Republic Services told the Lewisville City Council on May 19 that it has taken immediate and longer‑term steps to address missed curbside trash and recycling pickups after the city issued a cure letter earlier this year.

Company representatives said they brought in experienced drivers from the Dallas–Fort Worth area and beyond, deployed additional routes and supervisors and began using in‑cab and outward‑facing cameras and GPS “breadcrumbs” to verify that streets received service. Modesto Dominguez, identified at the meeting as the company’s area vice president for Texas public services, described operational changes after leadership and staffing gaps contributed to the failures.

What the company told council: Chuck, the Lewisville general manager, and Mike Hernandez, Republic’s operations manager, said an extended absence by the previous general manager and an undersized operations manager left the contract short of drivers. Hernandez said the company "brought in people from around the DFW area, even outside the state, to kinda help us with the staffing. What that did was able to get us fully staffed for this contract." He said the company added a supplemental route for multiple‑unit pickups so lead drivers could verify missed collections and that it hired logistics analysts to ensure route maps and training were followed.

The company also said it added supervisors and a new supervisor role and is using truck cameras to review incidents and retrain drivers. "We have cameras on our trucks. We want to evaluate the videos," the operations manager said. He added the cameras have inward and outward views and GPS so leadership can cross‑check whether a truck passed a residence at the scheduled time.

Resident complaints and calls for better public communications: Several residents and council members criticized Republic’s customer‑service response. One resident told the council: "I have not once been able to get through. Not once, actually, since 2021." Council members and residents said callers often found it hard to reach a live agent or were routed to voicemails. The company acknowledged the problem and said it has retrained call‑center supervisors, added a Lewisville‑specific call script and is conducting “secret‑shopper” tests to check whether calls reach a human agent.

The city and Republic also discussed making outbound notifications and better social‑media updates when large service disruptions occur so residents know the cause (for example, breakdowns, staffing shortages or severe weather) instead of assuming persistent poor service. Republic said it added a web form that generates e‑mail notifications to both the company’s customer service and city staff so missed‑pickup reports can be tracked.

Council comments and expectations: Council members emphasized that improved performance must be durable, not temporary. One council member said he had been unhappy with service since contract inception and urged the company to prepare for consequences if problems persist. Republic said it had addressed immediate leadership and staffing gaps and implemented processes to maintain service: cross‑training drivers for route coverage, weekly meetings with city staff, and a 1:30 p.m. area‑level call to coordinate assistance when breakdowns occur.

No formal action was taken at the meeting; the presentation was an informational update following earlier city enforcement steps. City staff and Republic said they will continue weekly operational meetings and monitoring and report back to the council if problems persist.