Councillors were considering a recommendation at a meeting on Tuesday, March 21, that the contracts be awarded to Cleanaway and Western Composting Technology.
The contracts would have been for seven-and-a-half years with an option to extend for a further seven-and-a-half.
Greater Shepparton partnered with nine other councils and two alpine resorts in the Hume region to issue a collaborative request for tender, for waste and recycling services known as the Resource Recovery Collective – Hume.
The long-term contracts are for the collection, transportation and processing and disposal of co-mingled recycling, glass, food and garden organics and general waste.
Tenders were considered by a tender evaluation panel and recommendations made to council.
Representatives of local company Foott Waste Solutions were at the council meeting but declined to comment on whether they had tendered and council would not confirm which companies had tendered.
Cr Seema Abdullah told the meeting any delay in council making a decision would be a disservice to the Greater Shepparton community with current collection contracts expiring in October.
“Councillors were kept in the loop from the get-go,’’ she said.
“There were several opportunities, briefings, emails.
“If today we are not making a decision in support of the recommendation, this council is actually doing a disservice to our community.”
Cr Geoff Dobson spoke in support of the motion, but Cr Dinny Adem said he would like more time to make a decision and Cr Fern Summer spoke against it.
“I am objecting because I feel there are gaps in my knowledge … This is for 15 years, this is a substantial contract,’’ Cr Summer said.
“We really want to get it right and need time to consider it.”
Cr Sam Spinks backed the motion, though, saying the “rigour and the transparency and process” had been “as solid as anything else” the council had made decisions on.
“We approved this process,’’ Cr Spinks said.
“A huge amount of resources and people, who know exactly what they’re doing have taken part in this process.’’
Mayor Shane Sali suggested he could not support the motion while Crs Summer and Adem felt they did not have enough information on which to base a decision.
“It’s my responsibility to ensure that information is presented in a way that can allow you to make an informed decision,” he said.
The motion to award the contracts was lost, with only Crs Abdullah, Dobson and Spinks supporting it while Crs Adem, Summer, Sali, Greg James and Anthony Brophy did not.
After a short break to consider the legal implications of the vote and whether another could immediately be considered on the issue, Cr Brophy put forward an alternative approach.
He proposed that a decision on the recommendation be deferred to on or before April 17.
“This is a massive, massive contract, probably the biggest we’ll ever face,” he said.
“It is upwards of $75 million with a set of contracts tying council in at least for the next seven-and-a-half years plus perhaps seven-and-a-half further years.
“In effect 15 years we’re looking at, so it is a big contract.
“We don’t need to be hasty, but rather, we need to be comforted that all the Ts have been crossed and all the Is are dotted, therefore an additional period of time will hopefully provide councillors with that surety.”
The motion was carried, with only Cr Dobson voting against it.
10°C