City council approves new Rumpke contract, set to vote on 2025 budget at next meeting

Oxford has renewed its contract with Rumpke for trash and recycling collection, but the agreement excludes a suggestion from the city's environmental commission.

The contract passed unanimously during an Oxford City Council meeting Nov. 5. Mayor Bill Snavely was absent, and Vice Mayor Chantel Raghu led the meeting. Also during the meeting, city council approved updates to the city's employee handbook and heard first readings for Oxford's 2025 budget.

City agrees to new waste contract

Earlier in 2024, Service Director Mike Dreisbach put out a request for proposals (RFP) for the city's waste collection. The request included two new terms recommended by the Environmental Commission, which suggested adding both curbside pickup of compostable materials and a separate recycling category for cardboard only.

Only Rumpke, which Oxford currently contracts with, responded to the RFP. Dreisbach said the company was unable to offer curbside pickup of compostable materials because the nearest state-licensed facilities which provide food scraps composting are too far from Oxford to be cost-efficient, according to a staff report.

The agreement includes a two-year commitment from Rumpke with three options to extend for additional years, adding up to five years total. Dreisbach said segmenting the contract will save the city more than $400,000 compared to a simple five-year agreement. The staff report on the resolution specifies that monthly residential service charges will increase to $16.53, an 18.5% increase from current charges. Dreisbach said the trash fund is in a healthy place, and the city plans to absorb some of the increase with its excess funds so that residents only experience a 4% increase in costs.

The new contract provides financial incentives for property managers use recycling on their properties. The city will not charge administrative fees for recycling dumpsters, making it cheaper to recycle than to send waste to the landfill.

Enjoy Oxford funding could change

In response to a new agreement with Miami University requiring Oxford to commit at least $270,000 per year toward economic development projects, Assistant City Manager Jessica Greene introduced an ordinance to adjust the funding structure for Enjoy Oxford, the city's visitor's bureau.

Currently, Enjoy Oxford automatically receives 100% of the city's convention tax, but the ordinance would adjust that to "at least 50%," the state-required minimum, moving forward. The proposed city budget for 2025 includes $303,680 to Enjoy Oxford, and Greene said the city would increase funding by 4% each year as long as the amount didn't dip below the minimum.

Kim Daggy, executive director of Enjoy Oxford, said reducing funding for the bureau would be "counterproductive to achieving our long-term goals for the Oxford Tomorrow plan." She suggested looking at alternatives to meet the commitment required by the agreement with Miami and revisiting the city's agreement with Enjoy Oxford annually rather than passing a "permanent restriction."

Council member David Prytherch said Oxford's hotel industry is currently growing. He worried that capping Enjoy Oxford's funding might not equitably benefit the bureau for the growth in tourism and would introduce more uncertainty for Enjoy Oxford's own internal budget. Greene said the language of the ordinance is intentionally broad and to set a minimum for funding, not a cap. The ordinance requires a second reading before being voted on.

Handbook updated, city hears first reading for budget

Assistant City Manager Jessica Greene introduced a resolution to update Oxford's Employee Handbook for 2025. Many of the changes, she said, were suggested by the city's insurance company.

Among the updates, the city has added language about the use of artificial intelligence, updated its guidance on marijuana use following its legalization in Ohio and clarified the FMLA process for city employees. The 2025 Handbook will also include a new defamation policy, a new youth protection section, and new parking and gift policies.

The AI policy states that employees may use AI systems to create content to aid them in their work and improve efficiencies. Employees should "comply with relevant privacy laws and regulations," and the policy states that employees "must ensure that there is always a human review of AI-generated content before it is used and/or released." Council member Jason Bracken requested an addition to the policy to require employees to tell their supervisors when they use AI.

Finance Director Heidi Ridenour also introduced four ordinances regarding the city's 2025 budget, all of which will be voted on at the next city council meeting.

The ordinances introduced include two changes from a budget work session in October. First, Ridenour added an advance of more than $900,000 from the General Fund to the Capital Improvement Fund for electric vehicle charging stations in anticipation of a grant which OKI recently awarded to a city. The second change involved increasing a transfer of property tax levy money to fund the next phase of the Oxford Area Trail System.

"We realized that the OATS revenue fund had additional money in it that we could utilize to help balance the construction of the trail fund," Ridenour said. The proposed change would increase the transfer from $1.1 million to $1.445 million.

In addition to the budget ordinances, Greene also introduced a salary ordinance for 2025. Greene said the ordinance would add 11 full-time staff to the city's payroll, including eight for the Oxford Fire Department. The ordinance also includes three new part-time inspector positions, two of which will focus on fire inspections.

The city is recommending a 4% cost of living adjustment for 2025, as well.

All budget ordinances, as well as the salary ordinance, will be voted on during City Council's next meeting at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19. The meeting will be held in the Oxford Courthouse.