The Mountlake Terrace City Council is scheduled to review three items and hear an update on contract negotiations with Waste Management at Thursday’s work session, which starts at 7 p.m..

The Council will receive an update on the Lakeside Apartments Pedestrian Accessibility Improvements project, which consists of constructing sidewalk ramps meeting the current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards, along the north side of 219th Street SW. The construction includes 10 sidewalk ramps, approximately 140 linear feet of cement concrete curb and gutter, pedestrian curb, restoring asphalt pavement,sidewalks and landscaping, traffic and erosion control and other miscellaneous work.

Only one bid was received on the project, which was approximately 15 percent over the amount budgeted for the project. City staff indicated that when very few bids are received on a project, bid amounts tend to be high due to lack of competition. Based on review of the single bid received on this project, engineering staff believes this to be the case. By utilizing the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington rosters, the City will be able to directly solicit multiple contractors to perform the project work.

Re-advertising will allow the City to receive more competitive bids that are more likely to be in line with the engineer’s estimate.If the single bid is rejected, the project schedule would be minimally affected.

The Council also will hear about the update of the Economic Vitality Element of the Comprehensive Plan. The current Economic Vitality Element has not been substantially updated since 2003. Local economic conditions and employment opportunities have changed over the past decade affected by, among other things, regional and national, even global events. Since the 2003 update, the City has adopted an Economic Vitality Strategy (2008) and a Sustainability Strategy with an Economic Vitality section.

The intent of the current update is to make only minor changes to the narrative, tables, figures and maps, and to assure the text and data are as current, accurate and complete as possible.

The Council is scheduled to review the proposed appointments of three people to the City’s Boards and Commissions.

The candidates and positions are:

• Sally Buckingham — Arts Advisory Commission, term expires June 30, 2016
• Brian Hayter — Community Policing Advisory Board, term expires June 30, 2015
• Nan Darbous — Library Board, term expires June 30, 2016.

The Council also will receive an update on contract negotiations with Waste Management. The most recent agreement, approved by the City Council in 2008, runs through September 2015. The City Council directed City staff to negotiate new contract terms, minor modifications to contract services and develop new lower contract rates in line with recent competitively-bid contracts in the region.

A tentative agreement on a contract was reached that would go into place October 1, 2014 (a year before the current contract expires). The new contract would run from 2014 to 2022.

City staff has listed the advantages and disadvantages of the contract as follows:

ADVANTAGES

• The contract provides a reduction of two percent on residential rates, and no CPI increase on residential rates for the first 12 months of the contract.
• Waste Management would make a one-time payment of $40,000 to the City.
• The contract includes an increase of annual funding to the City of approximately $150,000 per year. This funding is used to cover the cost of the City’s administration of the contract, to fund the City’s payment of garbage billing for low-income customers, and to mitigate the impact on City streets associated with heavy garbage trucks.

DISADVANTAGES

• Evidence shows that rates would be lower if the City went to bid as the City Council discussed earlier this year.
• By the end of the proposed contract’s eight-year term, the City will not have gone out to bid for the lowest rates possible in more than 20 years.
• Commercial customers will see no reduction in rates in the first year of the contract.