Solid Waste Consultants to Local Government
Before we share what we do, please let us tell you what we don’t do. What we don’t do is play both sides of the game. We are totally transparent about our lack of conflicts of interest. Here is what we mean. You can count on us to provide services exclusively to local government agencies. Period. We do not engage with private waste collection or landfill companies as clients. We serve only local jurisdictions to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.
MSW Consultants is a sole proprietorship management consulting firm that provides advisory services to local governments in the field of solid waste management.
We conduct cost of service and rate studies for municipal solid waste service providers. We assist cities in procuring and negotiating solid waste franchise agreements.
We work hard for the interests of our clients. At the same time, we strive to understand the perspective of all project stakeholders (waste haulers, etc.) to foster constructive and fruitful business relationships.
MSW Consultants was founded by David L. Davis, CMA. Prior to establishing the firm, Mr. Davis served as a division controller for Waste Management, Inc., worked as an accounting manager for Riverside Public Utilities, and was a Senior Associate with Hilton Farnkopf & Hobson (now HF&H Consultants). Since establishing the firm in 2000, Mr. Davis has provided a broad range of solid waste consulting services to local jurisdictions in the areas of rate setting, service procurement, regulatory compliance, waste diversion, facility feasibility analysis, and operational assessment.
President, MSW Consultants
David Davis – Mr. David Davis is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) with over 30 years of experience in the field of solid waste management. Mr. Davis’s expertise lies in working with municipal managers to maximize the value of the solid waste services provided to their ratepayers. He has held executive management positions in both the private and public sectors and has extensive experience in providing business advisory services to local government in the field of solid waste management.
As a chief financial executive for local hauling and landfill divisions of a national solid waste management company, Mr. Davis was responsible for financial reporting, budgeting, cost analysis, billing, and collections. He also managed the accounting and rate analysis sections of the City of Riverside’s Department of Public Utilities.
Mr. Davis has specific experience in: 1) analysis and design of customer rates for refuse collection, transfer, processing and disposal operations; 2) development and evaluation of competitive proposals for waste collection, recycling, and transfer service; 3) feasibility studies for waste processing, waste transfer, and landfill gas projects; 4) verification of the proper payment of solid waste fees; 5) management reviews of solid waste operations; 6) evaluation of alternative waste diversion programs; 7) solid waste program planning and funding; and, 8) evaluating internal management controls.
Senior Consultant
Craig Stroud – Mr. Stroud is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and operational analyst with over 28 years of experience revamping the operations of companies. He is very familiar with working with current solid waste regulations. Mr. Stroud took this experience and was the architect of the early Minerva recycling compliance platform which uses hauler data with codified thresholds and internal algorithms to provide CalRecycle responsive reporting calculations. He has extensive experience defining and interpreting regulations for software platforms. Mr. Stroud currently performs sales, marketing and relationship management and oversees the Minerva product.
Mr. Stroud has been with MSW Consultants since February 2017. Since that time, Mr. Stroud has performed regulatory and financial audits of over 15 waste haulers as well as providing rate modeling analysis using hauler provided data. In that time, he has brought on board the Counties of San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Fresno and Merced, and the cities of Whittier, Placentia, Rancho Palos Verdes, La Habra, Lomita, Lynwood, Orange, and Stanton, many of which have open competition hauler relationships.
Mr. Stroud is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He graduated from California Polytechnical State University, San Luis Obispo with a BS in Business management, with a focus on accounting. He earned his CPA while employed as an auditor with the national CPA firm Ernest & Young.
Project Manager
Chen Newman – Ms. Newman is a skilled accountant and financial analyst with several years of experience in retail, banking, and local government. She has been responsible for analyzing the budgets of special municipal districts to ensure that they meet their debt service coverage ratios and comply with their reserve requirements. She has been responsible for budgeting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, monthly close, and management reporting. She is highly skilled in MS Excel.
Ms. Newman has been with MSW Consultants since January 2019. In that time, she worked on solid waste consulting engagements for the counties of Monterey and Santa Barbara, and the cities of Chula Vista, Glendale, Lompoc, Orange, Rancho Santa Margarita, Roseville, Santa Maria, Vernon, and Whittier. As staff auditor on a municipal compliance audit of a major waste hauler, she was instrumental in identifying over $60,000 in unpaid franchise fees. She has also assisted in the preparation of CalRecycle AB 939 Annual Reports (EAR) for the cities of Orange and Vernon.
Ms. Newman earned a BA in Business Administration and Management; Finance from Shijiazhuang University of Economics in Hebei, China, an MPAcc in Accounting and Related Services from China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, China, and a MS in Accounting and Taxation from the University of San Diego.
