PORT ST. LUCIE — Port St. Lucie homeowners will see a portion of the city's $24 million settlement with WastePro returned through credits on their property tax bills after city officials approved a plan to distribute the funds through the annual solid waste assessment process.
The settlement stems from a lawsuit the city filed against the trash collection company in 2021, alleging WastePro failed to fulfill its contract when trash went uncollected during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the approved plan, more than 95,000 qualifying residential properties will receive a share of the settlement proceeds. The amount each property receives will vary depending on residency history and eligibility.
City officials identified about 57,000 properties whose owners lived through the service disruptions and still reside in the same home.
Charlie Proulx, the city's deputy finance director, said those property owners would receive the largest credit.
"That's approximately 57,000 people still remain today as they did back in 2022. Under this proposal, the higher amount would go to those people remaining, so that's $364 per property," Proulx said.
Residents who experienced the service disruptions but later moved to another property within the city will also be eligible for the larger reimbursement. Those property owners will initially receive a $64 credit and will have 180 days to submit a claim for the remainder.
Proulx said the city plans to establish a process to verify those claims.
"The city will set up an eligibility process, where a person can come in and make a claim and say 'I moved from this property in the city to this property in the city,' and while they're getting the $64 now, there would essentially be a true-up process, they would be cut the difference of $300 after that claim has been vetted," he said.
The roughly 13,000 homeowners who moved into the city after 2021 would receive a $64 credit. City officials said that amount reflects the tax dollars spent pursuing the litigation.
A key issue during the special meeting was how the city should distribute the settlement funds. City staff recommended using tax credits rather than issuing individual checks.
Proulx said the tax credit approach would allow the city to use an existing system and avoid the administrative burden of processing tens of thousands of payments.
"A primary advantage of this option is that it leverages an existing process already used to collect the residential solid waste assessment, it reduces administrative complexity, and ensures the benefit is applied directly to the eligible property," he said. "A tax roll credit also allows the city to distribute the free fund through an established system that is already in place. Because every eligible property already participates in the annual solid waste assessment process, there's no need to create and process approximately 95,000 individual refunds."
City staff also presented the option of issuing checks directly to residents but did not recommend it.
Proulx said while direct payments would provide immediate access to the funds, they would also create significant logistical challenges.
"The primary advantage of this approach is that residents receive a direct payment that can be deposited or used immediately," he said. "However, there are also administrative challenges. Checks would need to be printed, mailed, some would inevitably be lost, returned, remained, or uncashed, and staff would need to manage replacement requests, address corrections, account reconciliations, and other follow-up activities associated with issuing checks."
According to city staff, mailing checks to all eligible property owners would cost about $200,000.
Most members of the City Council supported the tax credit approach.
Council member Anthony Bonna said the proposal provides a fair method for distributing the settlement funds.
"I think it's proportional, I think it's fair, I think it's the right thing to do," he said. "Checks are costly and expensive and get lost. A credit on the property tax is the way to go."
Vice Mayor Jolien Caraballo was the lone council member to favor direct payments. She argued that residents could find the tax credit confusing when comparing future tax bills.
"They will see their tax bill overall decrease and then the following year see a perceived increase, which in turn complicates the discussion in the future for people to understand their tax bill," she said. "I think people would really appreciate seeing a check that they can utilize immediately."
Several residents who spoke during public comment also favored direct payments. Despite objections and calls from some attendees to reconsider, the council ultimately approved distributing the settlement funds through property tax credits.