Contract Dispute Will Not Cause Disruptions in Trash Service, City Officials Say

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Ocean City has become embroiled in a contract dispute with its waste-hauling company, but Mayor Jay Gillian assured residents that recycling and trash collection will continue without any disruptions or delays. “There will be no disruption in service. All services will continue on time,” Gillian said in an interview Saturday. Gold Medal Environmental, or GME, has been under contract to provide trash and recycling pickups for Ocean City for the past four years at about $1.5 million annually. With less than a year remaining on a five-year contract, Gold Medal demanded that Ocean City pay an additional $1.4 million for the balance of 2022, the city said in a statement. “They offer no detailed explanation of what would justify this increase – beyond generalizations about inflation, labor shortages and changes in recycling markets. Acknowledging these factors, the city agreed to consider adjustments, but asked for data to support the demand,” the statement said. In the meantime, Gillian said he will not let a contractor “hold Ocean City’s taxpayers hostage by threatening to withhold services.” Gold Medal issued a news release Friday stating that it would cease recycling pickups in Ocean City as of Monday, May 2, because it has not been able to reach an agreement with the city. “GME regrets that it has been unable to successfully engineer with Ocean City any of the multiple solutions adopted by neighboring municipalities to avoid the negative impact on the health, safety and welfare of their residents,” the company stated in the release. According to the release, “The extreme inflationary emergency and pandemic driven labor market shortages have made it broadly impossible to perform labor and fuel intensive services at existing contract levels.” Barring an agreement with GME, the city said it is ready to provide uninterrupted trash and recycling services through a combination of shared services with Sea Isle City, contracted services with vendors outside Gold Medal and by using the Ocean City Public Works Department. “We’re always ready. We’ve known about this for a month,” City Business Administrator George Savastano said of the simmering dispute with GME. During a recent City Council meeting, Savastano announced that GME had notified the city that it wanted to renegotiate some of the terms of the contract. He declined to divulge details at that time, noting that the issue involved contract negotiations and potential litigation. Savastano said Saturday that Ocean City will continue negotiations with GME, but he also raised the possibility of a lawsuit against the company for breach of contract if an agreement can’t be reached. “We’re willing to negotiate with them,” Savastano said in an interview. In its statement, Ocean City said it “fully expects the company to uphold its contract and will continue to pursue good-faith negotiations.” City Councilman Terry Crowley Jr. said he believes GME simply is not fulfilling the terms of its contract and failed to negotiate in good faith. “If the roles were reversed, they wouldn’t give us money back,” Crowley said. Similar to Gillian’s comments, Crowley also said that the city has taken steps to continue trash and recycling collections and residents should see no delays or interruptions in service. Ocean City said in its statement that GME is employing similar tactics with other municipalities in Cape May County. North Wildwood terminated its contract with Gold Medal on Friday. Other towns, including Ocean City, are contemplating similar steps depending upon Gold Medal’s actions, the statement added. GME’s news release said the company “is pleased to announce resolutions in Paulsboro, Avalon, and the Wildwoods to avoid the kind of service disruptions experienced by other municipalities throughout the pandemic and economic crises.” However, Ocean City spokesman Doug Bergen said that it is Ocean City’s understanding that GME has reached no agreement with Wildwood or West Wildwood, despite what the company states in its release. North Wildwood issued a statement saying that on March 8 the chief executive officer of GME appeared at the North Wildwood Public Works Building and insisted that North Wildwood pay GME two to three times the agreed upon contract payments or else GME would “leave the trash in the streets.” For the past two months, North Wildwood officials have attempted to reach a reasonable agreement with Gold Medal, only to be met with further threats that GME would breach its contract and “leave garbage in the streets,” if North Wildwood did not acquiesce to GME’s demands, the city said in its statement.