KENNER, La. — The Kenner garbage wars enter a new phase next week as Louisiana’s sixth-largest city prepares to replace its vendor in the middle of a contract for the second time in three years.
Mayor Mike Glaser’s administration alleges IV Waste overbilled the city nearly $2.6 million for services, and IV Waste is now trying to collect $300,000 for building a trash drop-off site that the firm’s owner, Sidney Torres IV, once bragged he was building for Kenner for free.
In 2020, Kenner's then-mayor, Ben Zahn, hired IV Waste to replace Ramelli Janitorial Service in the middle of Ramelli’s contract. The Zahn administration claimed Ramelli was underperforming and overcharging the city. Zahn argued Ramelli had a nonexclusive contract that allowed the city to keep it under contract for limited services and replace it for most of the work without providing the 180 days’ notice required to completely terminate the contract.
Ramelli owner Bob Ramelli accused Zahn and Torres of engaging in a “backroom deal” to oust his firm after it had invested millions of dollars over 16 years as Kenner’s garbage vendor. Ramelli sued the city for $5 million. He refused to pick up his garbage carts at 22,000 Kenner households and got a court order blocking IV Waste from collecting the refuse from Ramelli cans. Residents were left with rotting garbage and two sets of carts lining the streets for weeks.
Last week, Glaser settled Ramelli’s lawsuit, and the Kenner City Council agreed to have taxpayers pay Ramelli $1.2 million to drop the claim.
“The Ramelli and the IV garbage situation has been a headache that we've inherited,” Glaser told the council while asking them to ratify the settlement. “And I've been trying to get away from these lawsuits that have been sitting around for now two years.”
“The settlement was fair for both Ramelli and the city,” Bob Ramelli told WWL-TV in an interview. “It looks like the new administration is doing business the right way.”
Completing the reversal from 2020, Glaser also selected Ramelli to take over the recycling collection and drop-off yard operations from IV Waste, starting March 1.
The city sent IV Waste a letter last week, directing it to remove its recycling carts by next Wednesday, but Torres isn’t sure he’ll comply.
“We go remove our carts and we do exactly what Ramelli did, left trash on the streets for weeks,” Torres said. “I don't want to be that guy.”
For its part, IV Waste is suing Kenner for about $2 million, claiming the city is past due on fees for building and operating the drop-off site, hauling bulky waste after Hurricane Ida and annual labor cost increases built into the contract. Torres is asking a judge to block Kenner from giving Ramelli the supplemental services -- recycling collections and running the drop-off site -- by arguing those can’t be separated from the residential trash collection.
For three years now, each side has accused the other of political dirty tricks. To justify bringing in IV Waste in 2020, Zahn accused Ramelli of charging taxpayers for nonexistent dumpsters at parks. Garbage haulers hired away from Ramelli by IV Waste alleged in sworn statements that Ramelli had been collecting higher fees for picking up recycling, only to mix it with garbage and dump it at the parish landfill.
Zahn heaped praise on Torres in videos posted to the city’s Facebook page, lauding him for spending $300,000 of his own money to construct the city a new trash drop-off site that Ramelli wanted to charge taxpayers $1 million to build. But after Glaser became mayor, Torres demanded the city pay the $300,000 to cover the build-out of the drop-off site.
Torres complained that Ramelli and his family spent $40,000 to help Glaser win, but Torres admitted that he and his family had also given thousands to Zahn’s campaign.
And now, a political action committee, One Hundred Percent PAC, has been running TV ads asking residents to tell Glaser to keep IV Waste. The PAC was registered with the state Ethics Board last year to work in support of state Sen. Greg Tarver’s losing bid for mayor of Shreveport. One Hundred Percent PAC hasn’t filed any new campaign finance reports to establish what candidates it’s supporting or opposing in 2023, but PAC chairman Bob Ellis Jr. gave WWL-TV a statement to explain who is behind its recent advertising in Kenner.
“A group of concerned business owners and residents that are upset that old school politics is eliminating the best operator in favor of a company that has already demonstrated numerous failures,” Ellis said.
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