Tulsa Authority for Recovery of Energy (TARE) Board Meeting - April 28, 2026
Tulsa Authority for Recovery of Energy (TARE) Board Meeting - April 28, 2026
The Tulsa Authority for Recovery of Energy (TARE) Board met on April 28, 2026, to discuss routine consent items, staff reports, financial updates, intergovernmental agreements, and a refuse fee proposal for City Council. The meeting also included announcements about a community garden and the retirement of a long-serving board member and outside counsel.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes Approval: The board approved the minutes from the March 24, 2026 focused committee meeting and the March 31, 2026 poll board meeting by a motion and second. (No roll call vote recorded.)
Staff Reports and Updates
- Manager's Report: The manager reported that in March, no recycling carts were removed for contamination. The AEL (processing facility) experienced crane issues and planned outages, contributing to waste diversions. The twice-a-week refuse service lost 18 customers. At the mulch site, 2,731 Tulsa residents and 212 MOU customers visited, with 46 vehicles coming for firewood despite warm weather. Bulky waste tonnage increased by 40 tons year-over-year. Intergovernmental tonnage decreased by 77 tons from previous months, returning to normal levels. Illegal dumping was up 11 tons from last year, and 3.14 tons of dead animals were collected (city and county combined).
- Household Pollutant Collection Facility (HHP) Report: In March, 455 cars visited the HHP, collecting 39,248 pounds of pollutants (87 lbs per customer). The swap shop had 162 customers taking 593 items (1,662 pounds diverted). The facility operated one fewer day compared to March 2025, but numbers remain strong. Insulation installation is ongoing. In response to board questions, staff agreed to gather data on repeat versus one-time customers. Discussion included collaboration with neighborhood associations to inform renters, but the facility's permit restricts commercial waste; however, neighborhood cleanups with address lists have been accommodated in the past.
Monthly Financial Report (Ending March 31, 2026)
- Revenues: Total revenues of $31.9 million are at 77.41% of the annual estimate, ahead of the planned 74.58%. Charges for services totaled $31 million, approximately $793,000 over budget.
- Expenditures: Total expenditures of $39.3 million are at 83.18% of the annual estimate, slightly ahead of the projected 77.38%, partly due to encumbrances and commitments ($12.4 million). Actual expenses were $26.8 million.
- Year-End Process: The budget office has requested year-end reappropriation requests from departments to ensure funds for purchases not completed by fiscal year-end.
Intergovernmental Agreements
- County MOU for Data and Bulky Waste Pickup: The board voted to continue the Memorandum of Understanding with Tulsa County for data and bulky waste pickup. A motion to accept was made, seconded, and passed.
- Metropolitan Environmental Trust (MET) Second Joint Cooperative Agreement: The agreement requires signatures from the MET Council and board member Terry, which are not yet obtained. The board tabled the item to the May meeting. The current agreement does not require notification until April 30, so the delay is acceptable.
Refuse Collection Fees and Changes of Service
- The board reviewed the final version of the refuse fee proposal to be presented to the City Council on April 29, 2026, at 2:30 PM. Board members were invited to attend; some indicated they would be present.
Public Comments and Announcements
- A board member announced the completion of a community garden at 5101 East Pine Street, using mulch from the city's mulch site. The garden has 19 raised beds, seven fruit trees, and will receive two beehives next week. Donations of plants are welcome. The speaker thanked the board for the mulch.
- The board was informed of the full retirement of Steve Schuler, who served on the TARE board and as outside counsel for 15 years. The board expressed gratitude and planned a future dinner to honor him.
Key Outcomes
- Approved minutes from March 24 and March 31, 2026.
- Approved continuation of the county MOU for data and bulky waste pickup (motion passed).
- Tabled the MET joint cooperative agreement until the May meeting to obtain missing signatures.
- Noted the refuse fee proposal presentation to City Council on April 29, 2026.
- Next meeting: Tuesday, May 26, 2026, at 3:30 PM in conference room 10 North at City Hall, 175 East 2nd Street. The board chair will be absent.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. Welcome to the Telset Authority of Recovery Energy. We've got her 2428 here in North. I call this meeting for order. Hold well. Yes, here finally. Here. Forbes. Father you'll take here. Here. We'll call us established for item three minutes of meetings. A minutes of March 24th, 2026 focused committee meeting and B minutes of March 31st, 2026 poll board meetings. I have a motion to accept. Second. We gotta make one. Oh, make a motion to second. Thanks. I'm doing as well as I want. We'll have you through here. We'll make this in. It'll take you probably ten years. Anyway. All right, item four staff reports and updates. A manager's report first. Yes. Okay. Um residential refuses tracking the same cells our uh recycling. We removed zero carts for contamination in March. Um AEL. Uh the diversions, they've had several issues, or they've had crane issues. It was one crane, then it became two. Uh they got one back on, then it's kind of been bouncing back and forth. They've also had their planned outages at the same time, so that's that's part of the reason for the diversions there. Um we lost 18 customers in the twice-a-week service. Uh next one is the mulch site. Uh as you can see, and I kind of talked uh last month the same numbers. If when you look at the green waste frog end dropped off versus ground, because we're not bringing in quite the volume like we were when we were doing the commercial, so they're able to stockpile a lot more and then grind kind of all at once. So when you look at that bar graph, uh, even though it may seem like there was a lot more dropped off than ground, we're still keeping plenty ahead of what's coming in out there. As you can see, the mulch-site customers, it was 2,731 uh Tulsa residents and 212 MOU customers. Everything else is about the same. I was surprised that we had uh 46 vehicles for firewood because it's been pretty hot. Uh so that was interesting. And then the next page on the bulky waste tonnage, we're plus 40 tons compared to last year at this time. And then our intergovernmental, we're I know there for a few months we were kind of tracking pretty high over the the winter months, and that was like a lot of projects. I know like uh uh flow line was doing a lot of cleanup in our yards, water parts do a lot of cleanups. So if you look at this, uh the numbers for this month, we're actually down um 77 tons. So we're kind of tracking back down to where we typically usually hang out at. Um I just kind of pulled up some of the months of September, October, November, December, and January. They were all 100 plus ton days or 100 plus ton months, and I a lot of that was contributed just I guess a lot of yards cleaning out. Uh we were up 11 tons from last year at this time on a legal dumping.
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