Polk County OKs two 5-year contracts for garbage collection, sets property tax ceiling

The Polk County Commission on Tuesday approved two contracts for trash collection that total $39.2 million for the first year.

Commissioners voted unanimously at their regular meeting to enter a pair of five-year agreements starting next year. The county will pay GFL Solid Waste Southeast $22.3 million the first year to cover Service Area 2, which covers about 65,000 dwelling units in Northeast Polk County.

The board also unanimously approved a contract with FCC Environmental Services Florida to collect solid waste in Service Area 1, which covers roughly the same number of units in Northwest Polk County. The company will receive $16.9 million in the first year.

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Both agreements begin Oct. 1, 2024, just after the current contracts expire, and run through Dec. 31, 2029. The contract amounts can be adjusted annually, County Manager Bill Beasley said, and each agreement may be extended for up to three years.

Polk County Waste & Recycling will cover Service Area 3, the southern part of the county. That section contains about 13,000 dwelling units, county staff said in an agenda summary.

During a brief discussion before the votes, Commissioner Bill Braswell asked about the difference in contract amounts. Beasley said that the area covered by GFL Solid Waste Southeast is larger and less densely developed and requires more driving time between pickups.

Polk County has been beset by problems with trash pickups in recent years. In early 2022, the county reported fielding more than 5,000 complaint calls in a single week about missed collections.

Commissioners have often expressed frustration with both FCC and a previous contractor, Waste Management. They voted last November to declare a state of emergency, an action that allowed the county to bypass its usual bidding process in hiring third-party contractors.

Braswell, who has been perhaps the most frequent critic of the contractors, expressed optimism that service will be better under the new contracts.

“This was an interesting process,” Braswell said. “It happened right in the middle of a terrible episode in Polk County's history of garbage collection. We seem to be through that and over that, pretty much.”

Braswell said that missed collections were often compounded by contractors’ delays of as much as three weeks in returning to gather the missed trash.

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“That's just totally unacceptable,” Braswell said. “We told the haulers that, and we believe they've come around on that. But that's the focus going forward is how well they recover and certainly how quickly they recover. I hope this is behind us, but we'll see.”

The county received four bids for the waste collection contracts before issuing its recommendations in April, Beasley said. One of the bidders, Coastal Waste and Recycling of Florida, protested a contract award to GFL, but Beasley upheld the county procurement director’s decision.

GFL Solid Waste Southeast incorporated in 2020 and is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to Florida records. FCC Environmental Services Florida is part of an international company with its headquarters in Texas.

Firefighter contract approved

The commission voted to approve a collective bargaining agreement with the union representing Polk County firefighters and battalion chiefs.

The current contracts with the International Association of Firefighters expired last September, Beasley said. The two sides began negotiating in summer 2022 but reached an impasse, leading to an arbitration hearing in April before a special magistrate appointed by the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission.

The magistrate issued recommendations in June, providing the basis for the agreement on the two-year contracts, Beasley said.

In a presentation, Deputy County Manager Joe Halman outlined details of the contracts. He said the magistrate’s recommendation drew upon a compensation study conducted by Cody and Associates. Firefighters will receive average raises of 12%, while engineers will see average boosts of 14%.

Salaries for fire captains will jump by an average of 32%, while battalion chiefs will see increases averaging 24%. Halman said that 38 employees who have “topped out” of their pay ranges will receive lump sum payments after October.

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Halman’s presentation included figures showing departures from Polk County Fire Rescue by longevity of service. He said the county has a 50% turnover rate for employees who have been with the county for five years or less.

“And that's significant,” Halman said. “And so, we're going to try to address that in this contract, to deal with that issue.”

County sets ceiling for property tax rate

The commission voted to reduce the property tax rate by 3% in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2023-24. It would be the second straight year that the county lowered the rate by that amount.

Commissioners voted to adopt a total millage rate of 6.6852, which includes a conservation lands tax Polk County voters approved in November. Residents in unincorporated areas face additional assessments for county parks, libraries and stormwater service.

Under the proposed rate, the annual tax on a house assessed at $200,000 after homestead exemptions would be $1,337.04 for city residents and $1,501.28 for those in unincorporated Polk County.

Tuesday's vote sets the ceiling for the 2023-24 property tax rate, but the rate is not finalized.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk Commission approves pair of contracts for garbage collection