The city of Naples has ratified its contract with AFSCME union employees, providing raises over three years for 254 blue- and white-collar employees.

City Council unanimously approved the three-year contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council No. 79, Local 2017, after its one-year extension expired Sept. 30 of last year. The new contract is retroactive to Oct. 1, continues through Sept. 30, 2027, and includes public service and administrative workers, clerks and billing, telecommunications and utilities employees.

AFSCME employees work in all departments, except administrative offices for the city manager, city attorney and human resources.

“This is an important day,” City Manager Gary Young said before the vote. “It’s one of three [contracts] we hope to be completing soon … This is a monumental step in caring for our employees.”

The raises were planned since the city analyzed pay rates 15-17 months ago and Council approved percentage- and lump-sum increases mid-contract, he said, adding, “With the inflation that everyone is facing, there was an immediate need.”

The bargaining unit unanimously ratified the contract Feb. 27, City HR Director Charlotte Loewel told Council. City officials are still negotiating police and fire contracts. Young made it a goal when he was sworn in Feb. 1 to ratify all three within 90 days and was on the negotiating team. Naples has 492 active employees and about 50 temporary or seasonal workers, including police and fire-rescue personnel.

Under the contract, all AFSCME classifications will be moved to a new pay and classification system based on the salary survey and receive an average 13.3% increase, or move to the minimum of their new pay range. On Oct. 1, pay grade minimums and maximums will increase 4%, with possible further increases on April 1 of next year, and employees will receive the same increases in those months during 2026. Changes also were made to the retirement plan.

Utility maintenance, stormwater, wastewater collections, water treatment and water production subdivision employees will receive a $3,000 yearly hazard-pay stipend, paid bi-weekly at $115.38, and water plant and wastewater plant operator employees will receive $0.70 more on top of their hourly pay for working a second shift and $1.10 for the third shift.

An estimated 75% of Collier County’s solid waste is being recycled, but the county landfill is expected to hit capacity in 2059, so county leaders are seeking a long-term trash solution.

The Board of County Commissioners heard recommendations by SCS Engineers, a California- based environmental consultant, during its March 4 workshop, and agreed to consider landfill options on land it owns in southern and northern areas of the county.

“We already own the land to the south, we already own the land to the north, so those are the most cost-feasible places that I think we should focus our energies on right now,” Commissioner Bill McDaniel Jr. said.

Commissioners also asked staff to continue researching other landfill options, including bioreactors, which use liquids and air to speed waste breakdown, stabilize it and reduce needed space. Currently, they’re not allowed at the landfill. Commissioner Rick LoCastro recommended not ruling out any options and to analyze the east, north and south.

Collier County’s landfill, which opened in 1976, is located at 3730 White Lake Blvd. in East Naples and totals 311 acres, but only 184 are being used to handle waste from unincorporated Collier and incorporated cities. A 120-acre landfill in Immokalee, which reached capacity in 2003, operates as a transfer station, temporarily storing and consolidating waste that’s transported outside the county. The county also operates five recycling centers.

Collier considered expanding landfills in 1998 to 1999, but after three properties were considered, it was sued and instead opted to increase recycling efforts and to maximize existing sites.

Last year, 106,000 customers with 493,000 tons of garbage were served countywide, with 291,000 tons going to the landfill, bringing in $30 million in revenue, according to a report written by Public Utilities Director George Yilmaz, Solid Waste Director Kari Ann Hodgson and SCS Engineers. Collier achieved the statewide goal of 75% recycling based on weight in 2021, a year after the 2020 target, then hit 78% two years later. Only three Florida counties have reached the goal.

If Collier considers out-of-county disposal, the closest private landfill is 2.5 hours away, which would increase costs 135% or possibly 200% in less than a decade, Daniel Dietch, of SCS Engineers, told commissioners. That would cause a “significant traffic impact,” with about 50 tractor-trailers hauling waste out of the county daily, he said, calling that option cost-prohibitive.

Other options are building a new landfill; technology conversion such as waste-to-energy, which the county considered several times; landfill reclamation, which Collier did twice; or expanding the unlined Immokalee landfill, possibly with land purchases — an option that would help the county’s continued eastern development while reducing environmental liability. Dietch estimated an eastern expansion would last 15 generations, 300 years of capacity.

Reclamation is the process of excavating and reprocessing waste from a closed landfill to recover valuable materials including metals, plastics and glass, reduce the overall waste volume and potentially repurpose the land for other uses, essentially extending the lifespan of the landfill site while mitigating environmental effects.

CSAB’s Foster receives Sam Noe Award

Anne Foster, who served on Naples’ Community Services Advisory Board from 2015 through 2024, has been awarded for her years of service as the city’s 2025 Sam Noe Award winner.

City Council member Linda Penniman, who nominated her, cited Foster’s work helping to improve Charles B. Anthony Park, and noted that under her leadership, CSAB began holding meetings in various neighborhoods to gather input on how to improve them.

“It was immensely successful and as a result, some neighborhoods began to focus on their entry ways, with plans … to make them more appealing, most especially with proper plantings and signage,” Penniman wrote.

She noted Foster also worked with the city and Conservancy of Southwest Florida to halt fishing one day weekly to protect pelicans. “There was too much competition from the Pier for the pelicans to be able to feed,” Penniman said.

The other nominee, former Planning Advisory Board member Fredric “Ric” Phillips, said he was grateful that Council member Ray Christman nominated him but withdrew from consideration and asked Council to unanimously vote for Foster.

“I cannot imagine a more deserving person to receive this award than my good friend, Anne Foster,” Phillips said in an email to City Clerk Patricia Rambosk. “Her service to the city exemplifies what this award is intended to honor.”

City Council established the annual Sam Noe Award in October 2006 to honor the certified planner’s service to the city. Noe, who served on the Planning Advisory Board from 2002 to 2006, was a strong supporter of community revitalization and historic preservation. He became an advocate “for master planning the city’s gateway” at the Gordon River and worked on legislation to save historic structures.

Past winners include the late Willie Anthony, an activist who worked to improve River Park; Lodge McKee, who ensured the George Washington Carver Apartments remained subsidized housing and was the city’s longest-serving board member at 35 years; and Design Review Board Chair Steve Hruby, an architect who has guided the DRB since 2014.