Dive Brief:
- Republic Services and the Polk County Commission in Polk County, FL, reached an agreement regarding inappropriate billing.
- Beginning in 2005, Republic billed the county for curbside collections at 12,774 homes that were unoccupied. The erroneous charges ceased in 2011, resulting in an overpayment of $1.46 million from Polk County to the hauler.
- Terms reached in the settlement include a $500,000 payment from Republic to the county and an adjustment in the language of the contract to specify the hauler's deliverables.
Dive Insight:
The payment marks the second installment made by Republic to the county to resolve this issue. In January of 2013, Republic made an initial reimbursement of $1.5 million to Polk County. The county takes responsibility for neglecting to update the property database, which serves as a record of which properties are vacant. The outdated records prevented Republic from performing its job efficiently.
