Public Works and Utilities Committee Mon, Aug 3, 2026 ยท Public Works and Utilities Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/972-public-works-aug-3-2026 == Executive Summary == The Public Works and Utilities Committee held a meeting on 08/03/2026, where they recognized Thiago Torres da Silva as the Employee of the Month for July 2026, though he was unable to attend due to a water main break. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to a comprehensive presentation by Deborah Trujillo, Director of the Environmental Services Department, who provided an in-depth overview of the division's operations, including residential and commercial services, recycling efforts, and fleet maintenance. Committee members praised the Environmental Services team for their efficient work. The committee also approved the agenda and consent agenda unanimously. The Chair commended city staff and partners for the successful Back to School Bash event. There were no public comments during the designated period, but council members expressed appreciation for the Environmental Services Division's performance. == Key Decisions == - Approved the agenda unanimously. - Approved the consent agenda unanimously. == Public Comment == No public comment period. == Topics == - Environmental Services Operations - Waste Collection Services - Cart Repair and Replacement - Fleet Maintenance - Illegal Dumping - Employee Recognition - Special Assistance Collection - Large Item & Green Waste Pickup - Glass Recycling - Community Events == Full Transcript == Madam Chair, Councilor Travis, we are live. Thank you so much. I call to order the Public Works and Utilities Committee meeting. Today is Monday, August 3. It is 5:03. Could I get a roll call, please? Absolutely, Chair. Chair Chavez. Here. Councilor Barrett. Here. Councilor Bustamante. Here. Councilor Faulkner. Excused. And Councilor Figali. Here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Are there any changes to the agenda from staff? No changes from staff. I have a motion, please. To approve? Second. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none. Motion passes. Approval of the consent agenda. Was there anything removed? Chair, nothing was removed. Could I get a motion, please? Move to approve. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none. Motion passes. Next is public comment. Is there anyone in chambers that would like to come and address the committee today? Alright. No public comment today. Moving on to presentations. We have the best presentations in this committee. Our first one is Public Utilities Department Employee of the Month for July 2026. Thiago Torres da Silva, Utility Intermediate Operator, Water Division. Randy Lopez, Transmission and Distribution Manager, will be presenting this award. Good evening. I'm here on behalf of Thiago Silva for Employee of the Month, the month of July. Thiago is actually out working a water main break right now as we speak. Thiago demonstrates great leadership and is always willing to go the extra mile to get the job done while ensuring constituents are well taken care of. He is a tremendous asset to the Transmission and Distribution section. Thiago has also been with us about three years now, and he will be receiving a day of administrative leave. So that's where I'm going. I'm going from here to the job site. Yeah. So we need to hurry and excuse you. What I would say, I would maybe love to see Thiago on the agenda next meeting just so that we can thank him if he's available. Right. And thank you for being here. You have some work to do. So thank you for everything you all do. Really appreciate it. I know we get the text messages when you're dealing with those big issues, and you guys just do an amazing job. So appreciate it. Send our gratitude to Thiago as well. Okay? Thank you so much. Thank you. Next is presentation by the Environmental Services Division Director providing an overview of the division purpose, mission, and operations. We have Deborah Trujillo, Environmental Services Department Director, here for this presentation. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee. We prepared a little slideshow just to show you guys a day in the life of Environmental Services, what we do, our organization. Can we get this on the big screen? Okay. Sorry about that. Oh, Councilor Travis left. Go ahead. Okay. So, real quick, up on the screen right now is the org chart for Environmental Services, which consists of about 67 employees. We have 21, let me start again. We have four different sections. We have an administrative and customer. Okay. It's still, excuse me, Michael. It's now it's flashing on the screen. Okay. Okay. I'll be fast. Okay. So, Environmental Services consists of about 67 employees. We have four different sections. We have an admin and customer service section, which also consists of our mechanic section. We have a commercial, which collects all the commercial dumpsters around town. We have a residential recycling, which is also combined with commercial recycling. And then we have our residential refuse. Residential services, our operations are Monday through Thursday. We do weekly curbside collection with city-issued carts. We issue one 96-gallon green trash cart and one 64, that's not my slide. Okay. Yes, it is. Okay. One 64-gallon blue recycling cart. Cost residents can request an additional cart for $12 more a month. They can request any recycling carts at no additional charge. We average about 16,000 to 18,000 cart tips per day. That's 16 routes for residential trash and recycling. We have a process that if residentials have a misservice, they're able to call in or email us or go through our Recycle Coach app. As long as the cart is out by 7:00 AM, it's not blocked with overflowing or doesn't contain unacceptable items, a misservice request can be requested. If a customer, if it's at the customer's fault, you can call in, but we do document in our Rubicon that you don't have your car out. So we do our best to schedule in for a missed collection on Fridays. Missed services can be requested by calling our 955-2000 number or emailing esd@santafenm.gov. If you see below, there's some pictures of some items that aren't accepted, overfilling carts, illegal items in the carts, green waste. If your lid doesn't close, we try, you know, let you know that your lid has to close. We do collect during inclement weather all the time. If there's any reason where we're not collecting, we will send a note out on our website. We will have it on our Recycle Coach app, but we're always collecting no matter what. You'll see the $23.10 on your monthly bill. It's billed monthly on your utility bill. If you do have