Calls slow to be answered or not at all. Messages left that were never returned. Bulk waste sitting at the street for weeks on end. It’s your Waste Management team, hardly at work on your behalf.
Well, that was the general sentiment when the senior manager for the service, George Wheatley, attended a Pine Bluff City Council meeting last week to answer questions about how Waste Management was doing. By and large, the response from council members was that the service was not performing as well as it should.
Right up front, we’ll say hooray to the council for spending time on this subject. Back before the first of the year, when a new five-year contract with Waste Management was being negotiated, these same issues were raised. One was that the company would have a local person answering the phone. Turns out, in Waste Management world, local means Franklin, Tenn. Imagine that. Also imagine that that didn’t sit well with some elected leaders.
“This has got to be resolved quickly,” said Council Member Bruce Lockett, who went on to say that he had grass that needed to be picked up, called the service, didn’t get a response, then picked up the grass himself.
“I don’t really like this thing you have to call Tennessee to solve a problem right here in Pine Bluff,” Lockett said. “I’m not getting good service with this call thing.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Another council member, Glen Brown Jr. said he left a message asking for a second container but no one ever called back. Not even from Tennessee.
“I would expect that if I call and leave a message that someone would call me back,” Brown said. “No one did and I left a reason to why I was calling. I can just imagine what everyone else is going through because I’ve had the same issue myself.”
Mayor Shirley Washington said bulk waste was being picked up quickly — while the contract was being renegotiated. But now that the ink had dried, that part of the service was getting less attention, pointing out that the same sofa had been sitting at the same curb for at least a month. We find that unsurprising.
We also imagine that if the complaints were fewer — perhaps fewer than the bits of trash that fly out of Waste Management trucks going down the highway — it wouldn’t matter where the customer service phone rang as long as something satisfactory happened once the call ended.
But that apparently doesn’t happen often enough, officials said, so not surprisingly, they want someone here, as in not far away, as in maybe even sitting at a desk in City Hall, responding to Pine Bluff issues.
Wheatley talked about personnel issues and finding workers and there were two people helping and now there’s one, blah, blah, blah. We’re all really sorry he’s having trouble keeping help, but that does not excuse the lack of execution on the part of Waste Management. The service has a job to do, and it is under contract to do that job. Period. Cry us no rivers.
Even though the full council shouldn’t have to expend time on such an issue as this, it’s good that the members are doing it. The time to have put some teeth in the contract was back when it was being reworked. But barring that, officials should continue turning up the heat on this outfit, which has an unfortunate history of lackluster service. And if Waste Management continues giving Pine Bluff second-class service, the council should consider other vendors. That threat may be the only way to get anyone’s undivided attention.
One other bit: In looking through our notes on Waste Management, we saw that during the renegotiation process, someone brought up recycling. The company said, what with covid, they weren’t taking on anything extra but to holler back when covid passes. Well, covid has not been zeroed out, but life is pretty much returning to normal. Can the city and Waste Management now have that discussion? It’s time.