County cleans up trash debacle
February 8, 2017
About 600 households in two of Richland County’s trash collection service areas experienced lackluster service over a period of several weeks in January – so, the County Administrator thought an apology was necessary.
Unfortunately, what should have been an apology to several hundred households ballooned into a minor debacle.
The pick-up of solid waste – trash, recycling and yard debris – is a vital public service provided to residents. Therefore, missed collections are a major concern. The transition to new haulers for the two areas began Jan. 2.
While some collections were missed by drivers, some residents placed their roll carts out later in the day, on the wrong day or during the wrong week. Also, collections were temporarily on a different schedule during a transition period to new haulers. All of this resulted in numerous calls to the County Ombudsman’s Office.
In an effort to ensure better service going forward, County staff met with the haulers to discuss the County’s expectations and ways to eliminate missed pickups and other collection issues. In addition, an apology letter signed personally by the County Administrator was issued. That’s when more problems arose.
The letter was altered and mailed to thousands of households in the service area, regardless of whether they were affected by the missed collections. To make matters worse, the altered letter was mailed late and contained spelling errors and a digitized version of the County Administrator’s signature. As a matter of practice, the County Administrator personally signs his correspondence.
Several peopled emailed and called the County about the altered letter. Some appreciated the apology. Others said it was unnecessary and others pointed out the spelling errors and impersonal nature of adding a digitized signature. It was the calls and emails about the errors and digitized signature that launched an internal investigation.
Staff determined that miscommunication between departments led to the mass mail-out to thousands, rather than just to the affected customers. Further, the contractor hired to do the mail-out altered the letter to accommodate its use of envelopes with windows. In doing so, spelling errors and a digital signature were added.
Disciplinary action has been taken against the employee who approved the altered letter.
As of Jan. 30, garbage, recycling and yard waste collection returned to regular schedules in the affected areas – and the County still is receiving calls about that altered letter.
