Open letter to Gainesville City Commissioners about Bigbelly bins
Editor’s note: While letters to the editor and open letters are generally published on Sundays, we made an exception for this one because it concerns an item on the consent agenda of the July 17 Gainesville City Commission meeting.
Good morning Commissioners,
In reading the agenda and scarce backup for Thursday’s meeting, I have a request: Please pull this item from the consent agenda so there may be a full presentation of this request.
Once again, the Commission is poised to approve, on the consent agenda without a presentation, another no-bid sole-source purchase of another 75 Bigbelly solar-powered trash recycling bins for nearly $590,000.
If the Commission agrees to this expenditure, the City of Gainesville will have spent, at minimum, just under ONE MILLION DOLLARS on the BIGBELLY BINS in three years!
Is any Commissioner beside Mayor-Commissioner Ward aware of the history of the Bigbellys? In 2022 the City Commission approved the purchase of more than 30 of the Bigbelly bins for an approved amount of $400,000. In light of that fact, there should be three years’ history, experience, and data.
It is reasonable to expect a public presentation and that Commissioners would make decisions based on actual experience, including an analysis of all aspects of pluses and minuses, a historical cost analysis, and showing a comparison to the alternative options based on actual data, etc.
They might even ask questions such as:
- What are the City’s labor costs for trash removal from these receptacles?
- What would these labor costs be otherwise?
- Could we provide additional jobs and possibly save money (or break even)?
- Where have they been located?
- Where do you intend to locate 75 new ones?
- Where are the 30+ original ones currently located?
- What additional expenditures have been made to date during the time the original 30 have been in service?”
It is reasonable to expect there to be more history and information made publicly available on the City website, and provided to the Commissioners before entertaining action on this Item. It is also reasonable to expect the Commission’s thoughtful discussion. The magnitude of this expenditure certainly deserves more careful examination, especially with the current budget crisis situation, before taking this next step.
Please do not approve this now – and especially not on the consent agenda.
Your for more open and transparent decision-making in Gainesville,
Jo Beaty, Gainesville
Click here for the Method of Source Selection form for this consent agenda item.
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Such a deal. The first round of 30 cost the citizens over $13,000 each, for a trash can. The next 75 will only cost about $7,000, for a trash can. And no bid.
Duh, I “thought” I keep up with these things, but I certainly did NOT know about these????
Because they are useless and ineffective?
Interesting to know how they are holding up exposed to the heat and wet of this summer.
When they have a mechanical/electrical failure, I wonder who repairs them?
Sounds like the Commission that wants to spend the money for more.
Thank you Jo Beaty for bringing this to our attention. It’s past time to hold the commissioners accountable for this wasteful spending.
The picture is indicative of the laziness in Gainesville. People feed the cats, the cats don’t want to open the receptacles and put the remains of some generosity. They obviously don’t care about the cleanliness of their surroundings and the City, for some reason, has removed some of the trash cans around the downtown area which provides ample sidewalk space to dispose of trash.
Then again, maybe they’re not lazy – they just can’t read.
May be time to start getting rid of the cats instead of feeding them, or at least fine the people who are feeding them.
City should hire the 6 who objected to the comment to pick up trash. Chances are they’re the ones feeding the trash, I mean cats.
That does seem to be an absurd amount for trash cans. For much less$$ you can pay someone to empty those cans every day for a decade.
More city commissioners wasteful spending, raise our taxes so they can waste more OUR money. They want control of GRU so bad so they can take more $ then GRU brings in and waste that $ too.
Half million dollar trash cans proposed by Public Works? It definitely should not be on the consent agenda. Go to the public meeting on the 17th and tell the Commission we rather use this extra half million dollars to keep downtown from being shot at. It’s no wonder the City wants control back of GRU they need to be reimbursed for half million dollar trash cans. Very concerning
It is too bad that we even have to go to a meeting to object, and police their hair-brained, extravagant spending. They are supposed to be good stewards of our hard earned taxes.
🤣😭🤣
They’ve made fools out of many taxpayers.
My observation is because the solar trash bins are more expensive than traditional trash bins, I see fewer places to dump trash (and recycling) in Midtown where the student bars are. And likely downtown, meaning more street litter. Especially plastic cups and cans just littered everywhere every week.
That may be why they want to buy more solar trash bins now. But why not add cheaper non-solar trash bins along the block, in between solar trash bins? Aren’t they all being emptied eventually anyway?
575k divided by 75 cans is $7,666 per can. Really?
Overlooked in the commentary is that these are also solar-powered trash compactors, which implies a) less loose litter, b) less frequent pickup, and c) more expensive maintenance.
But as the Jo mentioned, there really needs to be a data-supported use case presented, with these and other pros and cons noted. Are we drowning in litter that requires these fancy bins, and have the ones already installed made a difference?
For that price I would expect the cans to pick up the trash themselves.
Will the cost of these automated solar powered recepticles and the maintanance on them be less than the manual type labor recepticles ? Can the graffiti that we see on these new solar powered units defeat the automated actions of these bins ? Quit wasting money trying to keep up with other bigger and more modern Cities. Fix the infrastucture first, Many roads need repair, visitors really have nothing much to do inside the city limits.
Maybe they can run them around town in the Autonomous Trolley?
Other questions might be:
From whom are they buying these “buckets” ? ( Their favorite cousin? )
And are they receiving “kickbacks” for this unbelievable cost?
Nothing but more big data. Smart trash can smh! One more agenda21/ICLEI smart city directive
Reference page 11
https://www.futurestreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Bigbelly-Brochure-1803.pdf
No wonder they’re so expensive. They’re data collection sites. Data is insanely valuable to the controllers. The Orwellian Smart Trashcan options listed on p.11 are concerning, although I’m sure they bring in a decent revenue stream for the parasitic politicians.
Yup! The surveillance tech around Gainesville is insane and hardly anyone acknowledges it. Zero checks and balances.
👁️
The last page of your Bigbelly link (p.12, bottom right corner) lists some of the organizations who promulgate the Smart City cult. We cannot continue to allow this technocratic nightmare to encase Gainesville. Gainesville’s nascent surveillance grid should not be ignored by citizens, regardless of your political affiliation.
someone on the commission probably has a stake in the company and gets a kickback.
I would take that contract and empty/maintain conventional bins for a handy and local profit.
Last time I went to a park that had these, they did not work and trash was overflowing. What a waste of tax payer money. But we all know that the GNV commission are more interested in spending money and virtue signaling than doing what is going for the community. What a corrupt bunch of people.
I am an IT professional. The fact that our City has decided to connect our trash to the “the cloud” is insane. I don’t care how much time or employee hours they “claim” this could save, it is 100% pointless and a huge waste of money. “The cloud” doesn’t go and empty the trash, people do. For YEARS city employees have gone by and emptied trash cans as needed, so why the change?? While there is a place for technology to improve our lives, I am not sure $7700 trash cans is a good place to start.