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After failing to negotiate an extension with Waste Management, staff approached the city’s in-house garbage collection team and Miller Waste Systems about submitting west-zone proposals.

Miller Waste Systems already has contracts for the two south-end zones, while the in-house team has contracts for downtown and east zones. The city successfully negotiated extended contracts with both groups.

The proposal from Miller Waste Systems for the west zone was the lowest, but still a bit more than what council approved for contract extensions last April. If council approves the deal Wednesday, there will be roughly another 80 cents in annual garbage collections fees beyond what was forecast in April, when staff indicated fees would be about $10 more for garbage collection in each of 2020 and 2021 and about $2.50 more in 2022.

However, it won’t be until June 1, 2020, that Miller Waste Systems begins collecting trash in the west zone, leaving Waste Management to finish its contract at a time when the company is having what the city calls “performance issues.”

Journeaux’s memo doesn’t draw a link between Waste Management’s performance issues and contract negotiations.

However, in an interview in July, the city’s general manager in charge of garbage collection, Kevin Wylie, said the city was issuing liquidated damages to Waste Management and holding off on contract negotiations.

Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower said it varied which part of the trash — garbage, blue box, black box or green bin — didn’t get picked up on the scheduled day, though it was usually picked up the next day. The collection delays in Stittsville go as far back as Easter, he said.