make repairs prior to our peak summer months. Bottom line: GRU is running its generating assets in accordance with best utility practice.”  

Initial motion

Prizzia made a motion to “increase the amount of money that we’re paying the contractor so that they will get the job done, that we reiterate to them that the 90-day deadline is really important to us because we really need the FEMA reimbursement, that we ask them to consider using local resources, local landscaping companies and tree companies, to expand their reach in these communities where they can’t get to, and to continue to support the local municipalities who need our support.” Chestnut seconded the motion.

County will assume responsibility for all costs in seven cities, hope for FEMA reimbursement

Olmos said he wanted the board to understand what the County is doing with the municipalities: “At the direction of the board, we reached out to all the municipalities, with the exception of the City of Alachua and the City of Gainesville. They all were interested in being part of our program. So we’ve got the interlocal agreements ready to be sent. We’re just finishing them up today. So if we do this, the County will be 100% responsible for all the collection, processing, and final disposition of all the hurricane debris. We will be responsible for seeking reimbursement from FEMA for all those costs. If FEMA denies that reimbursement for whatever reason, we are responsible for that cost; we’re not going to get reimbursed back from the cities.” He said it would cost $1.5 million dollars to collect debris in those cities.

Crosby said he needed two things added to the motion: authorization for the County Manager to enter into the interlocal agreements and direction to the Procurement Manager regarding how much the County is willing to spend on debris pickup if FEMA does not reimburse the higher payment to the contractor. 

Torres said a contract amendment that significant would be considered a sole-source procurement by FEMA; she recommended that the board “find that there’s a public emergency that will allow for sole-source procurement… That’s probably our best bet at meeting that exception to competitive procurement under the FEMA guidelines.” She also recommended adding the rate schedule from the  FDOT agreement to their contract, only for services that have not yet been provided and only for 90 days. 

Additions to motion

Prizzia agreed to add those things to her motion: “I find that the immediate action is required to address a public emergency that cannot be delayed by competitive solicitation, I authorize the chair to sign a second amendment to the agreement for disaster debris and removal that adds a temporary rate schedule consistent with the DOT agreement and prospective services performed in response to Hurricane Helene and that adds performance standards that we’ve included today and that are added by the County Manager and that the County Manager has signature authority on contracts… and that we are moving forward with municipalities… We made the commitment to the small municipalities. We need to honor it… My third part [of the motion] is that we bring back a conversation about this as a county-wide service and have a discussion about competitive procurement for this in the future and the ways in which we structure a contract so that we could be safe before next hurricane season.” Chestnut agreed with the amended motion.

Crosby: “It’s very challenging from a standpoint of practicality”

Crosby said in a situation like this, where a hurricane “comes through and ravishes five states,… we can’t guarantee anything.” He said they could add a performance bond to the contract, but he didn’t know “if anybody would bid on it… It’s very challenging from a standpoint of practicality… Those sub[contractor]s are gonna go where they can make money, and they’re being pressured by the state to get down to southwest Florida.”

Prizzia: “The only reason we’re talking about this now is because the contractors are abandoning ship”

After public comment on the motion, Prizzia said she wanted to respond: “First of all, we did talk about this before the hurricane season started, and we had a contract in place before the hurricane season started. And the only reason we’re talking about this now is because the contractors are abandoning ship now that they’re on the ground, starting to do the work, and there is more money to be had in other communities where the devastation is greater, so we’re having to reconsider it. Reimbursement is not the only conversation – I think we’re all up here being very clear that we want this picked up as quickly as possible because it is a safety hazard. I think our staff heard us loud and clear that regardless of what happens, including in municipalities that we’re not normally responsible for, we want to be responsible for picking up this debris and making sure it’s picked up as quickly as possible.”

More additions to motion

Prizzia added more pieces to her motion to approve a resolution for unanticipated FEMA revenues and an interfund loan of up to $12 million for the purposes of cash flow until FEMA reimbursement is received. 

The motion passed 3-0 with Commissioners Ken Cornell and Marihelen Wheeler absent. 

County: “We ask for your continued patience”

A press release today from the County stated, “We understand the inconvenience caused by the debris and share the community’s frustration. While some residents suffered severe damage, our area was fortunate to avoid the worst impacts other counties endured, such as storm surges and hurricane-force winds. We ask for your continued patience as we work diligently to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.” 

  • Please get your facts correct. Heather Akpan is not filling a vacant position. The Deputy County Manager was reclassified to a regular Assistant County Manager position, a step down. The County no longer has a Deputy County Manager position. This was stated in the back-up documentation. Carl Smart will be working part-time.

