Republic Services manager: staffing changes and data errors behind recent missed pickups in Sanger

Jeffrey Harwell, municipal services manager for Republic Services, told the Sanger City Council during the meeting that recent staffing changes and data-calculation errors have contributed to missed trash and recycling pickups under the company’s Sanger contract.

Harwell said, “It hasn't been good,” and described a series of personnel changes at the Lewisville facility — a new operations manager, supervisors, a new general manager and new sales and industrial managers — that he said have required retraining and restructuring.

Those management changes, Harwell told council members, coincided with mapping and reporting problems that caused route listings to show some addresses twice and other data to be doubled on slides in the company’s monthly packet. Harwell said he found at least one calculation error in the packet and provided a corrected hard copy at the meeting.

Harwell described several specifics: he said the contract’s “dry buy” collections (brush, trash and recycling) show a very small number of misses overall but that even single misses matter because of resident perception. He said June had 31 trash misses but noted that number should be read in the context of the total number of services performed. He also said residential tonnage and single-stream recycling volumes fluctuate month to month — for example, January’s recycling typically rises after the holidays.

On technology and tracking, Harwell said route maps are kept on company computers and the trucks are being equipped with tablets; operations can produce GPS logs on request to show whether a truck drove a given route. He said most trucks now have forward-facing cameras but that the company does not place cameras on the mechanical arm that lifts containers because the arm would likely damage such cameras.

Harwell named two Republic Services staff who now work on the contract’s municipal reporting: Yanira Hyman (municipal coordinator) and Admal Flores (municipal administrator). He said he will request an audit of diverted materials at the processing facility to get more-accurate figures on what is actually being recycled and to correct any doubling or calculation errors in the city report.

Harwell told the council he supervises a broad portfolio and that he will continue to monitor routes and reports closely; he said the company sent a truck immediately when the city reported missed pickups and expects to correct mapping errors that cause a street to appear on the wrong pickup day. He offered to continue working with city staff on notifications and follow-up.

The presentation drew questions from council members about specific slides and the causes of apparent doubling in some monthly figures; council staff said they will continue to coordinate with Republic Services. Harwell said he could return to a future council meeting for an update if requested.

The council heard the Republic Services presentation during its scheduled meeting; no formal council action on the contract was recorded in the transcript.