A contract amendment unanimously approved at Tuesdayβs Board of Supervisors meeting represents another step in Pima Countyβs goal of getting out of the landfill business.
βItβs too expensive and thereβs not enough capacity,β county administrator Chuck Huckelberry said.
The amended contract provides an additional $2.3 million to an existing contract with Tucson Recycling and Waste Services for a total amount of $9.9 million.
The scope of work for the amendment includes transferring soil from a Waste Management-operated landfill in Marana to the site of the countyβs former landfill at Tangerine Road. As the Marana landfill expands, clean soil will be transferred to the decommissioned Tangerine site where it will be used as filler.
Tucson Recycling and Waste Services also operates the countyβs remaining landfills in Ajo and Sahuarita and waste transfer stations in Catalina and at Ryan Field.
The county plans to close the landfill in Sahuarita in December or January. Once closed, the facility also would operate as a transfer station.
From those facilities most solid waste is trucked to the city of Tucsonβs Los Reales Landfill or the Waste Management landfill in Marana.
Union gets extension on meet and confer
County workers represented by the Service Employees International Union will retain meet-and-confer status through fiscal 2017.
The extension for blue-collar workers allows them to engage the union to negotiate with the county on their behalf for wages, benefits and other work-place matters.
The unionβs Arizona president Art Mendoza told supervisors the organization would like the county to extend paid parental leave to all employees in the future.
Mendoza also said the county should consider adopting a written policy explicitly recognizing gender identity and transgender rights.
The agreement allows the union to stay in communication with county administration throughout the contract term and to hold quarterly meetings with county human relations and other departmental leaders.
