Port St. Lucie - Wednesday May 18, 2022: The Port St. Lucie City Council Wednesday night unanimously voted to award a new solid waste disposal contract to FCC Environmental Services, but not until after a heated exchange between the current provider, Waste Pro, and Port St. Lucie Mayor Shannon Martin.
Waste Pro Regional Vice President Russell Mackie showed up at the meeting in a fit, accusing the city government of responsibility for the ongoing trash collection crisis in the city.
Mackie: “Covid happened.”
Mayor: “I’m going to ask you to please calm down and to please be civil and respectful to this board.”
Mackie: “I am being civil. Covid happened. That is what happened to waste pro. That being said, we have come to the city with three separate proposals to change the service so we could provide the service that was needed. We were told no. You guys have let your people down. You have let the service go to where it’s at.”
Mayor Martin was having none of it.
Mayor Martin: “Your version of the events are completely untrue and completely wrong. Waste Pro has failed repeatedly. Waste Pro has had many opportunities to right this ship and Waste Pro chose not to by not performing under the contract.”
CLICK HERE to HEAR the full exchange between Mayor Shannon Martin and Waste Pro's Russell Mackie at 1-hour 52-minutes into the video recording of the meeting
Before that exchange, Budget Director Caroline Sturgis and City Manager Russ Blackburn made the case for FCC Environmental Services which offered the lowest cost for the city’s planned once a week service automated trash service. But it’ll cost city residents $35-dollars and28 cents, $11-dollars and 55 cents more each month.
“As reluctant as I am to see such a big jump," said City Council member Anthony Bonna "this is really us catching up to what the cost actually is. We have all seen the cost, the high cost, of finding the cheapest provider.”
Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan, among others, had questions for FCC’s VP of Operations Dan Brazil
Brazil: “We have secured 75 brand new collection vehicles and we will be fulfilled on brand new collection vehicles to service this contract.”
Councilwoman Morgan: “Let us know about the staffing.”
Brazil: “We’re going to have roughly 110 positions to fulfill the needs of this contract. Going from a twice a week collection to a once per week there is significantly less staff that is needed.”
A number of city residents were also on hand to express their concerns. “We use a new technology, automation. We reduce manpower, so why the cost increase?”, asked one resident.
Safety concerns were raised by another resident who questioned whether FCC's can hire and train new drivers by September when they take over from Waste Pro - “He’s going to hire a 110 people and get them trained on trucks. I hope that some of them have experience prior to. That just doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen in this time frame. I’m a little concerned.”
Trash is still not be collected in a timely manner complained another who wondered what kind of service Waste Pro would provide between now and September - “We got trash that was supposed to be picked up Saturday, was supposed to be picked up today, and hasn’t been picked up. Re-Cycled today hasn’t been picked up. And it’s for my whole neighborhood. It’s just not for my house, it’s for the whole street. How are we as a neighborhood supposed to deal with that?”
FCC Environmental Services is scheduled to take over trash collection service in Port St. Lucie on September 15th.
The Council also agreed to pause curbside recycling on Monday, May 23, for as long as it takes until Waste Pro can resume collecting trash on the designated collection days in order to avoid a public health crisis.
READ the news release issued by the City of Port St. Lucie in full below:
May 19, 2022 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
City Council approves contract with new solid waste hauler; New contractor aims to improve collection services in PSL
PORT ST. LUCIE – FCC Environmental Services Florida, LLC will be Port St. Lucie’s new solid waste collection hauler beginning in September, according to a contract approved by the City Council Wednesday evening.
The Council’s unanimous decision to award the contract to FCC is a significant step forward in replacing the current contract with Waste Pro, which has been the subject of thousands of complaints during the past year for poor and inconsistent service. The goal of the new contract with FCC is to bring dependable and consistent solid waste collection services back to residents and commercial customers in the City of Port St. Lucie.
“This is a tremendous step for our City. We all know that change can be very difficult, but since we were put in this position by Waste Pro, it was imperative to take action and make the change to a new provider,” Mayor Shannon Martin said. “Moving forward, I believe that FCC has heard all of our questions and concerns and they will address them accordingly.”
In February, Waste Pro informed the City that it would terminate its contract in six months if the City did not give back $1.2 million in administrative charges it has charged the company due to lack of performance under the contract. Following that notice, the City began a competitive process to seek a new solid waste collection provider.
The City Council approved negotiating with four companies that submitted proposals. During the negotiation process, two companies, Coastal Waste & Recycling and Goode Companies, withdrew their proposals. The third company, Republic Services of Florida, submitted a proposal to service only the eastern side of the City. FCC submitted proposals to service the entire City.
City staff recommended awarding the entire contract to FCC based on the overall value of FCC’s proposal, which included a more favorable pricing structure for both residential and commercial customers. A comparison of the final prices for both companies can be found here.
Residential customers pay their solid waste bill once a year as a non-ad valorem assessment (separate from their property taxes) on their tax bills. Currently, the residential rate is $284.74 a year. The new rate will be $423.36 annually, which equates to an increase of $11.55 per month.
Based on the recommendations of the City’s Solid Waste Task Force, an advisory group of City residents with members that had solid waste experience, to achieve a cost-effective rate, the City’s new service (beginning in September) will have:
· Garbage, recycling and yard waste will be collected once a week on a designated day.
· Bulky waste (not vegetative) will be collected once a month on a designated day. The City will continue offering the use of the Drop-Off Center which can be utilized at no additional cost for the resident for disposal. There will also be an option for additional on-demand pickup for a fee of about $18.50 per cubic yard. (Customers do not have to use that on-demand service and can utilize a private company for another rate.)
· FCC will utilize automated collection, where garbage will be picked up mechanically by a truck, the same way recycling is currently collected using a City-issued garbage cart.
FCC has contracts in Florida to collect solid waste in Orange County, Polk County, Palm Beach County, Volusia County, Hillsborough County, Wellington and Edgewood. The company also has contacts outside of the state, including Dallas and Houston.
According to FCC’s proposal, it is an international corporation that has been proving solid waste services since 1911 nationally and internationally “tailored to the needs of our partners using the latest technologies and environmentally friendly equipment.” FCC is investing over $50 million, over a seven-year period, to collect the City’s waste with a fleet of 75 trucks, an operating facility and maintenance department, and operating expenses such as diesel fuel.
“Over 60 million people in more than 5,000 municipalities around the world benefit from the services we provide,” according to a letter from Dan Brazil, vice president of operations. “Employing the most advanced technologies, we continuously improve our ability to manage the thousands of tons of solid waste collected every day in some of the world’s largest and most vibrant cities, where more than 25 million tons of refuse are collected per year.”
Once-a-week pickup is utilized by many Florida cities including, Stuart, Orlando, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Tallahassee, Cape Coral and Gainesville, among several others.
For the latest information on the new solid waste service, please visit www.cityofpsl.com/solidwaste.
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