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. By the Tuesday, Aug. 20, meeting of the County Commission, Road and Bridge had worked 2,200 hours collecting trash.
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.
At the regular Aug. 20 meeting, Public Works Director Greg Caldwell said that there had been more than 7,000 calls this month regarding missed pickups or other complaints. More than 3,000 problems were reported through the SJC Connect and Recycle Coach apps, and there were more than 6,000 service requests. County staff had conducted more than 13,000 inspections.
The Board of County Commissioners placed an emergency item on the meeting agenda to discuss the service levels of FCC.
At the meeting, FCC Chief Executive Officer Dan Brazil apologized for the failures. He said the company had dispatched up to 99 trucks to cure the problem and increased staffing by 17% with some workers coming from other states. He said that, a week prior to the Aug. 1 start date, the map had been changed adding 2,700 houses to the total mix.
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. Three RFPs (requests for proposal) were issued Monday, Aug. 19, for the three services: residential trash pickup, recycling and yard waste. Caldwell said proposals would be received by Sept. 12.
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.
County Administrator Joy Andrews was authorized to sign contracts for supplemental services for a period not exceeding nine months. Representatives from Meridian Waste and Waste Management spoke at the meeting to offer their services.
“The county has heard from our community about their disappointment and frustrations with FCC,” Andrews said. “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.
Clay County officials have been watching the rollout in St. Johns County as FCC is scheduled to begin collection there on Oct. 1. At the Aug. 13 meeting of the Clay County Board of County Commissioners, FCC staff addressed the situation in St. Johns County, speaking about the steps it was undertaking to cure the defect here.
In a Facebook post, Clay County officials addressed the issue: “The county is working closely with FCC Environmental to ensure the transition to the new garbage and yard waste service is done to the level we all expect. … As we go through the next several weeks, we will continue to work closely with FCC to make sure all of the steps are completed within the transition plan ahead of the Oct. 1 start date.”