  • “The position, …, pays $194.560.21 annually; another item in the consent agenda stated that the pay range for the position is $117,192.40 to $197,029.46.” I’m sure that taxpayers doing more demanding jobs on 50% of that pay or less really appreciate the attention paid to pennies in these statements.

  • NO SHAME! Retiree on Friday and new employee at higher wage on Monday! That is typical government! Oh, sorry, he is just part time, but same salary? What a crock of hooey!

    There will never be a property tax reduction with the Democratic AC BOCC! They are busy taking care of themselves and their “loyal employees!” Sorry, I forgot they are also busy not paying their own fair share of property taxes! Right Alford and Wheeler?

    Why have an Emergency Management Office if they have no authority?

    The purpose of an Emergency Management Office (EMO) “normally” is to help county private citizens and businesses in preparation for emergencies (EMO/AC BOCC sure makes sand bags are available from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, otherwise it is overtime for their rank and file! But what about after the emergency? The AC Comprehensive Plan (2020) gives no authority for the EMO to assess and initiate recovery operations! EMO does need to encourage AC citizens to sign up for emergency information resources! I read their plan and there is no authority given them to quickly begin recovery operations (spelled entering into contracts with available resources) such as the current issue of debris collection! Debris collection should be a function of the EMO! EMO should have the authority to enlist additional resources if their primary contractors pull out! Why? It’s only logical! Get the job done!

    AC taxpayers need to wait for the highly paid 1st and 2nd in command county managers to issue a “Mother May I” slip to subordinates to get the county cleaned up! That is called “Job Security!”

    • To put debris removal under EMO is not proper dept of county. EMO only together just prior and during ac storms.

      • Debris created by inclement weather situations is (or should be) part of the EMO responsibility, not Waste Management.

        EMO should be stood up prior to and not stood down until all necessary response to the emergency situation are concluded.

        If you don’t, you have Waste Management being blamed for post inclement weather debris cleanup, which they are not budgeted for.

  • I hope none of those 7 cities are republican leaning. They should get NOTHING. Only democratic leaning cities should benefit.

    • Hey Paulie! Your BLUE panties are showing!

      You and your buds probably pay zero taxes!

      Unfortunately, the AC BOCC shares your opinion and are making sure THEIR supporters are taken care of!

      You and them get a big FU!

    • You win again today Paulie. You are neck and neck with Biden in idiot comments. Of course he has a Dementia issue, your issue might imply you need to ride the short bus. We are less than a week from election and your Trump Derangement Disorder has really ramped up. Please seek professional help.

  • Just pick up the damn storm debris! It’s not rocket science. So many excuses.

    Just admit that you guys don’t want to spend your own money and would rather defer and deflect while waiting to rack up FEMA bucks. This could have already been cleaned up by now if you idiot politicians didn’t drool over the federal emergency reimbursement programs.

    Now we sit and wait while you fools sit and wait to hire fools that are sitting and waiting to be contracted from across the country to remove our dead trees.

    It’s almost like the city and county are broke….

    • Strongly disagree with your assessment of amount of cleanups after major hurricanes… Consider the equipment needed & people power to operate equipment. The reality of the entire job seems to be not considered. Cleanups and rebuild always tastes me time. I also think FL Governor has an unrealistic expectation too. So, hand out $$$ carrots to those who can do debris cleanups in 2 months. I agree that ALACHUA County paying more and getting 3rd party contractor to hire lawncare workers to hall debris. That’s a real solution.

    • Wow, I wish I could have gotten $16 a yard for all the stuff we hauled out to the county’s Archer collection site before Milton. It would have helped pay for the gas.

  • I have a pile of yard debris left over from Hurricane Helene that is about 7 feet high by 100 feet long in my front yard on Lakeshore Drive. We get more wind on the lake. All of the other storms this is usually removed in 2 weeks. Maybe because this is in the Southeast it is not of concern. I wonder if any of the City Commissioners have any yard debris left?

  • GRU CEO Ed Bielarski addressed this in a social media post: “People in the community who should know better are throwing around lies about GRU’s biomass plant (which we call DHR) and how it is operating. First of all, after Hurricane Irma, it’s not true that the plant ran for free on the waste product for months. TOTALLY FALSE. Second, currently DHR is not running because it is in a scheduled outage for the 10-year inspection of the turbine, which, [by the way], is an industry standard. We take outages in the fall so if we find any problems, we have time to make repairs prior to our peak summer months. Bottom line: GRU is running its generating assets in accordance with best utility practice.”

    OK Ed, if the plant did not run for free after Irma – you say that is “TOTALLY FALSE” – what per cent of output was “free”. Your statement pretending to be precise and a put down – no one challenged you on this, so just do your job and do it politely – could not be more vague.

