New Hanover County Manager Chris Coudriet is asking commissioners to delay their vote on a preferred vendor to manage solid waste disposal, since a new option was recently submitted.

He made the request in a memo to the board on Wednesday.

Originally, the matter was on the commissioners’ March 24 meeting agenda.

The board was scheduled to consider a recommendation of vendor from Coudriet, after he and county staff reviewed two formal submissions to the county’s request for proposal (RFP) – one from Waste Management and one from Waste Industries – to handle the disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW), hazardous waste and construction and demolition materials, as well as the transport of recycled materials dropped off at the county’s convenience sites and the treatment of substances leached from the landfill.

After receiving another proposal from Waste Industries – a proposal the company terms Alternate W, Coudriet is recommending that the board instead hold a work session after its regular April 21 meeting to learn more about the new option.

Alternate W proposes a lower fee than the one in Waste Industries’ formal submission.

In an interview Friday, Coudriet said the initial proposal document lacked specificity.

“There’s no clarity within our own staff of what actually is contained within Alternate W: what level of service, what guarantees, what insurance parameters,” he said. “We are clear on what’s in the formal responses from Waste Industries and Waste Management. The board, before making a decision, should have clarity. I have asked for a public work session [to review] both formal submissions as well as Alternate W.”

In his memo to the commissioners, Coudriet said that he chose the April date to allow time for county staffers and Waste Industries officials to flesh out the details in the latest proposal.

“I have asked your legal counsel and Waste Industries legal counsel to reach consensus on what is in the Alternate W proposal, including a risk profile,” Coudriet wrote. “Based on that outcome, I have notified Lisa Wurtzbacher, the county’s finance director who holds a CPA that she and her deputy, who also holds a CPA, are to verify the cost side of Alternate W.  Lisa will then present that analysis to Avril Pinder, a CPA, and Beth Schrader, an MBA-engineer, to concur, or not, with the numbers.  If the board finds comfort of another engineer certifying any service aspect of Alternate W, we will include Jim Iannucci, the county’s engineer that holds a PE, in the review.”

Coudriet said Friday that the work session would enable the board to learn the details of the proposal, and to better determine the fee level a vendor would need to charge to carry out the terms of the RFP. He emphasized that the RFP addresses disposal services only.

Regardless of the vendor chosen, Coudriet said residents of the county’s unincorporated areas will still be able to choose their own provider of pickup services for solid waste and recycling. He added that the level of resident participation in recycling at the county’s convenience sites has increased 40 percent in the current fiscal year.