Last week, a King County Superior Court judge quashed a temporary restraining order that prevented the Sammamish City Council from entering a solid waste contract with Republic Services Dec. 1.

Waste Management, claiming city staff wrongly dismissed its bid for services, took legal action Dec. 1 putting the city’s 2017-2025 solid waste contract on hold.

Waste Management does not intend to appeal Judge Mary Roberts’ Dec. 22 decision, Waste Management spokeswoman Robin Freedman said in an email Wednesday.

“(Waste Management) wanted the City to take a pause, that’s all,” Freedman wrote. “WM pursued a legal remedy because we believe City Staff erroneously and arbitrarily disqualified WM from the process.”

Waste Management and Republic Services were the only companies to submit a bid for services to the city in fall 2015. Waste Management’s bid seemed the lower option, but Sammamish staff claimed the service provider altered city forms and therefore underrepresented its bid price by more than $180,000. This alleged math error made Waste Management’s bid the most expensive option.

Sammamish staff ruled out Waste Management’s bid as “non-responsive” and recommend the City Council award the contract to Republic Services Dec. 1.

Waste Management disagrees, asserting it would save Sammamish rate payers nearly $6 million over the nine-year contract, Freedman said.

“Waste Management is the lowest bidder. The process does not bind the counsel,” she wrote. “WM urges the City Council to re-examine the process, its outcome, and the various options for moving forward. Choosing process over price makes no sense for the residents of Sammamish.”

The city’s 2017-2025 contract aims to unify the city’s solid waste services with one provider. Currently, two companies provide waste and recycling services: Republic Services and Waste Management.

Both providers would need a year prior to the Jan. 1, 2017, implementation date to prepare, according to the city.

Deputy City Manager Lyman Howard wrote that either service provider would “require one full year … in order to mobilize and develop the necessary infrastructure, including purchasing trucks and equipment; retaining labor; developing schedules and routes; and conducting community outreach and education to perform under the contract,” according to court documents.

“The one-year window prior to January 1, 2017 is quickly closing, and unless the City is able to execute a contract for these solid waste services as soon as possible, the City and its chosen service provider will be unable to adequately prepare to meet the needs of the City’s residents,” Howard wrote. “Accordingly, it is imperative that the City award the contract at its meeting on January 5, 2016.”

The Sammamish city staff are expected to recommend Republic Services as the city’s next trash and recycling service provider when the City Council revisits the matter at the Jan. 5 regular meeting, City Communications Director Tim Larson said in an email.

“City management has determined that Waste Management’s bid was nonresponsive in that Waste Management failed to comply with the city’s instructions for submitting bids for solid waste handling services,” he wrote. “City management accordingly intends to recommend that the bid be awarded to Republic Services. The final decision regarding the award of the contract remains up to the City Council.”

Per the Dec. 22 court ruling which also requires Waste Management to reimburse the city’s attorney fees, the city of Sammamish seeks relief for nearly $22,400. This is currently in litigation.