County Says 988 Residents Issued Citations for Failure to Have Trash Service

A St. Louis County spokesperson said the county has issued almost 1,000 citations to county residents who have failed to use the County’s assigned trash hauler. While the county says this is a very small percentage of residents and plays down the impact, the fine and court cost to residents adds up to over $112,000 which is no small change.

In addition, St. Louis County is incurring overhead expenses which are estimated in the hundreds of thousands per year. Since the trash program was approved by the County Council in December 2006, estimates of accumulated costs from all parties is well in excess of $11 million.

St. Louis County officials have refused to publish any figures on their on-going expenses, mainly because they just don’t know. The overhead is coming from all directions – employee labor, travel mileage, trash containers, meeting expenses, postage, printing, telephone, office overhead, plus the expenses of their designated trash haulers for trucks, labor and administration. Subdivision trustees from across the county have spent countless hours and expenses communicating with their residents over the past three years.

This situation has a contingent liability hanging over the county along with their assigned trash haulers. If the County loses the pending lawsuit that requires their designated haulers to refund money collected, the end result could be disastrous to both the haulers and the County. Will the haulers – and St. Louis County – be in a position to refund potentially millions of dollars to county residents? It’s a question that cannot be ignored, but it’s being ignored by County officials.

Are residents in your subdivision affected? You bet they are. Although a subdivision may have opted in to the County’s trash program, the odds are not all residents of your subdivision are happy with the selection. Unfortunately, they are unable to change to a trash hauler of their choice. If the County is found to be in violation, those residents will jump on the band wagon and move to their preferred hauler - and look for their refund.