Edward Escandon, left, a member of the committee collecting petitions for a referendum on Parkersburg’s ordinance approving a sanitation contract with Waste Management, speaks to a motorist while collecting signatures April 10 in Parkersburg City Park. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG – A committee pursuing a referendum on the ordinance approving the city’s contract with Waste Management turned in this week nearly three times the number of signatures by which their initial petition effort fell short.

But it will likely be a month or so before it’s determined if enough of the signatures are valid to move the process along.

Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales said the city delivered the newly signed petitions to his office after they were submitted by the petition committee Thursday afternoon. The committee reported 1,928 signatures.

A minimum of 2,763 signatures by registered voters in the city is required for the referendum petition, which would force City Council to reconsider the ordinance passed in January on a pair of 6-3 votes. That ordinance authorized a five-year, nearly $15 million contract for Waste Management to provide trash pickup service to the city’s residents.

But residents opposed to the move took to social media and set up regular appointments for people to sign petitions for the referendum. If council does not repeal the ordinance, the matter would go before voters in an upcoming election.

That will not be the May 12 primary, for which the county clerk’s office is actively preparing. Because of that, Gonzales said they will not be able to assess the validity of the nearly 2,000 signatures the committee turned in until after Election Day and the subsequent canvass.

“It is going to take some time,” he said. “We made Judge (J.D.) Beane aware of it.”

The charter gives the city clerk’s office five days to certify the additional submitted signatures.

“We understand (the clerk’s) circumstances given the upcoming primary election,” City Attorney Blaine Myers said. “It appears it will thus not be possible to provide any final certification within the five-day window the charter contemplates.”

Petitioners took the city to Wood County Circuit Court before Beane seeking an extension of time to gather their initial signatures, citing the extreme cold weather that struck the area in January. The city agreed to an extension but noted no such provision is in the charter.

The group turned in 2,953 signatures at the end of February, which the city sent to the county clerk’s office to review because it maintains voter registration records. It was determined that 862 signatures were invalid, leaving the committee 672 short of the requirement.

In March, following a hearing in Beane ordered the city and county to turn over to the committee a list of the invalid signatures and the reasons they were found to be invalid. The committee received that list on April 6, starting the 10-day window for the petitioners to collect additional signatures.

Just prior to that, Mayor Tom Joyce issued a release offering people a way to remove their signatures from the petition, saying some people had signed under the impression that the petition would restore city-run sanitation.

City officials have said it is necessary to close the Parkersburg Sanitation Department and contract out the service because of staffing issues that saw the department with double-digit vacancies among its 27 budgeted employees last year. That led to the suspension of curbside recycling in May, which resulted in a resident filing a lawsuit against the city.

Joyce has said attempted incentives to attract and retain employees were unsuccessful. With separate contracts for trash and recycling approved, workers were offered the chance to transfer to other city departments or accept a severance package.

The department was down to just two dedicated employees. The rest of the work is handled by employees from other public works departments or temporary workers.

“Our other employees are doing their level best to complete the routes daily, but we continue to miss pickups and our times are not commensurate with what our citizens deserve,” Joyce said Friday.

Residents opposed to the contract have said the city should have increased starting pay and salaries for workers more. They’ve expressed concerns that because Waste Management limits the amount of trash to a single 96-gallon container and charges for additional trash, service will cost some families more than it does now, even though City Council recently voted to reduce the monthly sanitation fee by $1. The price the company charges the city per customer is also scheduled to increase after the first two years.

Another looming question is whether the ordinance is eligible for a referendum. The city charter says the referendum power does not extend to any “ordinance relating to appropriation of money, levy of taxes or salaries of City officers or employees.” City Attorney Blaine Myers said in a memo that this ordinance appropriates money for the contract.

Waste Management has not signed the contract while the referendum process plays out.

“I will evaluate the situation and weigh the uncertainty of the referendum against what is the best course for the coming weeks and months to be certain our residents get reliable service and our other departments can get to work on street projects that are falling further behind each day,” Joyce said.

City officials have previously said if the Waste Management contract ordinance is nullified, it could result in residents having to contract with approved providers for their own trash service, as is the case in some other cities.

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