    As to taking “outages in the fall”, uh, you think that could be modified after a hurricane to take advantage of the debris?

    You are a dictator now, but please at least pretend you are a polite and reasonable public servant.

    • He explained in an earlier post that debris wood is generally unsuitable. It would be nice if the site had a search function for comments (or if there is one, it should be easier to find)…

      • “In response to another comment about using storm debris as fuel for the biomass plant, he said, “You can use some of that, but for the most part, it’s not conducive to getting that material that is of a certain size and certain specification that is fed into the boilers at the biomass plant… We just don’t use that much of that. So it’s a shame, but it just doesn’t work that way.””
        https://alachuachronicle.com/gru-authority-hears-plans-for-extending-the-life-of-plants-new-customer-advocate-program/

        (Search function is at bottom of page or in drop-down menu at the top. Works pretty well.)

        • Thanks anonymous and slice for that information which I was not aware of.

          I remain critical of Belarski’s hostile tone when a one sentence explanation would have done it civilly and professionally. He is being paid like a professional and should act that way. Given he is answerable to the “authority” and they are answerable to no one, he’s now bullet proof and knows it.

    • If memory serves me correctly, it’s never operated for free.
      GRU pays for the trash that gets used as a fuel source.
      If you think about it, makes sense seeing as how taxpayers fund the trash sitting on the dais.

  • Damn crooks want access to that FEMA $!

    In all my years, I have never seen such lousy debris pick up…I have a pile of biomass outside my home for 2 months now…

    Is carl smart retiring with a 6 digit income and then gonna get $150k a year to be a BS liaison?

    • You have to put everything into cans (not bags – CANS) if you want the regular Yard Waste crew to pick it up now. They are no longer picking up small piles or anything not in a can. Or you can wait for the crane truck to come around and maybe pick up your piles of debris, if you get lucky.

  • Why do we have so many Ass. County Managers? Waste of money with Carl Not-so-Smart. He already was MIA when working full time. Some staff would state “There has been a Carl Smart sighting”. His office was usually empty.

  • Typical BS waste of tax dollars.
    Senior position retires and gets a “newly created” position, old higher paying position gets filled by an existing employee, (good), and creates another position, “Tourist & Economic Development Senior Office Director” that didn’t exist either. Did Akpan and Lieberman have this idea and others during their travels together? Don’t they realize the free Covid money won’t last forever, and it isn’t free?
    This group of 5 Commissioners don’t have all the voting districts’ best interests in mind when they just created 2, and refilled 1, positions that will cost a minimum of $385,453 NOT including benefits and other perks.

    Just another reason to vote in favor of single member districts.

  • County Manager Lieberman has a reported annual salary of $248,263.

    This salary is 387 percent higher than the average salary and 414 percent higher than the median salary in Alachua County.

    Lieberman’s salary is 10 percent higher than the average county manager salary in Florida.

    The county commissioners approved this.

  • Just wondering if those of us in the unincorporated county in subdivisions will have our debris picked up, or will we be skipped because of “private roads”. If not, can we have our property taxes reduced?

  • Perhaps the “Executive Liaison for Public Safety and Community Relations” and “Chief Transformation Officer” would serve the community better by grabbing a truck and hauling hurricane debris to the collection sites.

    Seriously, these titles are pitiful and show that the commissioners really think they are the owners of tax money, not the stewards.

  • Doesn’t the Community Relations part-time employee with full-time pay have a felony for bad check in Clerk of Courts records. Maybe the reason he left Gainesville.

  • It seems to me, the removal of stuff from the storms, is at it’s most basic something government should do.

    Either you have people on staff who can do it…or you offer it to someone else who can help that is not part of government.

    That makes me wonder about the reason for government.

    There is a serious problem if our local government can afford someone to help (EMS), some to fight a fire, or someone to arrest someone who bothers you.

    But you can’t do something as basic as contract out to remove lawn droppings from a storm.

    Wait till we get hit with a big storm.

    We still have pot holes that need to be fixed.

    Old ones.

    • Maybe the city needs to get back in the garbage biz… it’s an essential service.

      How much did they get for the recycled aluminum cans from recyclables…that’s a commodity.

  • Time for this county to give themselves an organizational enema. Too much bloat and plaque in that building, these salaries are also WAY TOO HIGH given the actual talent and work these positions actually do. A total shame! The manager used to be pretty good…no more…this county is truly screwed if we don’t demand some accountability throughout the organization. But that isn’t going to happen any time soon with the current politicians and staff.

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