the $12 additional cart fee, it's on the bill also. We do have a special assistance collection route. This is for the elderly or the mobility-restricted residents. We do require that they fill out some paperwork from their doctor. What this is is that we have this little special truck. We have four of them actually that go out into the people's property, and they are able to go in and get their carts, and they take it to the truck and dump it themselves. So we offer that service. Majority of our calls are either for missed trash or recycling collections or cart repair and replacement. So what they have to do is we have, again, they just email us. They call us. They get on the Recycle Coach app. If the cart is unrepairable, we replace it at no charge if it's no fault of the resident. If they do put fireworks in there, burning ash, it is at the resident's fault. We do charge a $60 cart replacement fee. ESD has its own fleet maintenance section. So we have a section that repairs all of our 72 large trucks, which include the front load, rear load, large item trucks, all of our large item trucks, plus the administrative and supervisor's vehicles. So we have our own one-bay mechanic shop that services all these vehicles. If you see down there, there's our mechanics. That's our one bay in the middle picture of where they do all their work. Commercial services are available Monday through Saturday for carts, rear loads, front loads, and roll-offs. Commercial trash and recycling service guidelines apply. Usually, with our commercial accounts, they have to have an enclosure that meets specs, so it has to be a 12 by 12 enclosure. If they have a double, it has to be a 24 by 12. There is some service guidelines that they have to complete a deposit that they have to fill out. We also offer large item and green waste pickups. That happens twice a week. This is fee-based. You're able to get up to eight cubic yards for $50, and this is also billed on your utility bill. We charge $10 for any additional. This is a picture of our brand new large item truck we just got in a few months ago. So now we have two that do these services. Right here is our recycling drop-off center. So we have two recycling drop-off centers for residents. We don't offer this for commercial accounts. Commercial accounts can go out to Burt and do their recycling efforts there. The first two pictures, as you can see, are a lot of illegal dumping. We recently, this past fiscal year, FY26, we had some monies, and we were able to put up some gates. So now we are monitoring the gates open and close. We have hours for each drop-off location, and it has reduced tremendously the amount of illegal dumping that's been going on. Recently, we started compiling some information about how much recycling and trash are going into the landfill. So if you look here, this is just for the month of June. On the left-hand side is the tons collected per day. Those are the days below. And this one is a bigger picture of it. This is from all the way when we started collecting the data of July 2025 to recently. So if you see right there, recycling represents about 11% of the total almost every month of collected. Other than that, I stand for any questions. Okay. Does the committee have any questions, comments? I'm sorry. Sure. I have a quick question about glass recycling. Do we ever used to do glass curbside? We used to. Many years ago, we used to do curbside glass, but now we don't. We offer it at our recycling drop-off centers, or you can also take it to Burt. Right. Okay. I don't know if there's ever a thought again about maybe bringing that back curbside or no. Just throwing it out there. I don't know what you want to say. I, yeah. Did you want to? Yeah. I just wanted to say something really quick. You know, I can, I recognize what a large and complicated operation it is, and I'm always impressed how, as far as I can tell, there are never any issues in my neighborhood. Your trucks are always there at the same time. They never run me over when I'm walking my dogs. And, like, you always, I'm impressed with how well such a large and far-reaching operation is run by you guys. Yeah. Kudos. Thank you. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. I'm always very impressed. Usually, I'm the problem because I'm, like, running out my door in my pajamas, and they, like, slow down to make sure that I make it. Usually, I'm the problem if it's missed. No. But it's really fascinating. I don't think people understand it. My kids are becoming more observant now. Like, when we're, like, walking or we're driving around and they see trash is out, and they're like, why is it out? Because they're used to our day's Wednesday. Uh-huh. And I was like, no. They do it for the whole city. Like, these, and they're, it's, like, just amazing. I don't think people get the magnitude of the operation. And then when you do have issues, you are so responsive. So I just, yeah. I can't say enough of positive things about it. I am curious, though, in regards to the one bay, is that sufficient for your mechanics in maintaining these trucks? Because they're just running constantly. Oh, absolutely not. No. No. No. It's not. Okay. Being honest. Yeah. We are in the process of the new ESD operations building, and they'll have a six-bay mechanic shop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Well, that's great news. I was just wondering. Like, the amount of wear and tear on these trucks with all the work they're doing, I could just imagine the need. Oh, yes. Well, please send to the team just how amazing we think their work is. And we get, we don't get it because we're not doing it, but we get it. Just the magnitude of the job and role and the impact they have is huge. So thank you. I'll let them know. Thank you. Alright. Next is matters from staff. No matters from Public Works, Chair. No matters from Public Utilities, Chair. Thank you. Matters from the committee. Alright. Matters from Chair. I do want to shout out the Back to School Bash. I was only there before it started. I was trying to be helpful, but that was just in the way, I felt like. Because they just had a system in place. They're getting things done. But to all the city staff that helped put that together, Councilor Faulkner, Roland Jones, JP Granio, just all the partners, donors, everyone, it's a great event. It's really helpful to families, and they do these types of events twice a year. We have this one, and then we have the La Posada, which is just really giving to the community. So shout out to Councilor Faulkner and her team, Roland and JP, for putting those on. And with that, we are adjourned until next meeting, which is Monday, August 17.