Project Manager
Girard Mobley – Mr. Mobley is a skilled financial analyst and project manager. He has extensive experience in conducting audits on waste haulers for municipalities, and in providing recycling outreach and education to commercial waste generators. He graduated from San Diego State University with a BS in Business Administration with a focus on Finance and a minor in Economics. He is also a certified practitioner in the zero waste principles and practices.
Mr. Mobley has been with MSW Consultants since March 2019. In that time, he has worked on solid waste consulting engagements for the County of Santa Barbara, and the cities of Bell, Corona, Chula Vista, Del Mar, La Habra, La Palma, Lomita, Norco, Orange, Rolling Hills, Signal Hill, San Clemente, Vernon, Whittier and Rancho Palos Verdes.
Mr. Mobley has audited the accounting records of over 20 waste haulers to include franchise fees verification, tonnage reports, and gross receipts. He also assisted in the drafting of ordinances for the Cities of Corona, Orange, Rancho Palos Verdes, and Rancho Santa Margarita.
Mr. Mobley is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) candidate. He recently passed Part I of the 3-part exam with a score of 94% (702 out of 750). He is currently studying for Part II and Part III.
Project Manager
Lucas Arias – Mr. Arias is a highly effective Outreach Coordinator. He has substantial experience in the waste industry and has serviced multiple cities across the Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and Ventura counties. He graduated from California State University, Northridge with a BA in Jazz Studies. Before entering the waste industry, Mr. Arias has performed as a trumpet player and drums with multiple artists across the country.
Mr. Arias has conducted over 1,000 waste assessments, trained dozens of recycling coordinators, worked on sustainability grants for multiple cities and has experience with waste characterizations. In addition, he developed internal outreach performance audits, created diversion reports, and played a major role in SB 1383 roll out and strategic planning in the city of Los Angeles with edible food capacity planning and organics outreach. As an outreach coordinator, Mr. Arias has brought creative solutions to unique and complex waste compliance issues within multiple scales.
Project Analyst
Kayla Friederich – Ms. Kayla Friederich is a diligent project analyst new to the solid waste industry. She has high standards for reporting quality data and providing effective outreach. Before joining MSW Consultants, Ms. Friederich gained customer service experience in food service and retail. She has also gained further communication experience through social media creation by interning with The Water Conservation Garden and by assisting her family’s small business.
Ms. Friederich has been with MSW consultants since September 2022. In that time, she conducted outreach for SB 1383 compliance for the City of Stanton and the City of Rancho Palos Verdes. She has also edited Western Riverside Council of Government’s tier generator lists to accurately identify which generators need to relate to a food recovery organization under SB 1383.
Ms. Friederich has always been passionate about the environment. Because of this, she has earned a BS in Environmental Systems and a Minor in Communication from University of California, San Diego in 2021. She hopes to continue to grow in the solid waste industry and assist jurisdictions with compliance.
Application Manager
Tim Krueger – Mr. Krueger is a skilled information systems and technology professional. He has extensive experience in user experience, network and systems management, website and cloud application design, security, and leadership. He graduated from Concordia University Irvine with a BA in Communications with focuses on psychology and technology.
Mr. Krueger has been with MSW Consultants since March 2022. In that time, he has re-architected Minerva to support the recordkeeping and reporting requirements of SB 1383. Mr. Krueger leads our development team and oversees software updates and new feature builds. He also works closely with Minerva’s customers to develop best practices and support their data analytics needs.
He has worked on Minerva engagements for the County of San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Fresno and Merced and the cities of Whittier, Placentia, Rancho Palos Verdes, La Habra, Lomita, Lynwood, Orange, and Stanton, many of which have open competition hauler relationships.
Mr. Krueger has imported and setup extensive data sets and works directly with development team. He oversees the technical functionality of the Minerva application and working with clients and staff on technical processes.
Data & Customer Care Specialist
Brian Marshall – Mr. Marshall is a skilled data specialist with extensive customer care experience. Over 10 years of business experience forecasting financials, balancing profit and loss statements, analyzing profit margins and implementing models to improve net revenue. I have worn many hats, from financial analysis to specialized data analysis training, and including providing customer care to challenging patients which required a great deal of conflict resolution training and resulted in extensive conflict resolution experience.
Mr. Marshall has been with MSW Consultants since August 2022. In that time, he has worked on Minerva engagements for the County of San Luis Obispo, San Diego Fresno and Merced and the cities of Whittier, Placentia, Rancho Palos Verdes, La Habra, Lomita, Lynwood, Orange, and Stanton, many of which have open competition hauler relationships.
Mr. Marshall has imported and setup over 36 onboarding instances. He also oversees the customer care and user interface for the Minerva application, answering questions and providing training and working with users to source solutions to process challenges.
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