St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday, Aug. 20, to proceed with termination of its contract with FCC Environmental Services Florida, its new residential curbside collection provider.
FCC was to begin local operations on Aug. 1 but, in what Commissioner Henry Dean termed “an unmitigated disaster,” failed to pick up the trash at numerous homes. Some residents who did see their trash picked up complained of garbage being spilled in various places.
The county dispatched Road and Bridge workers to collect trash throughout that weekend, logging 900 hours, which FCC will be expected to reimburse.
At its Aug. 6 meeting, the Board of County Commissioners gave FCC seven days to cure the defect. That seven-day period ended Friday, Aug. 16.
In the meantime, the county worked with FCC in an attempt to bring its performance up to expectations, and FCC brought in additional resources. But residents continued to report missed pickups of household trash, recycling and yard waste.
In a video update on the county’s website, Public Works Director Greg Caldwell said that, from the beginning of the contract on Aug. 1, there had been nearly 5,800 calls to the customer service hotline, 3,000 problems reported through the SJC Connect and Recycle Coach apps and more than 6,000 service requests.
He said there were 2,000 missed pickups on Thursday, Aug. 15, and 1,000 on Friday, Aug. 16.
The Board of County Commissioners placed an emergency item on its regular Aug. 20 agenda to discuss the service levels of FCC. At the meeting, the board unanimously declared a local state of emergency and approved a motion for the County Attorney’s Office to proceed with the process to terminate the FCC contract.
The county will seek bids for a replacement provider.
In the meantime, the county plans to solicit interim service providers to supplement FCC solid waste services. Under the emergency order, the county will use all available resources to get all yard waste picked up as soon as possible.
“The county has heard from our community about their disappointment and frustrations with FCC,” said County Administrator Joy Andrews on Tuesday. “Today, our leadership took bold, aggressive steps to clean up this mess. A new journey begins to regain the confidence of our community when it comes to reassuring them that their trash will be picked up when it should be picked up and they will receive the quality customer service they deserve. It is important to note, under our current contract with FCC, the board’s decision to terminate does not alleviate FCC’s responsibility to continue providing services under the current contract.”
The county commission selected FCC as the top-ranked firm at its Dec. 19 meeting and approved contracting with it by a vote of 4-1, with Commissioner Krista Joseph voting no. St. Johns County has an estimated 114,000 residential homes that would be served by FCC.
FCC currently provides services to Polk, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Orange and Volusia counties, as well as some cities, such as Palm Coast.
The $28,265,040 contract was for a period of seven years with an option for two five-year renewals.
