'Very Unsettling Time': Peabody Cites Contract Breach, Withholds Payments Amid Trash Strike

PEABODY, MA — Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt said the city has withheld payments to Republic Services for what he called a "breach of contract" for lack of timely trash, recycling and other household waste pickup during the sanitation workers' strike that entered a fifth week on Tuesday.

Bettencourt told the City Council during a special meeting, which followed an executive session to discuss potential litigation, that the city is seeking to recoup all costs related to police details and Department of Public Works overtime amid what he called the "very unsettling time" of the strike that reached 29 days on Tuesday.

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"This is something that has had a dramatic impact on all of us," Bettencourt said. "It has really been an unprecedented experience. ...

"We have an existing contract with Republic Services and it is a contract where we contend that they are clearly in breach of a contract where they are required to pick up all trash and recycling every seven days. That has clearly been in breach over these last three to four weeks of this existing strike."

He said a judge on Monday declined to issue immediate injunctive relief to the six cities and larger towns that filed a complaint against Republic Services for public health violation citations and force additional resources from Republic Services amid the strike.

"It's without prejudice, which means it could be brought forward (in the future), and the lawsuit continues," Bettencourt said. "But the specific relief that we were asking for at this particular time was denied. The judge wrote her opinion, and it was very sympathetic and understanding of the needs and the problems that were being created by this work stoppage, but she said she didn't have the ability under the law to seek that immediate request that we were making."

Bettencourt said the city pays Republic Services $200,000 per year for trash and recycling removal, with about $125,000 going toward trash and the balance toward recycling. He allowed that last year the city exercised a five-year extension to the original 10-year deal with Republic Services — meaning there are about six years remaining on the existing contract.

"We need to make sure our legal interests are protected, our financial interests are protected and our public health interests are protected to the very best of our ability that we can," Bettencourt said. "We are going to make sure that we are on top of that. This has had a dramatic effect on the city."

He said that among the police costs are three 24-hour detail shifts dedicated to the trash pickup — or lack thereof.

"There is never a good time for a work stoppage for trash pickup, but in the summertime, it creates additional problems with odor and because of rodents and things like that," Bettencourt said. "When I mention a breach of contract, that is exactly what I am talking about.

"It's very strange. It doesn't make sense in terms of a lot of what's happening. Random streets just not getting picked up. But the next street over is getting picked up. One side of the road is getting picked up. The other side is not getting picked up. They pick up trash, they don't pick up recycling. They pick up recycling, they don't pick up trash. Cul-de-sacs are getting missed.

"It's very random. It's very haphazard."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)