BRADENTON BEACH – Mayor John Chappie continues to lament the constant presence of trash containers left alongside city streets.
Chappie and the city team, which includes City Attorney Ricinda Perry, Building Official Steve Gilbert and Public Works Director Tom Woodard, have previously discussed the problem and Chappie requested a trash can discussion during the city commission’s Aug. 30 work meeting.
The city’s transient public lodging establishment (TPLE) ordinance requires vacation rental properties to use sideyard trash pickup, a service requiring Waste Pro employees to retrieve the trash and recycling containers from the side of the rental home and return them to the same location after emptying them. Instead, full trash containers are often placed roadside after being emptied.
Chappie mentioned vacation rental property managers, cleaning crews and rental guests as primary contributors to the lingering trash container problem Waste Pro hasn’t been able to solve.
“What do we do with the garbage cans that are out by the road at all times? Do we ‘suck it up, buttercup?’ Do we change the way it is with sideyard pickup, have no sideyard pickup, require everyone to have sideyard pickup?” he asked.
Chappie said Waste Pro doesn’t want their employees going behind fences to retrieve trash containers because they don’t know what they might encounter there. He questioned whether the containers should be placed instead on screened-in pads located elsewhere on the property.
Commissioner Jake Spooner said he doesn’t want to eliminate the sideyard pickup requirement and vacation rental guests need to stop placing trash cans by the street when they check out. Chappie said many vacation rentals permanently leave their trash cans near the street.
Gilbert said trash cans designated for sideyard pickup are marked with decals containing the Waste Pro initials. A trash can bearing that decal is supposed to be returned to its sideyard location.
Perry said Waste Pro would consider switching to sideyard pickup for everyone, including permanent residents, to eliminate the need for their employees to figure out which properties require sideyard pickup.
Spooner said the WP stickers already identify which cans are supposed to be returned to their sideyard locations. He also noted Waste Pro customers pay an additional fee for sideyard service.
Perry said there are occasions when Waste Pro employees return the containers to their sideyard locations and the containers are then brought back out to the street by the vacation rental cleaning crews.
Perry said Waste Pro employees are also leery of hauling trash cans through a driveway filled with parked vehicles out of fear of scraping or damaging them. She said Waste Pro recommends screened-in designated locations near the street. Spooner said he doesn’t want to look down the street and see an endless line of lattice-screened trash can pads.
Woodard noted the city’s sanitation ordinance specifies the timeframe during which trash containers can be left by the street.
“Containers shall be out for collection by 6 a.m. of the scheduled pick-up day and shall be removed from the collection site by 8 p.m. on the day of collection. Failure to comply within 24 hours shall be a violation of this code,” the ordinance says.
“It’s not enforced,” Woodard said.
He said the problems will continue until the city commission clearly states what it wants done.
“Someone has to be in charge, and that’s you all,” he told the commission.
“How can we enforce this?” Chappie asked.
Perry said the city’s code enforcement provisions address “irrevocable and irreversible harm” in a manner that allows a code enforcement officer to immediately issue a citation.
“To me, that is the only way we can get there,” she added.
She also noted the property owner’s TPLE license can be revoked for repeat violations of city code.
Perry said the property management companies need to be informed in a more formal and serious manner of the city’s concerns and the potential enforcement ramifications.
Chappie said he wants the city’s code enforcement officer to start issuing citations and fines to violators.
Spooner asked if the code enforcement officer is out after 8 p.m. patrolling for trash can retrieval violations. Gilbert, who supervises the city’s only code enforcement officer, said the city would need one full-time officer just to enforce the sanitation ordinance. Gilbert said that sideyard collection is a great idea, but it doesn’t work.
During public comment, it was noted that the city of Anna Maria budgeted $415,000 in occupancy-based vacation rental registration fee revenues to be used in the coming fiscal year for the enforcement of its vacation rental ordinance.
Gilbert said the city of Bradenton Beach budgets approximately $120,000 for code enforcement as a whole. City Treasurer Shayne Thompson said the city receives approximately $70,000 to $80,000 in annual vacation rental registration fees.
The discussion ended with Chappie saying he would meet again with the city team to discuss the commission feedback received. He’s also going to try to schedule a meeting with the Island’s larger vacation rental property management companies and “read them the riot act” regarding their trash-related responsibilities.
“We’re going to start handing out citations. We’ll just lower the hammer as best we can and let them know this is irrevocable and irreversible harm,” Chappie said.
