Garbage continues to pile up, un-collected for days, outside businesses and homes in Port St. Lucie. Mayor Shannon Martin says she has received more than 5,000 complaints from residents about the lack of service provided by the company that’s supposed to pick up their trash, Waste Pro.
“To have 54-hundred complaints in a two and a half month period is record breaking," said Mayor Martin. "That’s never happened here in Port St. Lucie." The Mayor said she is getting emails and phone calls from residents saying things like - 'Fire Waste Pro', 'Get someone else who can do the job better', 'Where’s my money back?’, and ‘We pay for this service through our taxes.’
Court ordered mediation talks have so-far failed to resolve the lack of service. So on Tuesday the city went back to court and filed a Breach of Contract complaint accusing Waste Pro of "gross non-performance."
Dumpsters are sitting full "for over a week at a time," said the Mayor. "They’re supposed to come three times a week. They’re not picking it up." The lack of service she said is "bordering on a health, safety and welfare issue now."
This latest complaint was filed after the city received a demand letter from Waste Pro seeking $1.2 million dollars in un-paid administrative charges that the city has withheld as a result of the lack of service.
"Under our contract we have the right to withhold payment for lack of service," said Mayor Martin. "To have the company say if you don’t give us back the administrative charges we’re going to walk away in 6 months is just wrong.”
Waste Pro has told the city that the current contract does not cover their costs which have increased at a time when they are struggling with a lack of manpower, aggravated over the past 2 years by the COIVD pandemic. “They’re having issues with regard to their pay scale, they’re having issues with high turn-over," said the Mayor. "Unfortunately that is not the city’s responsibility. They signed a contract to provide a certain level of service to our residents and it still is not happening. As a matter of fact it has gotten so much worse.”
In an emailed response to WQCS' request for a phone interview Waste Pro Communications Director Tracy Meehan wrote - “This matter is currently in litigation and as such, it would not be appropriate to comment at this time.”