Written by This email from Mayor Denis Law acknowledges the on-going difficulties we are having rolling out the new garbage service in some parts of the city. In hindsight, while it seemed sensible on paper to start the new service at the beginning of a calendar year, it was a bad time of year to switch service. Our Public Works Department has been coping with other crises like snowstorms and floods, and Waste Management was having troubles just getting to basic trash pickup on the icy and windy streets, even without delivering new containers to 80,000 people.
When we discussed this new program in various city council meetings last summer, we raised and addressed many different concerns. But none of us raised the risk that the weather would compound our transition problems.
I apologize to all of you residents inconvenienced by this. I assure you that all of it at city hall take it seriously, and we are working to get things going smoothly as soon as possible.
Mayor Law gives more details below.
___________________________________________________
From: Denis Law
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:51 AM
To: Don Persson; Greg Taylor; Julia Medzegian; King Parker; Marcie Palmer; Randy Corman; Rich Zwicker; Terri Briere
Cc: Jay B Covington
Subject: Garbage Collection
Dear Council,
I apologize that some of you are receiving complaints from citizens regarding confusion and service problems related to garbage collection. As you know, we experienced the “perfect storm” with the implementation of a new, complicated service, coupled with several weeks of historically bad weather. We also failed to plan on how best to deal with the inevitable questions from the public. Here is what we’re doing to deal with the issue:
Public Works has three dedicated employees working with Linda Knight to handle incoming calls and emails. The problem of finding Linda’s voicemail full should now be eliminated. In addition to the normal call receivers that Waste Management has on duty, they have added six call receivers to strictly handle incoming Renton calls. If you receive any questions or complaints, please direct the callers to 1-800-592-9995.
We have also arranged for Waste Management to pickup any garbage that was missed, regardless of type (garbage, recycle, yard waste), within 48 hours of receiving any customer call. There will be no additional charges to the customer.
And finally, we will have an article in Friday’s Renton Reporter that answers questions and concerns raised by our citizens this past week. We are also enhancing our information on our website, and Waste Management will be doing a complete mailing next week that will also answer customer questions, including the day of the week they should anticipate collection. Public Works anticipates that all phone calls and emails received to date will be answered by this afternoon.
As you might guess, there have been hundreds of calls from confused customers. We added to their frustrations by not having this plan in place earlier, but I believe we might have this under control within the next day or so.
I’ll keep you informed as we work through this process.
Thanks.
Denis Law
Mayor of Renton
1055 S. Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057
425 430-6500
dlaw@rentonwa.gov
Thanks for paying attention. I was one of those irate caller to WM.
We still don’t have the new bin and don’t know which day of the week or which week the trash are to be picked up. The Northeast vs South&West schedule is confusing. I’m in Kennydale but are told our schedle is the “Northeast” one and that it’s now Monday instead of Tuesday.
One house in this block got the new bins but the rest still have their old garbage cans out… ever since the new year.
There’s no communication what so ever about the schedule in the snail mail beside being told that now it’s biweekly. The schedule should be out last December, even before the snow started flying.
-H
We all got bins on our street but each person was given a different calendar of when the garbage would be picked up. And the taped notice on the top of the bin said pick up would start effect a particular date but it didn’t start for a week later. I called and asked for a corrected calendar that I could post and still haven’t received anything.
Update, still no pickup but I did get a call @ work asking me if it has been taken care of, I guess not.
They are also doing sidewalk construction here but there’s enough room for the truck to come by. Oh, I don’t get why sidewalk takes 3 month to complete either.1
Allied Waste in Bellevue did a great job when they did the transition for them… just saying.
-H
Timing not unusual in Renton
Your questions as to why it takes 3 months to complete a sidewalk in Renton is easy to answer. First it’s being done in Renton and second it beinging tracked by a city employee who could care less if it takes 6 months to complete. You’re lucky that the city even make an effort to install or replace a sidewalk in your community.
They had the pickup day (of the week) on a sticker on the new bin you have not yet received. Sounds to me like WM screwed up good.
Dave
Who needs extra bins? I got an extra recycling bin and an extra trash bin delivered for some reason. I called to get them to take them back and the lady laughed at my story because she’s been getting so many calls from people missing the bins. 🙂
She told me to put signs on the bins explaining the situation, but it’s been a week and they never took the bins. I don’t care who takes them, as long as someone does! Let me know if you want them!
Garbage and Costs
My condo-complex continues to have garbage problems. I was prepared to go to the City Council on Monday to explain the problems, but it was MLK Day. I may be there next week.
First among the problems is how WM lied to us:
In October/November, our condo association board was preparing our 2009 budget, which is used to calculate homeowners dues. As part of the process, we call each utility company, service provider, contractor, etc, and ask about expected rate increases for the coming year.
When we called Waste Management in late October, we were told there was no rate increase for the coming year. (We ended up budgeting a 1% rate increase on garbage collection).
Come to discover, a 37% rate increase had already been established! This is approximately $5 per unit, per month, multiplied by our 62 units. This is nearly $4,000 for the year that we are overbudget because WM didn’t have their facts straight.
On top of this financial fiasco, WM has been unable to deliver the proper number of bins to our complex. They don’t know how many bins they’ve delivered, or to what units. They’ve said that residents cannot request more bins; only an HOA representative can do that. (thanks a lot! I never volunteered for the job of tracking other people’s garbage cans!), and when they have promised to deliver more bins on a particular schedule, they have failed to meet that schedule.
This horrible level of service comes from a company that just voted to increase their shareholder dividend from 27c/Q to 29c/Q (annual payout of 3.6%). WM cares nothing of service, and only for profits, whether earned or not.