By Steve Plunkett
Monthly garbage bills went up 22.6% on April 1 for back or side-door pickup at single-family homes and could rise even more in six months.
The rates for multi-family containerized service jumped 44.4%.
Waste Management Inc. of Florida, the company that has been hauling Gulf Stream’s trash since at least 1997, wanted to raise rates 62% at first for single-family homes, but agreed to the smaller increase while the town seeks a lower-cost alternative.
“They are eye-popping numbers,” Town Commissioner Michael Greene said.
“I understand prices have gone up in the last five years, it’s a different climate than it was then, but yeah, that’s tough,” Commissioner Rob Canfield said.
Town Manager Greg Dunham had hoped for an outcome more like what happened in 2019, when Waste Management sought a five-year contract extension at a 26% increase plus an annual cost adjustment tied to the “Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Water and Sewer and Trash Collection Services.”
The town hired Mitch Kessler of Kessler Consulting and negotiated a 6% increase for the five years with annual increases tied to the specialized index.
But this time, with the contract expiring March 31, Waste Management reached out in December and offered the town a 62% increase from its current $37.86 per month for residential collection to $61.34, or a less-expensive curbside pickup option for the next five years. The commission decided to continue to provide back door/side door collection and use Kessler Consulting to negotiate a lower cost increase.
More recently Waste Management offered a six-month contract extension at a rate of $46.43, a 22.6% increase.
Dunham said the town and consultant Kessler had a call with its Waste Management representative, Barbara Herrera, and her supervisor, Lisa McNeight, to get either a 12-month extension at a 10% increase to allow for continued negotiations, or a more reasonable increase for the entire five-year renewal.
But McNeight “outright refused” to negotiate on either topic, stating that the 62% increase was the only and final number, citing cost increases related to the COVID-19 pandemic, waste hauling industry and driver pay, Dunham said.
McNeight justified the 62% cost increase by stating that the dollar figure itself was low, “only a few dollars a week,” Dunham said she told the town’s representatives. The proposed 62% increase would cost residents an additional $281.76 per year, he said.
That left Gulf Stream only two options: a six-month extension at a rate of $46.43, a 22.6% increase, or a five-year extension at a rate of $61.34, a 62% increase. Commissioners on March 8 chose the shorter term.
“If Waste Management is not willing to negotiate then we should put it out to bid,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.
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