The City of Reno has commissioned a survey to determine residential and business customer opinions about Waste Management. The online surveys will be available until November 2, 2018.
Results are expected to be presented to the City Council on November 14.
“We look forward to hearing from residents and businesses, and working with Council to identify opportunities to improve customer service, service provision and educational outreach,” Reno City Manager Sabra Newby said.
The city authorized in March $15,000 to conduct the survey after lawsuits and ongoing complaints about Waste Management’s practices and the city’s franchise agreement with the company.
“I think it’s important to find out how the public feels about choice,” said Mayor Hillary Schieve in March, as reported by ThisisReno. “There was confusion on what that (franchise agreement) really meant.”
Her statement was followed by a talk by former Councilmember Dave Aiazzi, who said that the franchise agreement specifically allowed for other haulers to stay in business. Aiazzi was involved with negotiations of the agreement, which was enacted in 2013.
Since then, the city has actively threatening business owners with fines and jail time for using waste haulers other than Waste Management, something that the those involved with creating the franchise agreement say was never the intent.
“We went a long ways — had many, many meetings — to make sure that the people who were hauling away recyclables could stay in business the entire time,” Aiazzi told the council in March. “Waste Management agreed to that; the recyclers agreed to that. No one else could get into the business, but no one else could be forced out. This was not designed to take any business out of business, by any means.”
Take the Survey
The surveys are online:
➔ Residents: Take the 2018 Reno Solid Waste and Recycling Resident Survey
➔ Businesses: Take the 2018 Reno Solid Waste and Recycling Commercial Survey
