City withholds $1.15 million from Waste Pro

The city says recycle bins belong to residents, and that the company should not have collected the bins when its contract ended.

Jonathan Simmons Managing Editor

The Palm Coast city government is fining Waste Pro $903,250 for gathering up 7,226 recycling bins when its contract ended in May. The city has withheld its final, almost $1.15 million payment to the waste hauling company amid the dispute.

The Palm Coast government says the recycle bins belong to residents, and that Waste Pro should have left them for locals to use when the city’s new waste-hauling company, FCC Environmental, took over on June 1. Waste Pro says the bins belong to Waste Pro. Both cite sections of official city documents like contracts or RFPs to support their case.

A lawyer representing Waste Pro called the fine “arbitrary and capricious” in a June 23 protest of the $903,250 assessment, writing that Waste Pro would fight to recover attorneys’ fees if the city government takes the case to court.

In a June 23 email to City Council members, the attorney, Amy Shay of Stovash, Case, Shay & Pearce, P.A., wrote that the city had also told Waste Pro that the city government was withholding its final, $1,147,706.94 payment to Waste Pro.

“Given its long-standing partnership with the city, Waste Pro previously offered to engage in prelitigation mediation,” Shay wrote. “This option becomes less attractive in Waste Pro’s eyes when it faces an illegitimate assessment of nearly $1 million and withholding of its final payment for services rendered to the residents of the city.”

Palm Coast Communications & Marketing Director Brittany Kershaw confirmed that the city has not issued Waste Pro’s final payment.

“We notified them that we are going to withhold the liquidated damages, and that gives them a 10-day period to dispute,” she said.

The 10-day period ended June 23, the date on which Shay submitted Waste Pro’s protest. The city is now evaluating it, Kershaw said.

Waste Pro was the city’s waste hauler for 17 years until FCC won a bid in 2022.

Waste Pro started collecting the recycle bins, which bear its logo, on May 25.

The city holds that because a recycling bin is defined in Waste Pro’s contract as “purchased on behalf” of city residents, the bins are the residents,’ not the company’s, according to City Attorney Neysa Borkert.

City Manager Denise Bevan notified Waste Pro of NE Florida Regional VP Brian Wintjen on June 9 that the city expected to withhold $906,400 from its final, May 2023 payment to Waste Pro — $903,250 for the bins, plus a total of $3,150 for a handful of other alleged infractions, according to a document included in Waste Pro’s protest of the city’s assessment.

The $903,250 assessment, according to the notice, was due to Waste Pro’s “failure to handle waste receptacles carefully, thoroughly empty and return containers or garbage receptacles to original location as per contract.”

A Waste Pro division manager asked Palm Coast Citizen Engagement Analyst Alyssa Roscoe in a March 22 email to point out where the city’s contract with Waste Pro said that the city “owned” the bins.

Roscoe replied, “I am not able to find anything stating ‘ownership’. However in the definitions, section 6.29 and then on page 12 section 3.2, both pictured below, the bins are discussed.”

Roscoe attached photos of those portions of the contract: 6.29 defines a “plastic recycle container” as “any container purchased and distributed by or on behalf of city residents, by the contractor for the intended use as a receptacle of recyclable items,” while 3.2 states, “Recycling containers shall be provided to residents at no cost to the resident.”

Mostly naked man allegedly causes, flees multiple crashes

A mostly naked Port Orange driver and his female passenger were arrested June 21 after the man drove through an intersection, hitting multiple vehicles and fleeing the scene, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.

The crashes occurred at the intersection of East State Road 100 and South Old Kings Road in Palm Coast.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife officer saw the crashes and pursued the suspects’ SUV south on Old Kings Road, according to a press release from the FCSO.

The SUV pulled into Old Kings Elementary School and drove around the track before continuing down

“We notified them that we are going to withhold the liquidated damages, and that gives them a 10-day period to dispute.”

In its protest of the assessment, Waste Pro included a photo of Roscoe’s email, with the line “I am not able to find anything stating ‘ownership’” highlighted in yellow.

Waste Pro pointed to text in several city documents to support its case, including a Q&A addendum to the city’s 2011 Request For Proposals. It highlighted the following two questions:

“Question: Does the contractor need to purchase the recycle bins/ toters? Answer: Yes, and the contractor shall retain ownership of all bins/toters/carts. (The cost should be included in the price proposal).

“Question: Will the current hauler retain ownership of the current recycle bins? Answer: Yes.”

At a June 27 City Council meeting, the council authorized Palm Coast’s legal team to enter negotiations with Waste Pro over the assessment.

Briefs

Palm Coast motorcyclist, 46, killed in crash

A 46-year-old Palm Coast man died in a three-vehicle crash in Duval County on June 21.

The crash happened at 11:25 p.m. at the intersection of Mustang Road and U.S. 1, also known as Phillips Highway, in Duval County, according to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol.

A JTA passenger bus was turning left onto U.S. 1 North when two motorcyclists — one from Palm Coast and one from Jacksonville — riding south on U.S. 1 hit the side of the bus.

The bus’ three passengers were uninjured, but both motorcyclists were taken to Memorial Hospital.

The Palm Coast motorcyclist was declared dead at the hospital. The 53-year-old Jacksonville motorcyclist is in serious condition, the report said.

FHP conducted a traffic homicide investigation, and charges are pending, the report said.

Old Kings Road to the Flagler County landfill and then into a wooded area behind the landfill and Interstate 95, where FCSO deputies formed a perimeter.

The SUV got stuck against a concrete barrier.

When deputies pulled the driver out of the vehicle, he was nude except for a “small covering wrapped around his waist, and socks,” the press release said.

Both the driver and the passenger were charged with trespassing on school grounds and several drug possession charges.

The driver was also charged with fleeing and eluding, leaving the scene of a crash and resisting an officer.

DSC receives funding for capital, program projects

The Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis have allocated funding for four major projects at Daytona State College, including $4.8 million for a Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Center at the DeLand Campus.

The new center is scheduled to open in fall 2024 and will be the new home of DSC’s Law Enforcement Academy, now housed in the Advanced Technology College in Daytona Beach, according to a news release from DSC.

DSC also received $3.3 million for pedestrian and vehicle safety and amphitheater improvements for the Flagler/Palm Coast Campus.

The legislature allocated $500,000 for DSC to update the Auto Collision program at its Advanced Technology College. The funding will modernize existing space to meet current accreditation standards, including building a new paint booth and upgrading other facility equipment and space.

The college also received $650,000 for a database security, protection and monitoring program.