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Parkersburg responds to West Virginia Public Service Commission memo on sanitation contract

Says review fine but further investigation is unmerited

(Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

PARKERSBURG — The City of Parkersburg does not object to the West Virginia Public Service Commission reviewing its sanitation contract with Waste Management but a broader investigation sought by a petition to the commission is unmerited, the city said in a recent filing.

The commission staff issued a memo last month recommending further investigation of Parkersburg’s actions related to the shift from the city having its own Sanitation Department to the contract with Waste Management.

That was in response to a December petition filed by city property owner Carole Hanlon, asking the commission to evaluate the potential impact on rates, service quality, health, safety and compliance with state code.

The response, written by City Attorney Blaine Myers and filed Friday, said Parkersburg has no objection to the contract being submitted to the PSC for approval.

“Such a process is reasonable and appropriate, and the City presumes that Waste Management will timely file the executed Agreement, and perhaps has already done so,” the response says. “The Public Service Commission is authorized to consent to a proposed transaction, without approving the specific terms and conditions, if the contract is reasonable, does not adversely affect the public and no party is given an undue advantage. The contract between the City and Waste Management satisfies all of these statutory mandates.”

But the response says Hanlon’s petition goes beyond that, seeking audits, referring to possible criminal conduct for prosecution and prohibiting the city from entering into a contract.

“Such a broad inquiry is not merited by any objective facts,” the response says. “Petitioner accuses the City of Parkersburg of mismanagement of funds, yet the City has been subject to annual independent audits as required by law, none of which has found any deficiency in the fiscal management of the general fund of the City or the enterprise sanitation fund.”

The response goes on to outline the history of the issues in the Sanitation Department, saying that beginning around the end of 2023 and continuing to the present, the number of staff “continually declined, well below authorized staffing levels.” It cites as a contributing factor the requirement that all staff members have a commercial driver’s license in order to operate the vehicles.

By the middle of 2024, the department had 10 to 12 vacancies among its budgeted 27 staff positions, the response says.

“During all of that period, the City undertook to recruit new employees, and even though hiring efforts were moderately successful, the City was unable to maintain the necessary staffing levels to provide efficient and effective solid waste disposal services,” the response says. “For example, during the fiscal year from July 1, 2024, through June 20, 2025, the City of Parkersburg hired 32 new employees in the Sanitation Department, yet 30 employees either resigned, retired or were terminated for cause such as not obtaining a CDL license within six months as required by their terms of employment.”

It also notes the city continued to advertise for jobs in sanitation, even as the contracts for solid waste and recycling were being considered and negotiated. Those efforts only resulted in a small number of applicants, who were not qualified for employment, it says.

At this point, the response says, the city has just five sanitation employees, using workers from other departments and temporary employees from the Parkersburg Correctional Center and an employment agency to continue trash pickup. Curbside recycling was suspended in May.

The response says using a contractor for sanitation services “was not a preferred option by the Mayor and City Council, but became absolutely necessary for the reasons set forth above.” It denies the move constitutes privatization because the city will still provide the services via the contract.

“This concept is no different than the manner in which similar essential services are provided by municipalities in general and the City of Parkersburg in particular,” it says, citing street paving, demolition and swimming pool management as examples.

The response says the city would welcome an investigation into its history of providing sanitation service and its fiscal management thereof, but it is not merited and would cause the city to incur “substantial expenditures of public funds simply to respond to and participate.”

The response also challenges filings by Hanlon and suggests they were generated by an AI program. It cites the dismissal of Hanlon’s request for a temporary restraining order, in which Wood County Circuit Judge J.D. Beane noted incorrect or nonexistent case law citations generated by AI.

“These filings make a mockery of this process, and should be disregarded,” it says.

Hanlon said Monday she is reviewing the city’s filing and plans to respond herself.

“I generally viewed that as rather than answer the issues that I have raised as a property owner, citizen, rate-payer, before the PSC, they attack me personally — that’s the way I read it — and failed to respond to the PSC’s recommendation for further investigation,” she said.

Hanlon said the city’s response did not note Beane’s statement in his order that there was no finding she was intentionally deceptive in her filing. She said she wrote it herself but used AI to get case law citations that turned out to be incorrect.

“When the order came down, I immediately took steps to voluntarily dismiss the action to restore integrity when that error occurred,” she said.

Hanlon pointed to a statement in the response where the city denied the process took place in secret, saying, “Public hearings were held during which members of the public were offered an opportunity to speak and give their views.”

The first public hearing, she said, was held ” 90 minutes before the initial vote on the contracts.”

Staff Reporter Wayne Towner contributed to this story.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com

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