Fall River owed $70K to vendors after mayor ended pay-as-you-throw

FALL RIVER — The city has about a two-month supply of the controversial pay-as-you-throw purple trash bags after the administration had to repay vendors $70,280 for excess supplies and after Mayor Jasiel Correia II abruptly ended the program in January.

According to Finance Director Mary Sahady, there may be one more bill on the way to pay off the remaining balance of the returned bags.

The city also just invested $95,000 in trash, recycling and yard waste carts to service city customers who are cancelling contracts with private waste haulers and returning to city solid waste service.

One day after being certified to secure his spot on the list of candidates in a recall election, Correia held a news conference to announce the end of PAYT and that residents no longer needed to use the city-issued trash bags.

Correia, who was recalled but won in a plurality from a list of five candidates in March, admitted that the timing of his decision was political but that it was a campaign promise he was delivering.

The program brought in more than $2 million in revenue annually.

The PAYT program was started in July 2014 under former mayor Will Flanagan. Correia attempted to do away with the program a number of times, seeking cooperation with the City Council which voted down the move, citing the loss of $2 million in revenue.

The program was unpopular with many residents and, from the start, the city had a difficult time with compliance until recently.

After his announcement, Correia disbanded the Department of Community Maintenance’s four-man compliance crew which also oversaw recycling compliance.

During the January press event, Correia gave scant details to the public about how the program would be shut down. A few days later, WasteZero, the company that managed the program, sent letters to retailers stating that the city did not expect stores to accept returns from customers or to give any refunds for bags already purchased.

Mark Dancy, president of WasteZero, said in an email that the contract with the city required that the company keep inventory on hand in local stores.

Correia’s sudden announcement that residents no longer needed to purchase purple bags didn’t allow time to deplete the inventory, according to Dancy.

In another result of the ending of PAYT, about 200 customers are going back online with the city’s trash service. The city didn’t have enough trash and recycling receptacles to accommodate the demand at the time.

Department of Community Maintenance Director John Perry said 500 blue and green carts for recycling and trash were delivered recently. The smaller, 65-gallon carts will be delivered to single-family households beginning this week.

Customers in tenement buildings are waiting for their 95-gallon carts and Perry said that he expects the 1,125 trash, recycling and yard waste carts will arrive next week.

“This order will take care of the initial influx of residents opting back in and then some,” said Perry.

The cost to purchase the $95,000 worth of carts is funded through a capital expense bond previously approved by the City Council, Perry said.

Perry said carts would be doled out on a first-come, first-serve basis for people who originally opted out of trash service.

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com.