Liberty Waste makes an effort after a spate of complaints and regains its good standing.
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer
Published November 11, 2005
Liberty Waste and Recycling has cleaned up its act following a spate of complaints this summer about missed garbage collections, cans thrown in the streets and spilled garbage on the roads, county officials said.
Company executives and officials with the county's Solid Waste Management Department appeared at the Bloomingdale Homeowners Association meeting Nov. 7 to assure residents that the company is back on track.
About a dozen people turned out to express frustration with their garbage and yard waste collection.
Liberty Waste general manager Mike Laverty said the Tampa company has dealt with problems stemming from a bad storm this summer that put it behind on its pickups.
The storm season not only caused a surge in the number of its customers putting out yard waste - a jump from about 30 percent to 75 percent - but Hurricane Katrina caused a shortage of available rental trucks, he said.
Also, Liberty Waste had a "personnel" issue, which it resolved by firing an employee, Laverty said.
The company has made additional hires, including a community relations employee to work with the public and has started a company newsletter, he said.
Liberty, one of three of the county's waste contractors, has 82,000 of the county's 225,000 solid waste customers, said Bryant Johnson, manager of customer services for the county's Solid Waste Management Department.
Its customers are concentrated in the eastern and southeastern section of Hillsborough.
Johnson, who appeared at the meeting, said afterward that all three contractors had problems following the same summer storm.
Complaints about Liberty, whose nine-year contract was extended for another three years last month, were pouring into the county's offices at a rate of between 100 to 200 a week for about six weeks until they tapered off in September, he said.
The other two contractors endured roughly the same level of complaints, he added.
Before the summer, Liberty enjoyed a good record with the county, he said.
The county has the ability to assess or fine contractors during spikes in complaints, Johnson said. But the county did not do so because the problems were storm related and were fixed.
"They have taken quite a few proactive steps, including adding staff and purchasing vehicles and increasing customer service representatives," Johnson said. "They made improvements across the board."
