In March, the City of McCall quietly revealed that an effort it began nearly a year ago to revamp trash collection services in the city had been stopped.
The revelation came in a monthly department report by Community and Economic Development Director Michelle Groenevelt. McCall City Council member Julie Thrower briefly commented on the decision, and then the council moved on.
Groenevelt’s report said the city’s request for proposals was repealed “based on a determination of the existing contract with Lake Shore Disposal that expires in 2028.”
Valley Lookout published a short story about the repeal in our March 19 newsletter, but sought further clarity through records obtained under the Idaho Public Records Act, as well as additional research.
The records include a series of emails and voicemails between city staff, Republic Services, and Lake Shore, the city’s current contract waste management company.
Request for proposals issued
The city formally issued its request for proposals last June. The request outlined a variety of services and standards the city wants from a provider, including curbside recycling and compost collection for more than 4,000 homes and businesses in the city.
Lake Shore, a subsidiary of Texas-based Waste Connections, was aware of the city’s intent to seek competing proposals. In late 2023, the company participated in meetings in which the city council announced its desire to explore alternatives.
“I think we kind of owe it to the community,” Thrower said during an Aug. 24, 2023, meeting that Lake Shore representatives attended. “There would be a lot more trust in the whole process and who we choose, whether it’s Lake Shore or somebody else.”
Lake Shore signed a 10-year contract with McCall in 2013 that prevents any other company from conducting commercial trash removal in the city. The company holds similar contracts with Valley County and the cities of Cascade, Donnelly, and New Meadows.
In recent years, however, McCall residents have come to “mistrust” Lake Shore, according to focus group sessions led by the city in 2023.
At the same time, city council members have urged the need for curbside compost and recycling collection services. Multiple efforts to implement curbside recycling under Lake Shore have stalled over the last decade.
Two companies interested
Shortly after the city issued its request, Groenevelt began communicating with Lake Shore District Manager Mark Fulwiler and Rachele Klein, business development manager for Republic Services, a Phoenix-based waste management corporation that serves the Treasure Valley.
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Fulwiler and Klein both sought deadline extensions to fine-tune proposals from each company—a request the city granted multiple times. Eventually, the deadline was extended from Aug. 9 into February.
Fulwiler explained that Lake Shore needed more time to determine how compost and recyclables might be processed at the Valley County Transfer Site, which the company operates in partnership with the county.
Meanwhile, Klein told Groenevelt that Republic Services was considering a partnership with Green Mountain Technologies, a Washington company that develops composting solutions.
Green Mountain installed a compost unit at the University of Idaho last summer and Klein hoped to spend more time studying the system before building a proposal for McCall around it.
“We would like to vet the technology before incorporating it into a proposal,” Klein said in an email to Groenevelt.
Contractual questions raised
While both companies appeared committed to submitting proposals in line with the city’s request, something changed in the weeks leading up to the February deadline.
On Jan. 30, Fulwiler raised questions to city officials about the city’s current contract with Lake Shore.
Since 2023, the city believed the contract was renewed annually following the expiration of the initial 10-year term.
But Fulwiler pointed to an amendment of the contract that was made shortly after it was first agreed upon in 2013. The amendment provided that the contract would be renewed for five years following the 10-year term unless the city decided to cancel the contract.
The new five-year term began July 1, 2023, extending Lake Shore’s exclusive right to provide trash collection services in McCall through June 30, 2028, under the contract.
“Do you have time today to give me a call?” Fulwiler said in a Feb. 18 email to Groenevelt. “Wanted to catch up on where we are at with the contract questions we raised last week while you were out of the office.”
One day later, Groenevelt sent an email notifying Lake Shore that the request for proposals was being repealed.
The decision to repeal the request was made at the advice of the city’s contract attorneys, Groenevelt told Valley Lookout. The city plans to issue the request for proposals again in 2026.
Fulwiler’s initial communications to the city regarding the contract renewal mix-up were not included in the records provided to Valley Lookout. Some records were not released due to “privileged attorney-client information,” City Clerk Bessie Jo Wagner said.
Fulwiler and Klein did not respond to requests for comment by Valley Lookout.
Why was the contract amended in 2013?
The 2013 amendment to Lake Shore’s contract followed public opposition to language that forbade any other company from hauling construction waste from job sites.
Lake Shore agreed to change the language, but in doing so, changed the initial renewal terms from being annually to the five-year term.
The request for proposals issued by the city last June includes a clause exempting construction waste from any exclusive contract agreed to by the city.
