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HAMILTON COUNTY DATE: November 2, 2001 TO: District Policy Committee MembersFROM: Jeffrey W. Aluotto, Solid Waste Manager I. Introduction/Opening Comments NOTICE: This memo is for the meeting to be held on November 8 , 2001. This meeting will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the conference room of the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services, 250 William Howard Taft. Policy Committee Information (Agendas, Manager's Memos, Minutes, etc.) now available on the District's Website at www.hcdoes.org. II. Clerk's
Report/Additions to the Agenda B. Additions to
the Agenda III. Finance
Subcommittee Report B. Recommendation
Regarding District Disbursements - SWR 06/2001 STAFF RECOMMENDATION: With any alterations or corrections noted by the Finance Subcommittee members or Policy Committee members, the Staff recommends approval of SWR 06/2001. IV. Policy Items A. Environmental
Court In summary, the Prosecutor's Office was of the opinion that proceeding with an Environmental Court (as Franklin County did through ORC) would represent the most feasible way of funneling all litter cases through a single legal channel. According to the Prosecutor's Office, it would not be possible to expand the existing magistrate referral to include other litter cases as these cases are minor misdemeanors and are heard in municipal court and not common pleas. There would, however, be a real benefit to expanding the scope of the District's recommendation to include the possibility of searching for support among other County Agencies and political subdivisions to broaden the prospective scope of any new Court (i.e. Quality of life issues vs. Only Litter and Dumping issues). For example, District Staff have recently been in contact with officials from the City of Cincinnati's Building and Housing Department. After discussing this issue with those individuals, it seems very possible that the District could link with the City's effort to establish a Housing Court - as environmental violations would be a logical extension of cases heard in such a venue.
Included as Attachment C is a draft of an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy for potential submission to the Board of County Commissioners. The attached draft policy was constructed from several different models including: NACo's model EPP Policy, King County's Policy, and others. While the policy does establish requirements for individual departments, its strength is more in its ability to establish a mechanism for evaluating opportunities and methods for continuing to expand the usage of environmentally preferable products in Hamilton County. This proposed policy has been reviewed by the Hamilton County Purchasing Department. The Director of the Purchasing Department has commented on the policy and is generally supportive of the District's efforts in this matter. On the subject of EPP, the Solid Waste District will, in 2002, begin the process of commenting on all (applicable) bids put out by the County. The District will be making recommendations as to how individual bids could be more inclusive of EPP alternatives. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: With, or without potential modifications, Staff recommends that the Policy Committee approve the draft policy and allow Staff to take action toward submission of this policy to the Board of County Commissioners. C. Community RRI Surpluses At the September meeting, Staff brought the issue of RRI surpluses before the Policy Committee. In addition, Staff submitted a proposal that communities which were meeting current RRI expenditure requirements be allowed to submit applications to the District to use these funds in a manner which may be broader than originally intended through the RRI program. RRI funds, historically, have only been used for expenditures directly related to a community's recycling program or for the purchase of recycled content materials. In 2000, allowable uses were expanded to include waste reduction projects as well. Under this program expansion, communities which were implementing these activities yet were still building surpluses of RRI funds could submit a brief application which, upon approval, would allow that community to use funds in more innovative ways. Examples may include: Engineering/Architect fees for the design of a Green Building or consultant fees to perform a rate study for conversion to a PAYT system. Included, as Attachment D, is a draft of the type of application which would be necessary under such a program. Staff is aware of the fact that the Policy Committee would like to enact this program with as little burden as possible to individual communities. It must be noted, however, that enacting this program may result in projects with fairly significant dollar expenditures. Staff feels that it is important to have the ability to document these potential project requests and to provide some mechanism for approval/disapproval before allowing a project to proceed. In the end, the District will be held accountable for a project which, though well intended, does not meet the criteria for acceptable uses of District funds. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: District Staff recommends that the Policy Committee approve the surplus expenditure policy and allow Staff to take action to educate Hamilton County communities on its application.\ V. Informational
Items The University of Cincinnati has, over the past month, been working with the District toward submission of an application for funds to retrofit one of their boilers to allow for TDF usage. District Staff has met with UC and ODNR regarding this proposed project. In addition, Staff has put UC in touch with applicable parties in the Permits and Enforcement Section of DOES to discuss regulatory issues which would be inherent to this grant request. B. Yard
Waste Drop-Off Sites C. CARE Awards
The Board of Commissioners recently approved the Policy Committee's recommendation to provide grant funding to Nu-Blend Paints. As determined by the Prosecutor's Office, the District was only able to enter into a traditional grant agreement with Nu-Blend. District Staff will be monitoring Nu-Blend's expenditures of funds closely and will keep the Policy Committee appraised of their progress. Recently, Nu-Blend hired an outside sales representative and is beginning to work with staff from the Executive Service Corp - a group of retired business executives which lends consulting services to non-profits. Nu-Blend is receiving assistance from three ESC staff in the areas of marketing, production, and accounting.
The terms of Mr. Gwyn and Mr. Geis will expire following the January meeting. Staff will be sending out letters searching for applicants to fill the position of these two members. More will be mentioned on this later - but I wanted to thank Phil and Wright, in advance, for their outstanding dedication to the District. VI. Tentative Future Agenda Items VII. Policy Committee Members' Comments III. Public Comments IX. Upcoming District Meetings X. Adjournment (Target Time: 3:30 p.m.)
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