St. Clair Shores council presses Priority Waste on late pickups, phone hold times and crew conduct

St. Clair Shores council members and residents pressed Priority Waste executives on Tuesday over repeated trash-collection failures, long customer-service hold times and safety and training lapses that left some residents’ yards and curbs strewn with waste.

Council members and residents said missed stops and slow responses have been a near‑daily problem since Priority Waste assumed city contracts in 2024. Vince Hoiampa, general counsel and chief of staff for Priority Waste, acknowledged the company had not met expectations and described steps the company has taken to improve service, including adding trucks, hiring staff and changing operations-management personnel.

Why this matters: Council and residents said the problems are not isolated incidents but a persistent service decline that affects quality of life, increases staff time spent resolving complaints, and could require municipal intervention before the contract’s June 30, 2026, expiration.

Priority Waste’s response and timeline Priority Waste executives told council the company has ordered and taken possession of additional trucks, has restructured parts of its operations team and is expanding its customer-service staffing. Hoiampa said the company has acquired about 40 trucks so far and ordered 100 total; he said additional trucks would be delivered over the next 30–90 days.

Hoiampa said Priority Waste is boosting daily route briefings for drivers and monitoring routes with in‑vehicle cameras and “third eye” technology. He said the company now meets daily with lead drivers and managers to review missed stops and is exploring a dedicated St. Clair Shores phone queue and other digital contact options for residents. He promised to deliver a written recovery plan to the city manager within two weeks and to return with a progress report at the council meeting in one month.

Council and resident complaints Council members recounted frequent personal and constituent contacts with the hauler: dozens of emails per day to staff, residents forced to spend hours on hold or repeatedly contact the company, and multiple incidents in which yard waste or recyclables were improperly handled. Council members gave specific examples: crews leaving yard‑waste debris strewn on streets after rain, drivers allegedly tossing recycling into garbage trucks, and a widely shared social‑media photo showing cans stacked but trash not picked up.

Several council members and residents criticized the phone system — described by one councilmember as having only four receptionists for Priority Waste’s region — and questioned whether the company’s central intake queue mixes billing and service calls in a way that lengthens hold times. Dan Venet, the city’s municipal representative to Priority Waste, told the council he receives an average of seven emails per day about service problems and said the volume has not improved enough despite repeated promises.

Operational and staffing concerns Council members pressed Priority Waste about the company’s decision not to assign route supervisors in pickup trucks — a lower‑tech approach used by previous contractors — and instead rely on remote monitoring. Hoiampa said Priority Waste believes in remote monitoring and multiple on‑site cameras, but acknowledged field‑level turnover in logistics driver coordinators (LDCs) had weakened oversight; he said the company has replaced managers and LDC staff.

Councillors also raised pay and training questions for CDL drivers and reported instances of unsafe conduct, damaged property and incomplete routes. Priority Waste said residential driver wages have risen since 2018 and are currently in the mid‑$20s to $30s per hour range and that disciplinary review processes are being followed when employees are accused of misconduct.

Council direction and next steps Council asked for a detailed memo and recovery plan describing: additional trucks and staffing dedicated to St. Clair Shores; changes to the phone and callback system including any timeline for a dedicated local phone queue; training and supervision changes for LDCs and drivers; complaints and resolution metrics; and whether the company will provide a dedicated operations contact for council. Hoiampa agreed to provide the report to the city manager within two weeks and to appear at the next regular council meeting in one month.

Council also discussed forming a procurement subcommittee and noted the Priority Waste contract expires on June 30, 2026; the mayor said the city will evaluate all contracting options — including rebidding, multijurisdictional consortiums or in‑house service — before the expiration date.

Context and resident impact Residents and several council members said the problem has required them to spend uncompensated time reporting missed pickups and communicating with the hauler, and that visible debris and wet yard waste have created public‑safety and stormwater concerns. Multiple speakers said social‑media posts show mixed sentiments in other communities the company serves, indicating the problems are regional rather than strictly local.

Priority Waste executives repeatedly apologized, described concrete steps already taken, and accepted the council’s request for a written progress update and a one‑month follow‑up presentation. The company and council said they will continue to track daily completion reports and complaint resolution times.

Ending: The council did not take formal enforcement action at the meeting, but the company’s commitment to a written recovery plan and a return visit in one month gives the council scheduled checkpoints to monitor improvements.