In Fort Wayne City Council’s final meeting of 2020, some members of the body are bringing the city’s waste management back into the spotlight.
2nd District Republican Russ Jehl introduced a resolution critical of the city's the Solid Waste Department, and calling on Mayor Tom Henry to intervene. The impetus for Jehl’s concern is that the department has been losing money, and hasn’t been proactive enough in oversight of Red River Waste Solutions with regard to levying fines for missed pickups.
Red River began garbage collection service at the beginning of 2018. The first six months of service led to roughly 3,000 complaints of missed pickups per month, leading to $462,000 in fines against the company.
While Council is the fiduciary body of Fort Wayne, the Solid Waste Department’s budget is under the mayor’s purview. Jehl says he thinks if the department’s financial situation is that dire, the mayor should intervene.
“It’s important to realize the poor first two years of the contract, the lax response from solid waste and the administration, and reduced services this year while continuing to charge the full rate puts all of us in the position where skepticism is high and trust is low.”
1st District Republican Paul Ensley says it’s not so much about Red River’s performance, but rather the “administration of the contract.”
The proposal ultimately didn’t have legs, falling short 6-3; at-large Democrat Glynn Hines crossed the aisle and voted with Jehl and Ensley. Jehl stated ahead of his presentation that he would respect the body’s decision if it rejected the proposal.
At-large Republican Tom Freistroffer was one of the “no” votes, but didn’t dismiss the concerns outright. He says he would have rather held the vote Tuesday in order to bring the discussion to Council next year instead of placing it on hold indefinitely.
“There’s areas of the resolution I agree with and there’s areas that I don’t. I agree that we have not had a daily list from the Solid Waste Department, and I think they have failed to maintain the dashboard that we talked about in the last Council.”
City Council does not plan to meet again, as of this writing, until Tuesday, January 26.
