Residents have been complaining about trash pickup being slow, and commissioners on the Engineering Committee discussed the matter on Tuesday, Nov. 9, but they adopted no recommendations.
Instead, the committee agreed to hear an update and more recommendations at the next committee meeting.
District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom, who placed the matter on the agenda, said he was not sure what the problem is, but he has noticed in the past garbage collection vehicles parked in a lot for over an hour on the same days that he received complaints about missed trash service.
“This is not an overnight problem but one that has been going on for nine months or even a year,” Frantom said.
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Frantom suggested the city review its compressed natural gas (CNG) policy and allow haulers to add more diesel vehicles to their fleets.
However, District 3 Commissioner Catherine Smith-McKnight suggested that lack of vehicles was not the problem and said that she receives weekly calls and emails complaining about the service.
“People reach out to me and say, ‘My trash wasn’t picked up last week, and I’m waiting to see if they pick it up this week.’ That’s pretty bad when the trash isn’t getting picked up on a week to week basis,” McKnight said.
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The city has two main sanitation services; Waste Management and ESD. Both companies employ subcontractors. The Environmental Services Department can issue performance fines in the form of what are called liquidated damages, when the contractors are chronically late on trash pickups.
Commissioners discussed issuing more liquidated damages, but City Administrator Odie Donald was wary of the idea, stating that he feared an emergency if the haulers got mad and walked off of their contracts.
District 10 Commissioner John Clarke disagreed.
“It was when we stopped issuing the fines that the service got really bad,” Clarke said.
Clark went even further and suggested that the liquidated damages could be used as a refund to residents who have suffered from the slow service.
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In an earlier special-called meeting, the full commission considered the matter of people who have been charged trash service fees for vacant lots and other property they own that does not need city trash service.
In 2013, the commission voted to exempt right of ways, land over 10 acres and land used for agricultural or forestry purposes. The commission also withdrew the requirement of landowners having to offer proof of alternate service to receive the exemption.
Some people have still been charged the fees going back seven years and they feel that they should be given a refund, which could be as much as $2,100.
State law recently changed and restricted municipalities from issuing refunds beyond three years. However, many of the refund requests were made before the law changed.
After a lengthy debate, commissioners voted 6 to 4 against giving refunds beyond three years. Commissioners McKnight, Frantom, Garrett and Clarke cast dissenting votes and favored giving the full refunds.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
