The honeymoon could soon be over between Los Angeles and the trash companies picked to carry out the city鈥檚 huge new recycling program.
Over the last three months, the city鈥檚 Bureau of Sanitation and the refuse haulers have been at odds over the hefty new fees showing up on customers鈥� bills 鈥� including one being charged when trash truck drivers use a remote control to open a gate.
The haulers have accused city officials of disregarding the terms of contracts approved more than a year ago for trash service. Sanitation officials, in turn, say they recently identified more than 300 bills with incorrect fees, roughly 1 out of every 5 surveyed.
Mayor Eric Garcetti said he is concerned about what he described as the 鈥渉igh error
rate鈥� in those bills. Letters have gone out to the haulers informing them that the bills need to be corrected, the first step toward reimbursing customers.
鈥淭his is an important way to lay down the law early on,鈥� said Garcetti, a champion of the recycling program, formally known as RecycLA.
The back-and-forth has played out as businesses, landlords and condominium owners continue to complain about the program, which was approved by the City Council and backed by Garcetti鈥檚 appointees on the Board of Public Works. Since July, those customers have demanded action on missed trash collections and significantly higher bills.
Garcetti and some of the RecycLA trash contractors have downplayed the dispute over the program, which covers an estimated 70,000 customers. Still, an executive with the trash hauler Republic Services made it clear that his company and others are contesting several of the claims being made by sanitation officials.
鈥淲e are making every effort to work with city officials to resolve contractual disagreements 鈥� that we think distract from the core mission of the RecycLA program to reduce the volume of waste going to landfills,鈥� said Dave Hauser, Republic鈥檚 market area vice president.
The dispute centers in large part on the extra fees being charged for key trash pickup services, such as opening locked gates and pulling bins a significant distance to the curb so they can be emptied.
Under RecycLA, trash companies can tack on an extra fee whenever a standard trash bin is pulled more than 100 feet. But in recent weeks, sanitation officials have concluded that more than 300 customers have been charged for that service even though their bins are a shorter distance away.
Hauser, the Republic executive, disagreed with the city鈥檚 findings, saying sanitation officials have redefined the way in which the 100-foot distance is measured. Republic and other trash companies also disagree with the city鈥檚 recent claim that those 鈥渄istance fees鈥� cannot be charged on recycling bins at multifamily residential buildings.
City leaders first put the trash haulers on notice on Oct. 3, sending them a list of fees deemed improper by the sanitation bureau. For example, they warned that charges should not be added in cases where a trash company simply uses a clicker, or remote control, to open a locked gate.
Several trash haulers responded by accusing the city of ignoring language in their contracts. Relations deteriorated further in the weeks that followed.
On Dec. 8, executives with six of the seven trash haulers called on the city to 鈥渇ormally retract in writing鈥� its letters spelling out the types of fees that are prohibited. They said there is 鈥渘o ambiguity鈥� on the extra fees that are allowed under RecycLA.
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