Council to discuss trash pickup options Wednesday
The Cape Coral City Council will again discuss its options regarding trash pickup on Wednesday.
Mayor John Gunter placed an addendum on the agenda under new business where Council will discuss Waste Pro, its just- released action plan, and the options the city can consider moving forward, up to and including possibly bringing city collection into the mix.
Gunter said he put the item on the agenda so City Manager Rob Hernandez could update council where things stand on garbage collection — a current source of resident complaints — and what steps can be taken to improve service.
“We’re still getting numerous complaints, so we have to find out what we have to do to get this rectified sooner rather than later,” Gunter said. “We can collectively discuss this as a council and figure out what our options are.”
Councilmember Jennifer Nelson said that there is a lot of misinformation out there in terms of going out for an RFP, or Request for Proposals, from other vendors.
“Residents don’t understand what is involved with that, so residents are voicing concerns that they need to be fired tomorrow,” Nelson said. “Many want that to happen. Logistically, that can’t happen because who would be in place to take our trash?”
Waste Pro submitted its Action Plan shortly after its discussion with the city during its special workshop on April 7. It highlights four major tasks the company must address: Employee recruitment and development, retention, service routes and service calls.
Gunter said that while there has been a nationwide shortage in drivers and that Waste Pro is trying to address the challenge by holding job fairs, the vendor signed a contract agreeing to perform regular trash pickup that isn’t happening.
“This is their problem, not the city’s. Unfortunately, the citizens are the ones bearing the brunt of this with their trash sitting in front of their house,” Gunter said. “This is something that has to have priority. If that’s something we need to look at by having city employees do trash pickup and back charge Waste Pro. Those are the discussions I want to have.”
The Action Plan presents individual tasks that have been completed and future tasks with target dates. Waste Pro will provide weekly updates highlighting their progress.
Among the actions taken could be seen today, when Waste Pro had trucks parked in various locations in the city, including at Cultural Park Theater, where residents were able to take their bulk trash.
Gunter said that while that idea worked short-term and could work on Saturdays, it is not a solution.
Nelson said the residents really need to listen while Waste Pro explains its action plan.
“I’ll be asking staff what an RFP process would look like, how long does it take and what the cost would be if we did our own trash,” Nelson said. “I asked how long the action plan would take to execute and how long we could sustain it before we have the same problems over again.”
Waste Pro said at the earlier workshop that it would take roughly 60 days to put the action plan into full force.
Nelson said she wasn’t sure about that, especially with the issues Waste Pro has had finding enough drivers.
Gunter said he does not expect to see Waste Pro’s contract terminated, but added the time may have come to start exploring options.
“I’ve been doing research on if the city wanted to take over that commitment and what that would cost the city, so we can explore options. Sitting around and doing nothing and let Waste Pro dictate the service we’re going to have, I don’t agree with that,” Gunter said. “We need to be proactive and have all our options on the table.”
Cape Coral City Council’s regular meetings begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 1015 Cultural Park Blvd.
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com