St. John’s County, Florida. – Less than a month after it began providing waste collection services in St. Johns County, FCC Environmental Services was put on the street Tuesday after thousands of residents complained about service interruptions.

Commissioners met Tuesday morning and took up an emergency motion to discuss the FCC contract and its disastrous implementation.

After a lengthy discussion with the company’s CEO, county officials and angry residents, commissioners voted unanimously to terminate the contract with FCC.

“It seems to me that there was a breach of contract from day one. And you abandoned us during a hurricane. You created a public safety and health crisis in our community,” said Commissioner Sarah Arnold, who was among the customers whose garbage was not picked up on Monday. “Personally, I can say that I have lost all faith in the FCC. I believe the majority of our residents would feel the same way.”

Last year, commissioners voted to award FCC Environmental Services a contract worth $28.2 million – several million less than the next highest bidder – to handle garbage collection for the entire county. On August 1, the company began serving 112,000 county residents.

RELATED | St. Johns County switches waste disposal provider to FCC Environmental; first provider change in 20 years

Since then, complaints have been piling up, with residents reporting trash left on the ground, garbage cans being picked up incorrectly and trash cans being left in the middle of the street. The county said Tuesday it has received over 7,000 calls about service issues and 3,000 complaints through its app. The county said more than 13,000 service inspections have been conducted by county staff, costing 2,200 hours. The county said it is counting all the hours to be reimbursed by the FCC.

FCC CEO Dan Brazil spoke Tuesday morning and apologized to commissioners and the public ahead of the vote to terminate the services.

Some said their yard waste had not been picked up for weeks, and others complained about the smell after their trash had been left untouched for so long.

“We’ve come here several times to pick everything up. And we’re still struggling with all of this,” said Mara Hickox, a resident of Silverleaf’s Holly Forest neighborhood.

Hickox and her husband, Ryan, said they found some items in their yard that didn’t belong to them and the trash was supposed to be picked up last week but wasn’t picked up until last Sunday.

A week-long “healing period” ended Saturday. As part of the county’s contract with the FCC, the company was given that time to fix problems with the pickups, but it appears that didn’t happen.

On October 1, FCC will also take over services for Clay County.

MORE | If you live in Clay County, you’ll get a new trash can this summer. But don’t start using it right away, the county says

An FCC official addressed the Clay County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday and explained what happened in St. Johns County.

“Our technology failed, and why? We’re investigating that right now,” said Charles Merkley, vice president of business development.

News4JAX reached out to Clay County commissioners on Monday to find out if the situation in St. Johns County could impact their contract with the FCC.

They sent us the following statement:

The County is working closely with FCC Environmental to ensure the transition to the new garbage and yard waste service meets our expectations. We met with FCC Environmental staff this week and discussed how they are addressing several factors that are critical to a smooth transition here in Clay County.

FCC Environmental staff also addressed the Board of County Commissioners at this Tuesday’s meeting. You can watch the meeting and their presentation on our website here https://clayfl.new.swagit.com/videos/312249 starting at minute 52:57. During the presentation, FCC staff spoke about the issues in St. Johns County and talked about the steps they are taking to create a successful transition here in Clay County.

Over the next few weeks, we will continue to work closely with the FCC to ensure that all steps of the transition plan are completed before the October 1st start date. We will continue to keep our community updated as we move through this process. We also have a full list of frequently asked questions on our website, which can be found here: https://www.claycountygov.com/community/garbage-and-recycling/new-garbage-services

Clay County Board of Commissioners