Officials seek meeting over waste collection dispute
Town and village officials plan to meet later this month with Waste Management representatives to determine if legal action can be avoided in the dispute over the company’s continued collection of residential trash despite losing a bid for exclusive rights to a rival firm.
Village Mayor Tim Rogers said no enforcement is immediately planned to have Waste Management recognize recently adopted rules limiting service to the firm County Waste.
“We hope to sort it out,” he said. “We’re taking it as a courtesy. I think the situation is pretty clear. This is commonly done in other communities.”
After abolishing a permit system that had allowed five different haulers to work competitively, village and town officials earlier this year hired granted exclusive rights for residential waste collection to County Waste. County Waste submitted the lowest of three proposals at $26.45 per month for residential collection, while Royal Carting and Waste Management submitted proposals that were about $10 more per month.
However, Waste Management’s attorney Patrick Malgieri said the municipalities incorrectly adopted the new regulations.
“We have shared with both the town and the village our objections to both the process and their substantive right to do what they’re purporting to do,” he said.
“We pointed out to them that there is not the right to grant exclusive franchises
in the state of New York and franchises, if you’re going to grant them at all, (must) comply with certain procedural requirements, which they did not comply with,” Malgieri said. “They came back and said use of the word ‘franchise’ is unfortunate because (the municipalities) granted a license.”
Malgieri added that calling it “license” would also be out of compliance with equal protection provisions of state and federal law.
Municipal officials changed the law in response to complaints about the noise from predawn trash pickups. They noted there are 1,698 residential trash pickup customers in
the town and village, with about half being Waste Management customers.
Town Supervisor Neil Bettez said there are no immediately plans to enforce penalties of up to $250 per day.
“I think County Waste’s attorneys are going to deal with Waste Management,” he said. “We’re going to let them take the first crack at it and let them pay their attorneys before we get involved.”
Bettez acknowledged there was not a smooth rollout of the trash pickup plan by County Waste.
“They had a hard time getting all the containers out,” he said. “But I think that’s all done now ... and, if Waste Management wants to continue to pick up, we’ll fine them and we’ll make some money.”