Back in the summer of 2014, Leon County Commissioners got an earful from county residents who called to complain about the garbage service they were getting from the Waste Pro. The County Commission promptly fined Waste Pro approximately $90,000 for a failure to provide service and set out to implement solutions to stop the service problems.
A new status report, due to be presented to the Leon County Commission on February 10, 2014, indicates that major improvements have been made in addressing the service problems.
The report states that “Since the June 24, 2014 status report, additional adjustments have been made by Waste Pro, which has improved their service level. These adjustments reduced the volume and persistence of customer complaint calls, but have not eliminated the calls completely.”
It appears that the County took the probelms so serious that staff members were making personal visits to residents’ homes to resolve concerns and to confirm that Waste Pro has adequately resolved the citizen’s concerns.
There actions are having an impact. The table below shows that the number of infractions for the second part of 2014 have fallen from 977 infractions in the January-June tim eperiod to 210 from July-December.
Assessed Liquidated Damages for Calendar Year 2014
| Month | # of Infractions | Total Fine |
| January | 106 | $9,500 |
| February | 36 | $3,240 |
| March | 32 | $2,880 |
| April | 174 | $15,660 |
| May | 359 | $32,310 |
| June | 270 | $24,300 |
| July | 36 | $3,240 |
| August | 31 | $2,790 |
| September | 2 | $0 |
| October | 44 | $3,960 |
| November | 26 | $2,340 |
| December | 71 | $6,390 |
| Total | 1,187 | $106,610 |
Despite the changes made by Waste Pro, there remains service delivery complaints voiced by citizens that include litter left by trucks and delays in requests by customers to change equipment.
The report states that:
“curbside collection service that directly impacts Leon County residents is the top priority for both Waste Pro and the County. The Agreement provides for liquidated damages to be assessed against Waste Pro in the event of unresolved customer complaints for infractions relating to missed pick up, cart delivery delays, providing service outside designated times, failure to notify customers of route changes, failure to deliver materials to the appropriate facility, mixing of loads, failure to promptly clean up any litter or spills, use of a vehicle not meeting the requirements of the Agreement, and failure to submit required reports.”
In addition to services provided directly to customers, there are aspects of the Collection Agreement not being adhered to that limit staff’s ability to properly monitor and implement the Agreement.
For example, the agreement provides that RFID tracking technology will be included in all waste/recycling carts so County staff can verify service on a customer-by-customer basis. However, not all collection vehicles are properly equipped with the technology to receive the data. It is unclear when the RFID system will be fully functional and the report indicates that Leon County will start accessing liquidated damages by the Agreement guidelines starting February 1, 2015.
The report ends on a positive note by stating “it is anticipated that corrective actions taken by Waste Pro will continue to result in improved quality of service.”
Leon County Reports Improvement on Waste Collection, Issues Remain added by Staff on
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We had major trouble with Waste Pro/Waste Management transition for almost 3 months till it was finally taken care of.
Lots of garbage along our community every day that our garbage has been picked up. It has been better in the last two weeks. We had bear problems and garbage was not picked up by WP here, but we finally received a bear container which is costing us more dollars, because the dude has to get out of truck to open the lid…nothing free anymore. We had one more issue and this was last quarter with the office department. Received our bill and I as always promptly paid it. Several months go by and we received a letter stating they were going to pick up our cans because of lack of payment. What the heck, it was my mistake as my online banking when I paid the bill it went to WM…but when I called them and asked them why they didn’t send me a late notice or a phone call prior to a letter to pick up our cans they LIED and said they did. I call crap on that, I never am late or miss any payments with any bills. WM sat on our payment until we called them and told them of the mistake I had made. Finally they returned it to our checking account. So after reading this article, I wish we had called in and reported more of our problems. Thought we were the only ones hating this new company.
On another issuse is the trash that is coming out of the trucks and left on the road way..Meridian road truck “1297” …
For those of us that live in the rural areas most would like to see the county return the transfer stations back to their previous operating schedule and practices and quit issuing stupid cards that you cannot even buy with cash at the facility. If Leon County cannot even operate this type of facility makes me wonder what else is being sold out to the likes of Marpan and others. Some of us like taking our trash to the dump!!
When you stack the deck with inexperience, complacency, and one commissioner who should not have qualified to be on the ballot and has been there for 17 years sort of explains why two critical services such as the CDA 911 and garbage collection have so many problems.
Voters need to get out and vote and vote smarter. Hopefully there will be sweeping changes in the 2016 election cycle.
I have to agree. It was an ugly switch to waste pro in the first few weeks but has been without any problems since. In fact one early morning both cans overturned in a bad storm and I saw a mess running down to my ditch when I left for work in the rain and dark. I expected to have to clean it ask up that evening but waste pro did it for me. I found one empty water bottle way down in the ditch but everything else home and the cans stood up properly when I got home. I say that’s beyibd the expectations.
I respectfully and strongly disagree with your position that there have been no problems since the first few months. To this day, the last time garbage was picked up from my house was the last collection day of the waste management contract. After the transition, I did not receive containers or any sort of service. I have record of Thirteen! Calls and emails to both Waste Pro and County commissioners, to which I received a grand total of zero responses. A couple months later I got a bill from Waste Pro for services never rendered, and responded via certified mail to both Waste Pro’s local billing office and hard copy sent to Kristen Dozier explaining I had never received any service or thing of value, and adding that I frequently witness their trucks block roadways for extended periods of time and drop trash between the curb and the truck with their automated arms, which I have only once seen later picked up. I received a verbal apology phone call from someone at waste pro and still to this day zero response from Ms. Dozier’s office, and still no garbage service. But it didn’t end there. Waste pro continued illegally billing me for services not rendered for another nine months, until I sent them a copy of all thus documentation along with a draft lawsuit and notice of intent to sue, which I did only after they made an unlawful extortionate threat to report negative information on my credit record. They finally stopped billing me after accusing me of taking free garbage service and then refusing to pay my bill, but only after I ran up a couple hundred dollars in legal bills and certified mail postage. So as of today, I’ve not had day one of commercial service, have been unlawfully harassed to a much greater extent than just the brief summary here, and I’ve had no response whatsoever from anyone on the county commission. And yet, a tax was levied on my property unlawfully annually since this new contract was awarded, and I’m paying the county $10 a month for the privilege of hauling my own garbage to the dump on my own time weekly. And nobody cares. If or when I have the time, I intend to sue the county for my tax money back, but I have been too busy for that so far. Now does that sound like all the problems have been worked out and everything is running smoothly?