FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A private company could take over the city’s garbage and recycling services as early as Aug. 1, with about 12 municipal employees losing their jobs if that happens, according to members of the Public Works Study Group, which met Thursday.

“It’s about saving money and promoting more efficiency in city government,” said Councilwoman Debbie Quinn, who attended the Thursday meeting. “A lot more cities are going to public-private partnerships like this.”

Efforts will be made to rehire any employees who lose their jobs when openings in the city occur, she said.

The current city-run system could also remain in place if a satisfactory bid is not received, Mayor Tim Kant said after the meeting.

Bids will be accepted starting Monday with a pre-meeting of current bidders scheduled for May 21, according to city staff. The deadline for bid proposals is June 10 with City Council action set for July 12.

Kant said Fairhope currently provides garbage service to about 7,400 residential customers within the city limits, and has done so since 1990, when the city took over garbage collection and disposal from a private contractor.

The city’s public works department will also submit its own bid to continue handling garbage and recycling services for Fairhope, he said.

“It will be in a sealed bid,” Kant said. “I understand the county is also going to submit.”

Quinn was surprised to learn the city would be submitting its own proposal for the work.

“You mean they’re going to bid against the other companies?” she said. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

Kant said that such a procedure was followed in 1990, when the city took over garbage collection.

“The city is going to give us a price,” he said, referring to the bid to be filed by the public works department. “It’s good sometimes to challenge departments by showing that private business can also do such work.”

The study group began meeting in January to discuss whether it made financial sense for the city to outsource garbage collection, including a possible change to once-a-week service.

The council recently approved soliciting bids for the work, and the study group met this week to finalize the terms of the “request for proposal,” which is expected to be published Monday and posted on the city’s Web site at that time.

Regardless of whether the city’s garbage and recycling system does changes hands, the city will continue to provide trash collection services, which employees five people, said Public Works Director Jennifer Fidler.

Currently, six employees work in solid waste garbage collection, four in recycling and two in related jobs. It is those 12 employees who could lose their jobs if a private company is awarded the contract, Fidler said.

One provision in the RFP does require bidders to describe in detail how the company would assist employees to continue their careers in solid waste in the Fairhope area, including hiring those employees.

”I think that consideration should weigh heavily in the decision on which bidder gets the contract,” said Assistant Public Works Director Ken Eslava.

Other than members of the study group and city staff, the only person attending the May 6 public meeting was Seren Ainsworth, municipal services manager of Republic Services Allied Waste, who said his company provides garbage and recycling services to Orange Beach and other cities in the area.

“The mayor asked me to be here,” Ainsworth said.