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City collects trash, not cash

Billings don't include all pickups, costing maybe $1.4-million a year, an audit finds.

By JANET ZINK
Published April 18, 2007

TAMPA - Six times a week, city garbage collectors stop by Bern's Steak House to haul away old packaging and once-delectable food scraps.

But the city of Tampa billed the restaurant for collection only three times a week.

The lost revenue to the city: $405.57 a month.

Billing problems like that for commercial garbage collection have resulted in a potential loss of revenue of up to $118,648 a month for the city's Solid Waste Department, according to an internal auditor's report.

That could add up to more than $1.4-million a year of unbilled services in the $69-million-a-year department.

Solid waste director David McCary said he doubts the problem is as widespread as auditors suggest.

"That's the worst-case scenario," he said. "The potential is overstated."

McCary said accounts identified in the audit, which looked at billings as of Sept. 1, 2006, have been corrected. People who received free services will be back-billed, he said.

Right now, though, he doesn't know how long Bern's and other commercial customers - including the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Lowry Park Zoo and builder Franklin Harrison - received free services.

Heather Sherer-Berkoff, a spokeswoman for Bern's, said the restaurant has had six-day-a-week garbage pickup "forever."

It won't be billed for that much service, though.

"We can go back as far as two years," McCary said. "I just have to verify it."

While Bern's received more frequent garbage collection than billings reflect, the Sheriff's Office was billed for service of only two containers instead of three.

"Our drivers were very conscientious, and rather than leaving the bin there, they picked it up," said auditor Roger Strout. "Think of it as a sanitary risk."

The city has 2,860 commercial solid waste customers. The audit looked at 45 accounts, and found eight with billing problems, a 17.8 percent error rate.

The errors amounted to $1,866.85 in unbilled monthly charges. When extrapolated to the entire commercial service operation, the audit concluded, "there is a potential for 508 errors and unbilled monthly revenue of approximately $118,648."

McCary attributes the problem to two databases that don't communicate. One keeps track of how often to pick up garbage and how many containers are on the site. The other tracks billing.

Trouble is, if a business requests more frequent service or additional containers, that request isn't automatically reflected in the billing database.

"Staff has to do double work to look at both systems," McCary said. "We're working all the time to keep both systems updated. That's the challenge."

He said the city's technology department has been working "for a couple years" to devise a software solution, and hopes to have one in place by the end of the year.

"This is not the first time that we've heard that this issue needs to be addressed," McCary said, noting the problem "will exist until we get the right system in here."

In the meantime, employees try to stay on top of discrepancies between service and billings and keep errors to a minimum, he said.

"I don't think personally we have a problem that won't be fixed in time," McCary said. "This is not something that's insurmountable."

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.

[Last modified April 18, 2007, 06:31:29]