In Coral Springs, if you don’t know it by now, the City collects fees for garbage pickup in an agreement they made with the exclusive franchise Waste Pro.
Article 38.6 of the contract requires WastePro to file any extraordinary increase in rates by April 1 of each year. WastePro wants an increase even though they missed the deadline and is not only blaming the city officials for their mistake but is threatening to cancel the contract unless they get their way.
It’s important to note that the very same contract, Article 38.6.2 says that even though they may have applied on time for the increase, the city manager at its sole discretion can accept or deny the request.
How much of an increase did they want ? 21% ! You residential bill would rise from the current rate of $248 per year to almost $300 per home. Increases in Commercial rates would rise 3% only. In other words homeowners were going take it in the neck. However according to Article 38.4, every October , Waste Pro is entitled to an increase in rate of no more than the Consumer Price Index and cannot exceed 5%. Had the April 1 increase gone into effect, the garbage rate per household would have increased another 2.9%, the current CPI rate, in October. Our new bill would have been $310 per year.
A letter sent by WastePro’s attorney dated July 27,2018 , ( click 2018-07-27 Letter to Michaud re Exclusive Franchise Agreement ) claims the City duped them into thinking that they were going to get another contract that is being serviced by another company for something else, to offset any increase in costs. They led them on, carrot and all to knowingly deceiving them to make sure that they did not ask for an increase on time. WastePro further claims the cost increase is justified due to a recent decision by the city to move the solid waste dump location from Coconut Creek site to the Griffin road site, increasing WastePro’s cost by an additional $1,000,000. ( 4 more trucks, 2 new routes and more travel time for the drivers).
In the letter WastePro demands that the city keep the solid waste dump site in Coconut creek and as a gesture of good faith , WastePro will not ask for any increases until 2019 ( even though they can’t now anyways because they missed the deadline).
If the city refuses, they may ( they said may) terminate the agreement and they pointed out that it will cost the city a lot of money if they need to go back out for bid.
It is quite obvious that WastePro made a mistake and dropped their own ball for not requesting an increase on before April 1,2018 – which was only a request and could have then been negotiated.
So what do I think?
I think the city should not buckle to any pressure from any company, and enforce the provisions of the contract. Furthermore, by accepting the position of WastePro forces the increase to take affect next year even though the city manager could say no. This takes away any bargaining positions that the city has.
In business, you never accept ultimatums- WastePro says that unless you correct our mistake, we may cancel. If they want to cancel the contract – let them. Any other waste company would take the deal if they are given a 21% increase to the existing contract.
Any other decision is just a bunch of garbage!
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