They will verify the number of addresses being served by the 3 companies, New Orleans inspector general says
New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux announced Friday that he will use citizen volunteers this month to help verify how many locations are being served by the city's three sanitation contractors.
View full sizeMetro Disposal, Richard's Disposal and SDT Waste & Debris Services are paid based on the number of addresses where they pick up trash, but there has been controversy for years about how accurate the address counts are.The contractors -- Metro Disposal, Richard's Disposal and SDT Waste & Debris Services -- are paid based on the number of addresses where they pick up trash, but there has been controversy for years about how accurate the address counts are.
The counts originally were established as rough estimates before the current contractors were hired in late 2006, though the companies have since backed them up by providing lists of the actual addresses they report serving.
Quatrevaux said establishing the correct numbers is crucial because the city's bill for trash collection more than doubled under the current contracts from what it was paying before Hurricane Katrina.
About 200 volunteers for what is being called a "citizen verification project" will be provided by Common Good and supporting organizations under the direction of Michael Cowan.
Volunteers will check about 2,000 addresses drawn at random from the lists reported to the city. They will be trained next week and are to complete their reports by Oct. 24. The results will be provided to the administration and the City Council by Oct. 28.
The project "will give us 99 percent confidence that the 'true' number is within plus or minus 5 percent" of the figure determined by the survey, Quatrevaux said.
"There are three possible outcomes: the contractors are paid about right or overpaid or underpaid," he said. "The important thing is to resolve the issue."
He said the survey "would not be possible without the contribution made by this diverse group of citizen volunteers."
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who is proposing to increase the monthly sanitation service fee paid by homeowners, has been trying to get the two largest trash-collection vendors, Metro and Richard's, to agree to reduce the cost of their contracts.
The companies earn a combined $27.5 million annually to pick up trash in areas outside the French Quarter and Central Business District, though each agreed in January to take a 10 percent cut for 2010 in return for a three-year contract extension from then-Mayor Ray Nagin.
If the parties can't reach a new agreement, Landrieu said this week, he will seek new bids. "We believe the city is paying too much for garbage services and the contract is not consistent with what we believe the fair market value is," he said.
Daniel Davillier, an attorney for Metro and Richard's, said both firms have offered "significant financial concessions," even though they contend their original rates are comparable with what other local parishes pay for similar service. The companies also do not think City Hall has the right to abrogate their contracts and seek new bids, he said.
SDT, which picks up trash and cleans streets in the CBD and French Quarter, agreed this summer to cut the cost of its city contract by 25 percent, from $5.16 million to $3.84 million a year, for the rest of its term. Although the company continues to perform most services required under its deal, it stopped providing a few services.
Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3320.