MORGANTOWN — The level and consistency of service provided by trash and recycling hauler Republic Services has been a recurring issue raised by Morgantown residents and members of Morgantown City Council for nearly a decade.
So why would the city sign another exclusive, multi-year deal with Republic without even looking at bids from other vendors?
The Dominion Post recently reached out to the city regarding the Sept. 30 expiration of Republic’s most-recent five-year contract.
Morgantown Communications Specialist Hollie Gregory explained, “The city has signed a four-month extension of the current contract with Republic Services. This contract will expire on Jan. 1, 2023. City staff has been meeting with Republic Services to discuss the possibility of signing another five-year contract following the current contract’s expiration.”
The city did not respond to questions about whether it took bids for the contract, and if not, why it would choose not to do so.
Mountain State Waste Vice President J.P. Phillips said bids were not accepted.
“I think it was just the easiest thing to do, to renew it with the existing vendor. That’s just my opinion,” Phillips said.
Mountain State Waste was one of two companies, along with Advanced Disposal Service, to unsuccessfully bid for the city’s contract in 2018.
“I fought that battle five years ago and really thought at that time they were going to make a change and was shocked when they didn’t. But I thought that was maybe just bad timing because right in the middle of the bid process nearly the whole council turned over and they brought in a new city manager,” Phillips said.
“But this time around when they decided to renew with Republic, it really took all the wind out of my sails to fight that battle. They come in and they complain and they complain and they complain about Republic, but they never do anything, so they’ve kind of lost my sympathy.”
Phillips said his company is one of West Virginia’s largest waste haulers with more than 30,000 residential and 2,500 commercial customers across a growing number of counties.
Even so, the Morgantown contract would likely be a substantial lift.
According to the Morgantown Utility Board, which handles residential trash billing for the city, there are approximately 6,650 residential customers. In 2018, former City Manager Paul Brake said there were more than 1,000 commercial customers in the city, though that number appears elevated.
At the time, Brake responded to council questions about why the city would again tie itself to Republic for five years despite consistent service issues by explaining it was easier to work on an existing relationship than start from scratch.
“I think there’s something to be said for continuity of service,” he said.
Despite that continuity, service remained an issue.
In April 2019 and June 2020, city council questioned why pick-ups in parts of the city were being consistently missed. In September 2020, city council created a special committee that it half-jokingly dubbed “The Trash Force,” which recommended the enforcement of contractual penalties against Republic for poor service.
On Dec. 2, 2020, Kim Haws’ first meeting as city manager, Republic representatives were taken to task by council for the company’s performance.
Since then, as Haws recently pointed out, things appear to have calmed.
“When I first came, that December and January, every council meeting was full of discussions about how poor the service was. I think that’s gotten better, but I think there’s a lot of improvement to be made,” Haws said during his Oct. 18 comments to council.
Representatives of Republic Services will attend council’s committee of the whole meeting on Oct. 25 to discuss proposed changes and potential renewal of the contract.
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