Republic to refund overflow charges

By Tony Cook (contact)

Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006 | 7:06 a.m.

Hoping to end a dispute that Las Vegas Valley property managers felt smelled as bad as the garbage it involved, the major local trash company agreed Monday to refund more than $300,000 in questionable big-container overflow charges.

And despite the foggy origins of the controversial fee, Clark County commissioners will likely approve a code change Wednesday that will allow Republic Services to charge property managers a fee if their garbage containers are filled beyond capacity.

Property managers plan to support the proposed change.

The payouts and revised code follow a Sun story in June that highlighted Republic's practices.

Initially, Republic truck drivers were paid $4 for each photograph they took of containers with garbage piled above the lip of the bin at apartment, condominium and commercial properties. The company then charged the property manager a fee of nearly $50.

Property managers claimed the practice encouraged drivers to skip pickups to create overflowing containers. They also argued that Republic had no right under county code to charge the fee.

After the Sun story, Republic stopped paying its drivers for photographs.

County officials also questioned whether Republic had the authority to charge the fee and asked for an opinion from the Clark County district attorney's office.

That opinion said that although the code does not specifically address the issue, the combination of several code provisions "provide sufficient basis for Republic Services to have inferred that it has the authority to charge" the fee.

Republic Area President Bob Coyle, who was new to the job at the time, sent a letter to the county in January 2005 asking for approval to charge the fee. County officials, however, never responded, and Republic began charging the fee.

On Monday, county officials called their nonresponsiveness a mistake.

"The county never officially granted that request," said Don Burnette, the county's chief administrative officer. "In fact, we didn't respond at all. We probably should have. That was an oversight on our part."

The letter was addressed to County Franchise Coordinator Roma Haynes, who has since retired.

If the issue had been brought to his attention at the time, Burnette said he would have sought a clarification in the county code, which is what he did after the Sun brought the issue to light.

The proposed code changes would formally establish an overage fee of $30, but require a warning letter be sent to violating property managers before a fee can be charged.

The code revision also would define an overage as a situation in which garbage is on the ground outside the trash container or is piled so high that garbage spills onto the ground as it is emptied, requiring more than minimal manual cleanup.

The changes to the ordinance also would allow a wider variety of pickup frequencies, provide a credit for property managers if Republic misses a collection and require Republic to fix or replace containers damaged by drivers.

Barbara Holland, president of H&L Realty, which manages about 5,000 residential units and 800,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, said she is satisfied with the provisions.

The revised ordinance, however, left unresolved what to do about the 20 months of overage charges that Republic levied before halting the practice in August.

During that time, the fees brought in $1.2 million of revenue for Republic in Las Vegas and an estimated $1.5 million in unincorporated Clark County, Burnette said.

Property managers have threatened a class action lawsuit against Republic to have those monies returned.

During a meeting with property managers Monday, Coyle offered to credit the accounts of 73 property management companies 50 percent of the overage fees that they had been charged since the practice began - a total of more than $300,000, according to Coyle and Holland.

Coyle said Republic will deal with other property managers on a case-by-case basis.