Trash problems rile residents of Hawthorne

Customers gripe about missed pickups, garbage cans left in driveways and higher fees since a new hauler took over. By Doug IrvingStaff Writer

The complaints have been piling up ever since Hawthorne changed the way it collects trash and handed the job to a new hauler. And, for some residents, that's not all that's piled up.
City leaders have been peppered with claims of missed pickups and growing mounds of garbage.

They also have heard plenty about garbage cans dumped in driveways and higher charges turning up on trash bills ever since Allied Waste Services took over the city's routes this spring.
The change was supposed to solve an expensive problem for Hawthorne. Its former trash hauler had fallen further and further behind in its payments to the city and now owes an estimated $1.5 million.

But Hawthorne officials are finding that fixing the city's trash problems isn't quite as easy as slapping a new company's logo onto garbage cans and trash trucks. They say some bumps and hassles were to be expected during the changeover, and they hope to have them smoothed out soon.

"It's going to be resolved," said William Wilson III, the general manager of Allied's Gardena Division. "Within the course of the next two weeks, we should have no problems within the city of Hawthorne."

Trash collection has been a thorn in Hawthorne's side for more than a year. Before Allied took over, the city had worked almost exclusively for decades with H&C Disposal - which had slipped in its payment of routine city fees.

City leaders spent most of last year trying to coax the money out of H&C, then gave up this April and canceled the contract. It hired Allied to handle not just H&C's old residential routes, but also those for commercial buildings, apartments and offices.

As part of the deal, Allied had to make an upfront payment of $1.5 million to the city - enough to cover the debt H&C had built up.

The company raised the monthly trash rate for most residential customers by about 5percent; but it also started charging some larger customers, such as apartment buildings, new service fees.

The complaints started ringing into City Hall shortly after Allied trucks began rolling. For one thing, Allied uses trucks with automated arms that lift and empty garbage cans - and don't always put the cans back where they should be.

Allied also has been learning the hard way that H&C and other previous trash haulers in Hawthorne didn't always keep the best records of their customers.

By the city's count, Allied inherited some 800 trash bins that had never shown up on accounts before.

The company has since brought in more drivers to work Hawthorne on more days, as well as helpers to walk the residential routes and make sure bins are left where they should be.
It also has posted a full-time customer-service representative at City Hall, who can be reached at 310-349-2986.

Company officials told the City Council this week that the problems were part of a rougher-than-expected transition, but that they would be taken care of. "It takes time to iron it out," Mayor Larry Guidi said.

H&C Disposal, meanwhile, has collapsed since losing the city's contract. It filed for bankruptcy and, in court documents, listed more than $3.8 million in outstanding claims against it.

The biggest of those claims, by far, is the $1.5 million that Hawthorne thinks the company owes.
In the past, members of the City Council have shown little interest in pursuing that money with a lawsuit, choosing instead to sever the company's contract and move on.

But City Attorney Glen Shishido indicated this week that Hawthorne would file a claim with the bankruptcy court. "Of course we'll do a filing," he told council members. "Oh, of course we'll petition for the full amount."

doug.irving@dailybreeze.com