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PARKERSBURG — As City Council prepares to hold two public meetings today dealing with contracts to potentially have private companies take over Parkersburg’s sanitation and recycling services, a property owner is asking a judge to intervene.

Carole Hanlon, who lives outside the city but owns multiple properties in it and pays sanitation and other fees, filed a complaint in Wood County Circuit Court Monday seeking a temporary restraining order or injunction preventing the city from moving forward with contracts for private companies to handle solid waste and recycling.

Ordinances authorizing those contracts are set for first readings at a special meeting at 7:30 p.m. today in council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building. That will be preceded by a 6 p.m. meeting for “public discussion on sanitation and/or recycling services,” according to the agenda.

No action had been taken by Judge J.D. Beane on the filing as of Monday afternoon.

Contracting sanitation services has been contemplated by city officials since a joint council committee voted in May for the administration to seek requests for proposals. That was originally to include sanitation and recycling provided by one entity, but the administration issued a new request in November seeking a separate proposal for a subscription-based recycling service, under which those who want to participate would pay a separate fee.

The agenda for the 7:30 p.m. special meeting includes the proposed contracts with Waste Management of West Virginia for trash service and Rumpke of Ohio for recycling. If the contract with Waste Management is approved, Mayor Tom Joyce has proposed reducing the monthly sanitation fee from $22 to $19.50. The beginning charge for recycling would be $15.25 a month for the first year, with six months paid in advance, plus $20 for the 95-gallon recycling cart.

Hanlon’s filing says the city has not provided enough opportunity for public input on a decision of this magnitude and questions its legality. It cites filings Hanlon has made with state entities including the Auditor’s Office, Department of Environmental Protection and Public Service Commission.

In a statement issued Monday evening, Hanlon said turning to these agencies was a last resort.

“I’m not asking the court to choose a policy,” she said. “I am asking for something far more fundamental, a chance for the public to be informed and heard before irreversible choices are locked in. When decisions about these services are made without transparency, without hearings, and without verified financial information, the public loses more than process – it loses trust.”

Joyce said Monday evening he was aware of the filing and believes the city is acting within its legal authority.

“We have the statutory responsibility to ensure that people’s trash gets picked up,” he said. “Now there’s a lot of ways we can do that.”

One option is in-house, as the city has done for decades, Joyce said. Another is to contract out the service.

“The sanitation fund’s not going away,” he said. “We’re not privatizing, just contracting off.

“In the end, I’m the one with the responsibility to make sure people’s trash gets picked up,” he said. “I don’t believe this injunction is anything more than a tactic to delay and disrupt a process.”

Hanlon’s filing asks the court to prevent the city from “proceeding with a privatization of municipal sanitation and recycling services while multiple state regulatory, audit and investigative proceedings are pending.”

Hanlon says in the filing she requested a forensic audit of the city’s Sanitation Department and operations from the state auditor’s office. A representative of that office could not immediately answer questions about her request late Monday afternoon.

Hanlon also asked City Council to have a forensic audit done of sanitation operations. Joyce said last month that forensic audits are used in cases where wrongdoing is suspected and the city’s annual audits required by the state provide an accounting of how its money is spent in that and other departments.

Hanlon sought a hearing before the Municipal Planning Commission, but city Development Director Ryan Barber, a member of the commission, said the chairman elected not to put that on the agenda as sanitation is not part of that entity’s jurisdiction.

Asked about Tuesday’s meetings before the filing was made public, Councilman Rob Moore said council members still have a lot of questions.

“I haven’t made my mind up myself,” Moore said.

He plans to ask the representatives of the collection companies, among other issues, about the size of the can and how trash will be handled for those who can’t put their waste out like other customers. For example, a 96-gallon garbage can could be too heavy to haul around, particularly for senior citizens, Moore said.

“I think that’s too heavy,” he said.

The public discussion will afford councilmen and the public an opportunity to ask those questions, Moore said. The meeting may go beyond 7:30 p.m., he said.

“Citizens in town can ask any questions they want,” Moore said.

Going beyond the allotted time for the meeting won’t be a problem, council President Andrew Borkowski said. The 90 minutes would be divided among those wanting to speak or ask questions, following perhaps a presentation, he said.

Tonight’s meeting will be the first time residents will be with all the parties involved, according to Borkowski. A consideration in the decision is the resources available to the city and other departments, he said.

“The biggest thing is to continue to stretch resources to operate a sanitation department or if there’s an opportunity for other entities or firms to do it less than what we’re doing it for,” Borkowski said.

Joyce said the Sanitation Department is down to just five full-time employees, although it is budgeted for 25. Employees from other Public Works departments have been transferred to sanitation on an emergency basis under the emergency call-out provision and are being paid time-and-a-half. Temporary employees through staffing agencies or a criminal work release program have also handled duties.

“What we’re doing currently is not sustainable,” Joyce said.

Joyce said he has provided council, in the proposed contracts, with an affordable alternative that will also allow for sanitation rates to be reduced.

“If they balk at it, then, quite frankly, they’re going to have to come up with a solution to fix it,” he said.

Joyce said the city has made efforts to fill vacancies in sanitation by approving a $2-an-hour pay increase for medium equipment operators in that and other departments, extending the probationary period for workers to get their commercial driver’s license from six months to a year and offering free training and paying them for time used to study for the CDL test. In some cases, qualified employees have transferred to other departments in the city, he said.

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Staff reporter Jess Mancini contributed to this story.