Debate on Med Center Trash Reflects Need for Decisions

              Debate on Med center trash
reflects need for decisions
The unresolved debate over whether the city should
pick up trash for LSU Medical Center highlights the
need for officials to define some limits on City Hall's
sanitation responsibilities.
Foremost among the questions needing addressing
is whether the city should be providing services now
being offered by private enterprise.
On a related matter, the City Council should render
a decision on the long-delayed issue of what level of
service, if any, the city will provide non-residential
operations.
Of immediate concern is the decision the City
Council is expected to make Tuesday over whether to
grant the medical center's request.
To do so at this point would be a direct contradiction
of the council's stated position that city should stay out
of the bailiwick of private enterprise. That stance was
evidenced unequivocally last year with the council's
insistence that ambulance service remain in the hands
of commercial operators.
This is not to say that the council should refuse the
medical center's request.
The overriding concern — exampled by the coun-cil's
postponement two weeks ago of a vote on the
matter — is whether the city was asked to help before
the medical center had exhausted all of its options
with commercial haulers.
Rather than being considered a last-resort option,
the city was quickly approached when the center saw
problems with its existing service.
The matter was initially posed to the city ad-ministration
by former Mayor Calhoun Allen, who is
now associate coordinator of plans and programs for
the medical center.
City administrators said medical center officials
told them they could not continue their present service
contract with Delta Waste because the firm's large
compactor-container would be in the way of a major
construction project.
At Allen's request, Public Works officials worked up
estimates on how much it would cost the city to
provide the desired service of twice-daily collections
seven days a week.
When the administration proposed a contract for
the interim service to the council, the legislators
balked, saying they did not have enough information to
make a decision. The delay was due in part to
complaints lodged by Delta's co-owner, Mike Singer,
that such a move by the city would be an infringement
on the prerogatives of private enterprise.
Subsequently, Allen has said the medical center was
also concerned that Delta's collection schedule of
three times weekly (approved by contract by medical
center officials) had created intolerable odor pro-blems,
with the trash also attracting rats.
In an interview, Singer, who is not a trouble-maker,
said his main concern was that the medical center had
terminated his contract without asking him whether
he could provide the services at the level they now
require.
Wally Savell, director of physical plant for the
medical center, confirmed that the center had not
discussed the matter with any of the local commercial
haulers but had decided, based on knowledge of how
the haulers normally operate, that none of them could
provide the service as cheaply as the city.
Singer says he might not be able to offer a com-petitive
bid or even to provide the type of service the
medical center wants, but he says he fears the
inside
city hall
Opinion by
Robert Moore
administration's readiness to help out could effective-ly
knock industry out of a shot at the contract.
He also questioned the wisdom of such a move in
light of the city's recent history of problems in running
its sanitation department.
The precedent for the move by the medical center
was set last year when the council agreed to service
scores of schools operated by the Caddo Parish School
Board.
Because the city's sanitation operation is the largest
one in town, private haulers would likely have a hard
time competing with City Hall in price. However,
commercial operators should at least be given a
decent shot at the contract before the city considers
doing the work itself.
And since a proposal to update the sanitation
ordinance has been tabled by the council since last
September, the legislators would do well to take up the
matter again in the near future to establish clear
guidelines for serving non-residential operations —
whether private or public.