‘Apologies to the residents:’ CEO of trash hauler FCC addresses company’s performance in St. Johns

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — UPDATED STORY: St. Johns County terminates contract with waste hauler FCC after delayed, missed pickups

Only on Action News Jax, Nicholas Brooks got a one-on-one interview with the CEO of FCC Environmental Services, the waste management company that has angered neighbors across St. Johns County with late garbage pick ups.

For the first time, CEO Dan Brazil publicly answered questions about his company’s performance in St. Johns County.

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“Apologies to the residents who had delays. This is a significant logistical challenge in transition,” Brazil said.

Action News Jax was able to speak with him after his private meeting with the St. Johns County commissioners on Monday.

According to Brazil, the company has about 4,000 complaints of neighbors’ trash not being picked up in St. Johns County.

RELATED STORY: St. Johns County gives update on missed trash pickups

This is how Brazil explained their performance:

“We took every action we could take place of fulfilling those rules, bringing in the seasoned drivers and employees, but there’s still more that we had to onboard that were new to the company. So our big pieces, again, apologize if you’ve had delays, many of you haven’t, many of you have. We’re doing everything we can diligently to work through that and appreciate your patience.”

Brazil went on to say his company struggled with some technical issues

“It’s our people getting up and running, learning the roads. There’s some very specialized equipment that was required for the RFP that has posed some challenges from a logistics standpoint. We’re working through that as well,” Brazil said.

RELATED STORY: St. Johns County to look for interim solid waste providers, ‘termination strong possibility’ for FCC

He talked about their plan now to improve their performance in St. Johns County.

“We have upwards of 90 trucks on site right now, about 155 employees providing the service,” Brazil said. “We took over for the incumbents who had the contract for about 20 years. We hired more than 60 other employees and did hiring events with them.”

Brazil said their focus is to improve performance in St. Johns County and he remained upbeat about servicing Clay County starting on Oct. 1.

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“But also, feel very confident going into Clay that there will be some minor pieces that we’ll work through, but overall feeling very optimistic into that one.”

St. Johns County Commissioners will announce their decision Tuesday whether to continue or discontinue the partnership with FCC Environmental Services.

Action News Jax will keep you up-to-date with the latest on that outcome.

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