Santa Rosa County, Florida, argues franchise agreement with Waste Pro is lawful

Santa Rosa County, Florida, says its franchise agreement with Longwood, Florida-based Waste Pro to exclusively provide trash hauling services in the entire county is lawful and appropriate, even as a competing trash hauling company is signing up thousands of central and north county residents for services beginning in January 2021, reports the Pensacola News Journal.

County Administrator Dan Schebler and County Attorney Roy Andrews said allegations that the county doesn't have a lawful franchise agreement with Waste Pro are baseless and untrue. While they don't have an ordinance establishing a franchise in the entire county — just in the south end — Schebler and Andrews said their contract with Waste Pro is sufficient to legally allow the trash hauling company to service the entire county.

The county is currently moving ahead with amending an ordinance that was first passed in July 2011, and would establish a county-wide franchise that would apply to the north end as well—which they said is purely for consistency, not because it's legally necessary.

“An ordinance was put in place in 2011 establishing a franchise in the south end, and since we have an agreement in the north end it makes sense to include the north end within that franchise ordinance now,” Andrews told the News Journal in a previous interview. “It’s a matter of consistency. We were consistent in the south end with an ordinance, now we want to include the north end.”

At issue is whether or not the written agreement with Waste Pro is a basis to deny other trash haulers permission to operate in Santa Rosa County in the absence of an ordinance establishing a franchise. Nathan Boyles, an Okaloosa County commissioner and owner of Adams Sanitation, Baker, Florida, maintains that the contract isn't enough, and has begun signing up neighborhoods and customers in the north end for waste hauling service beginning in January.

Boyles told the News Journal that he expects to have between 5,000 and 10,000 customers signed up by January. He said he received a cease and desist order from Waste Pro last week, and the county denied his permit to operate in Santa Rosa because his trucks are heavier than 15,000 pounds and because of its existing agreement with Waste Pro.

Still, Adams Sanitation is purchasing trucks and trash cans, and plans to move full speed ahead with operating in the county at the start of next year, Boyles said.

"Waste Pro may fear competition, but we welcome it," Boyles said in an email to the News Journal. "Free and open markets are the foundation of the American economic system and competition maximizes value for the customer." 

Boyles has argued the county didn't appropriately advertise the ordinance establishing a franchise in the south end in 2011. But Andrews disagreed and provided documents that showed the county did advertise the ordinance and gave companies the lawfully required three years to exit the county.

A clause in the agreement with Waste Pro that says the county will get 3.5 percent of its gross revenue in the county each year is a standard clause that will go toward salaries for landfill employees, keeping the landfill operational and provide for other waste hauling-related services, Schebler said.

Santa Rosa County has a separate ordinance on the books from the early 1990s that allows it to manage waste hauling operations in the county, which includes the issuance or denial of permits. One other waste hauling company, J & L Garbage Service, Milton, Florida, operates legally with a county permit in Milton, East Milton, Pace and Pea Ridge because it has trucks weighing less than 15,000 pounds.