- April 26, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Effective immediately, the city of Palm Coast has submitted a letter to Waste Pro of Florida Inc. for its noncompliance with the current contract for residential solid waste and disposal services. This written notice to Waste Pro on May 26 advises of breaches of contract for failure to provide the contractually required services, and advised Waste Pro that it has seven business days to resolve the breach.
Waste Pro has informed city staff that the issues with collection range from lack of employees to not having enough hours in the day.
Palm Coast City Manager Matthew Morton recognizes that “Garbage collection is an essential service for residents of Palm Coast and the city is dedicated to providing timely and consistent service to residents. The collection lately has been at unacceptable levels and we will not sit idly by and let this continue. It is a priority to provide quality service to our residents and Waste Pro is now on notice that the service level must increase or further action will follow.”
The city has repeatedly notified Waste Pro over the past year of deficient services and worked diligently to remedy issues related to missed collections above the allowable limits, missed routes, streets and neighborhoods, routes not being completed daily, and failure to have adequate personnel to perform the services contractually required. The city has also worked to address an increasing breakdown in communication from Waste Pro on missed collections and uncompleted routes. This is evident by the city’s customer service department receiving an influx of calls, emails, and Palm Coast Connect cases.
The city has fined Waste Pro a total of $29,280 from Jan. 1, 2021, through May 25, 2021, for its failure to comply with the terms of the contract with the city. Additionally, city staff have been assigned to inspect daily routes to ensure that waste collections are completed and to document the areas that were missed or incomplete.
To assist in tracking missed or incomplete routes, the city has encouraged its residents to report missed collections to PalmCoastConnect.com for areas that Waste Pro does not sufficiently service during a normal daily route. At least 4,565 complaints have been submitted over the past six-months, even after an April 1st memorandum was received by the city from Waste Pro's vice president indicating that service would return to satisfactory levels.
To solve this unacceptable public problem, the city is proactively seeking out additional haulers in the event that Waste Pro is not able to resolve the breach in the allotted seven day time frame. If Waste Pro does not sufficiently correct the issues described in this news release, the city has the contractual right to terminate the contract with Waste Pro.
