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DATE: |
December 10, 2024 |
04 |
SUBJECT
Title
SHERIFF - REQUEST FOR SINGLE SOURCE PROCUREMENT OF ON-SITE NARCOTICS DESTRUCTION SERVICES FROM GAIACA WASTE REVITALIZATION (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office requires narcotics disposal services to destroy harmful narcotics properly and safely while ensuring they do not return to our communities. On average, the Sheriff’s Property and Evidence Unit disposes of an estimated 15 tons of various drugs annually by taking seized narcotics to a designated Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) approved facility. This includes drugs like marijuana, heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and prescription medications. Unfortunately, the last remaining physical disposal site, Covanta Waste-to-Energy site, located in Modesto CA, is scheduled to shut down by the end of the year. This leaves the Sheriff's Office with no other in-state, DEA-approved physical site alternatives. The Sheriff's Office must now utilize a vendor capable of providing a mobile, DEA-approved narcotics destruction on-site solution.
Today’s action requests the Board of Supervisors (Board) to approve a single source procurement based on services from a provider with unique knowledge, skill, or ability not available from other sources. GAIACA Waste Revitalization (GAIACA) is the only company registered in California with the DEA as a Reverse-Distributor with mobile on-site narcotics destruction capabilities that also holds Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) certifications, ensuring narcotics are destroyed safely while complying with DEA guidelines.
RECOMMENDATION
SHERIFF
In accordance with Board Policy A-87, Competitive Procurement, approve and authorize the Director, Department of Purchasing and Contracting to enter into negotiations with GAIACA Waste Revitalization and subject to successful negotiations and determination of a fair and reasonable price, award a contract for on-site narcotics destruction services for one year with up to four option periods and an additional six months if needed, and to amend the contracts as needed to reflect changes to requirements and funding, subject to the approval of the Sheriff.
EQUITY IMPACT STATEMENT
The Sheriff’s Office provides a critical public service to our communities by collecting surrendered pharmaceuticals and seizing illicit narcotics through criminal investigations. This service protects the health and safety of communities across San Diego County. As part of this responsibility, the Sheriff’s Office must also continue to ensure the destruction of narcotics, whether seized or surrendered by the public, especially since storing the narcotics is not sustainable. This is a partnership with our communities and those we serve by providing access to safe, secure, and anonymous disposing services when volunteering to surrender their pharmaceuticals and narcotics in Sheriff dropbox containers. This service ultimately benefits the County as a whole, ensuring that these narcotics don't return back into the community, regardless of specific community or population trends. Seeking single source procurement of on-site services is the most efficient method for narcotics destruction. It will help to allow for the continued collection of pharmaceuticals from the public as well as seizing illicit narcotics and reducing harm to our communities.
SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT STATEMENT
Seeking to contract with and use the services of GAIACA Waste Revitalization fully supports the County’s Sustainability goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing just and equitable access to County services in support of our communities. The narcotics in the Sheriff’s Office possession is in excess of double-digit tonnage. Eliminating the transportation of tons of narcotics over a hundred miles greatly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and brings efficiency to operations by limiting the staff required to ensure the safe delivery of the narcotics to the destruction site. Contracting with an onsite narcotics destruction service supports the County’s economic and environmental sustainability goals.
FISCAL IMPACT
Funds for this request are included in the Fiscal Year 2024-25 Operational Plan for the Sheriff’s Office. If approved, this request will result in current year costs of $300,000. The funding source is existing General Purpose Revenue in the Sheriff’s Office. If option years are exercised, funds for these services will be included in future years Operational Plans for the Sheriff’s Office. There will be no change in net General Fund cost and no additional staff years.
BUSINESS IMPACT STATEMENT
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Details
ADVISORY BOARD STATEMENT
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BACKGROUND
The California Department of Justice (CAL-DOJ) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) previously had an agreement with Covanta Environmental Solutions (Covanta), formally known as Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF), for narcotics disposal services covering all California law enforcement agencies. In conjunction with the DEA, the Sheriff’s Office often utilized Covanta for narcotics destruction. However, in May 2016, the DEA made it the responsibility of local law enforcement agencies to dispose of their own seized narcotics. As a result, the Sheriff’s Office has since been responsible for transporting by vehicle their own narcotics for disposal and covering the costs for these services. Each drug disposal run requires an escort from the Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Detail to ensure the carrier vehicle makes it to the disposal site safely.
On average, the Sheriff’s Property and Evidence Unit disposes of an estimated 15 tons of various drugs annually. This includes seized drugs like marijuana, heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and surrendered prescription medications from collection boxes throughout San Diego County. Due to the past closure of the Covanta waste-to-energy facility in Long Beach, California, the last remaining Covanta facility in California is located in Crows Landing, southwest of Modesto.
Unfortunately, the Crows Landing waste-to-energy facility will be shut down effective December 2024, leaving the Sheriff’s Office without a physical disposal site to destroy narcotics in-state. The Crows Landing site is a waste-to-energy facility that most southern law enforcement agencies utilize for narcotics destruction services. All law enforcement agencies were required to transport their narcotics to these physical sites for destruction. But with its pending closure, and in an effort to retain critical staff within the County, a mobile on-site destruction option was evaluated and found available through GAIACA Waste Revitalization (GAIACA) on-site destruction services. This option would benefit the Sheriff’s Office to ensure uninterrupted narcotics destruction services.
This procurement qualifies as a single source under Board Policy A-87 Competitive Procurement, Section 1D-3: The procurement is for services from a provider with unique knowledge, skill, or ability not available from other sources. GAIACA is the only company in California registered with the DEA as a Reverse-Distributor with physical on-site narcotics destruction capabilities utilizing NarcX Solutions products. GAIACA is also the only DEA-registered company in California that holds employee Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) certifications to destroy narcotics safely, while also providing Third-Party Witnessed destructions, and recordings of destruction activities, via personnel Axon body cameras. GAIACA is located in Gonzales, California, making it ideal for coordinating large scale on-site destruction efforts since they are closer than an out-of-state vendor. The vendor is able to send disposal trucks on-site to perform destruction services and then haul away destroyed narcotics on the same day.
NarcX Solutions is the first and only independently validated and patented solution for on-site narcotics destruction that renders drugs and liquids non-retrievable within a two-hour period. NarcX is also the only on-site destruction method that is in strict accordance with DEA policy and guidelines and has been proven to destroy fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and opioids into a sustainable and bio-degradable solution that is safe for the environment. NarcX is also the only known solution that can destroy liquid forms of narcotics.
The Sheriff’s Office requests the Board’s approval and authorization to enter into negotiations with GAIACA Waste Revitalization for a single source procurement based on services from a provider with unique knowledge, skill, or ability not available from other sources.
LINKAGE TO THE COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO STRATEGIC PLAN
Today’s proposed action supports the Community, Sustainability, and Equity Strategic Initiatives of the County of San Diego’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan by ensuring the destruction of narcotics through a Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) certified destruction services company, thus preventing harmful substances from re-entering our communities. Having narcotics destruction services on-site also reduces carbon waste since long distance transportation of the narcotics will no longer occur.
Respectfully submitted,
KELLY A. MARTINEZ
Sheriff
ATTACHMENT(S)
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