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PARKERSBURG – As the administration considers a proposal from a company to provide subscription-based curbside recycling, a Parkersburg property owner has asked the West Virginia Public Service Commission to review the potential privatization of the city’s sanitation service.

Parkersburg officials opened a proposal from Rumpke of Ohio Inc. on Dec. 12, one week earlier than originally announced, according to a Dec. 4 addendum posted on the city’s website. It was the only proposal received for the service.

The proposal would charge residents $15.25 a month per in the first year, rising to $16.49 in the third year and $17.84 by an optional fifth year.

Rumpke and Waste Management submitted proposals to provide sanitation services, including recycling, to the city, and the administration is negotiating a contract with one of them. The request for proposals on separate recycling service, for which only those who choose to participate would pay, was issued in November after the original bids were received.

Members of Parkersburg City Council voted earlier this month to hold a public meeting on Jan. 6, prior to a special meeting to consider proposed sanitation and recycling contracts. Some residents and council members wanted a meeting prior to the administration submitting proposed contracts for council to consider.

Carole Hanlon, who owns multiple properties in the city and pays for sanitation service, submitted petitions to agencies including the state PSC requesting a review of the city’s actions and a public hearing.

“I would prefer that they dot every I, cross every T, prior to getting into any consideration of privatizing sanitation,” she said. “The city should provide a public debate. … It feels like it’s being forced upon the public and the public is being denied the right to participate in a decision that affects every household in the city.”

A joint council committee voted in June to seek requests for proposals for the city’s sanitation service, amid staffing issues due to vacancies and increased call-offs that led to the suspension of curbside recycling in May. Some residents have argued council should increase pay for workers in the Sanitation Department beyond the 4.2% cost-of-living adjustment all municipal employees except elected officials received July 1. That was increased to $2 an hour for medium equipment operators in Sanitation and other departments.

Mayor Tom Joyce has said the proposal documents and scoring sheets used by a committee consisting of two council members and administration representatives will be a part of the public record once negotiations have ended. Normally, the administration procures services after council approves the funding, but because the contracts would be for multiple years, they must be approved as ordinances by council to go into effect.

Although the administration expects to have proposed contracts by the Jan. 6 meeting, officials have said council will still have the authority to approve, reject or amend them.

The PSC oversees a variety of public utilities in the state. Hanlon’s filing asks the commission to open a formal investigation examining the city’s proposed privatization of sanitation and recycling services, compel the city to produce documents and data regarding the issue, require the city to produce a cost-analysis and service-impact statement and conduct a public hearing on the matter.

Hanlon said she does not consider this an adversarial process, suggesting a hearing would inform the public and allow the city to support its decision.

“They should be able to justify that, and if they can justify it, the public would welcome it,” she said.

The filing includes petitions signed by 187 “residents, property owners and taxpayers” of the city requesting a public hearing. The petitions themselves are addressed to the city’s Municipal Planning Commission, to which Hanlon said she submitted them as well.

Joyce said he does not believe the PSC has jurisdiction over city services unless the city were to execute a contract with a private firm. At that time, he said that jurisdiction would consist of “a review and approval of the contract as it pertains to state law and any other applicable codes on the subject of residential solid waste and recycling.”

Hanlon’s filing is posted on the PSC’s website with the case number 25-0999-MC-P. The commission will eventually decide whether to order an investigation and schedule a hearing.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.