The city’s solid waste division has the lowest percentage of its workforce vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus of any division of city government.

The 37% of solid waste workers vaccinated so far, according to figures from the city administration, is part of a vaccination rate of 50% for the total city workforce of 4,000 employees.

The solid waste rate compares to 48% of firefighters vaccinated, 47% of Memphis Police and 91% of employees of the executive division, which includes the mayor’s office.

City faces critical decision on one of its most basic services

The low vaccination rate is just one of the problems the city faces as it wrestles with chronic problems surrounding solid waste disposal. 

Council member Edmund Ford Sr. reacted angrily Tuesday, Sept. 21, to the news about vaccination rates within the solid waste division. 

““Shut this doggone place down if they are not going to take that vaccination. That’s what y’all need to do – mandate it. If they don’t like it, let them sue us. We’ll win because they’ll be dead by that time.”

Memphis City Councilman Edmund Ford Sr.

“Shut this doggone place down if they are not going to take that vaccination,” he said. “That’s what y’all need to do – mandate it. If they don’t like it, let them sue us. We’ll win because they’ll be dead by that time.”

City Human Resources Chief Alex Smith, however, said the city is weighing a mandate as part of federal regulations by the Biden administration against a state law passed earlier this year that allows employees to opt out of vaccine mandates if they feel it violates their “conscience.”

Smith said the city is also awaiting federal guidance on the specific employer mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees outlined by President Joe Biden.

The Politics of Garbage: A backlog of leaves bumps into complex past

Meanwhile, interim solid waste division Director Chandell Ryan told Memphis City Council members Tuesday, Sept. 21, that solid waste employees missing work because of COVID or exposure to others with COVID remains a factor in spotty delivery of solid waste pickup services.

Earlier in the pandemic, a quarter of the city’s solid waste workforce was off the job with the virus or in isolation because of exposure to others with the virus.

As the workforce began returning and recovering from those losses, there were new shortages at the start of the summer from workers who were allowed to hold over vacation days and use them later than they ordinarily would.

Director leaves Memphis’ solid waste division

The division’s recovery has been more complicated as it faces still larger issues and choices around preparing to possibly rebid a long-term contract with a private waste company to serve one of the five solid waste collection zones in the city or consider turning over what is known as Area E to city crews.

Area E is about 35,000 households covering parts of Cordova, Hickory Hill and southeast Memphis.

Ryan told council members Tuesday that having city solid waste crews handle all garbage pick up within the city would cost the division an extra $28.9 million a year.

How your solid waste fee ballooned to $30 a month

That would mean abandoning the city’s goal of keeping the city’s monthly solid waste fee at $29.96 through 2030 or finding the extra funding with what amounts to a subsidy from the city’s general fund revenues.

The administration of Mayor Jim Strickland proposed, and the council approved, raising the rate in 2020 with the goal of a fee that paid for the complete cost of the garbage pickup.

But some of the same council members who voted for that solid waste fee hike said Tuesday they want a broader re-examination of solid waste services beyond whether to keep Area E under contract or include it in direct city services.

“I’ve never seen Memphis look like this before ever in my life,” council member Jamita Swearengen said of trash and dumping in her district. “It is a serious problem and it has become a disaster — a serious disaster.”

Council member Rhonda Logan argued that a further fee hike could be justified once the services Memphians are paying for are improved.

Overtime, emergency contracts get Cordova, Area E garbage picked up

“I think we still have to deliver on that,” she said. “Whatever we need to do — whatever we have to do to pick up the trash — I think that’s the key. Time and time again we have not delivered with these (private) contracts.”

Strickland fired Waste Pro, the private contractor for Area E, in April. The termination of the contract came with three years left in the long-term agreement.

Since then, Team Waste has provided service to Area E under an emergency services contract with the city at a higher cost than a long-term contract would cost the city.

That was followed in May by the resignation of Solid Waste Division director Al Lamar and emails made public that suggested there was little accountability in the division and tracking of employee schedules outside of the solid waste pickup handled by a private contractor.

Council member Martavius Jones suggested Tuesday abandoning a solid waste fee and instead paying for the service as part of the city property tax rate.

“I think solid waste is just as important as police and fire when it comes to the health of citizens that we serve,” he said. “If we want a clean city, we’ve got to pay for it.”

“We are presiding over a dirty city,” Jones added. “We cannot look at fees to do things, particularly solid waste. Property taxes is how we fairly provide this service.” 

Meanwhile, council member Worth Morgan proposed Tuesday using $3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding over three fiscal years for the solid waste division.

The funding would go toward training more drivers, hiring a swing shift mechanic to get trucks back into action and outfitting solid waste trucks with cameras to determine why crews are missing some curbside pickups.

The money, if approved, would come from the council’s $20 million share of a total of $161 million in ARPA funding coming to the city.

Council members took no action Tuesday. They are expected to discuss the issue more at Oct. 5 committee sessions.