Judge grants restraining order to block removal of French Quarter garbage cans - NOLA.com
Order upheld vs Ramelli after threat to remove trash bins | Local Politics | nola.com
An Orleans Parish judge has granted a trash-collection firm a temporary restraining order preventing its subcontractor from removing 4,000 trash receptacles from the French Quarter.
Kellermeyer Bergensons Services LLC, or KBS, sought the order in Civil District Court, saying its subcontractor, Ramelli Waste, had warned that it was going to start picking up the 35-gallon garbage bins from the Quarter Saturday unless KBS purchased the cans from Ramelli for $300,000. The restraining order was granted Friday by Civil Court Judge Monique Barial.
KBS has been responsible for trash collection in the Quarter and the Central Business District for the last decade, though the work is set to be rebid later this year. The City Council approved a motion in December to continue KBS's contract, which had been set to expire, for another year. In extending the deal, the council boosted the contract price to $4.4 million, up $500,000.
According to court records, KBS recently terminated its relationship with Ramelli, claiming a breach of contract. The firm directed Ramelli to stop picking up trash in the French Quarter after Thursday; it called Ramelli's demand for $300,000 "an effort to extort" KBS.
Bob Ramelli, CEO of Ramelli Waste, said Saturday that the contract termination came as a shock to him. Ramelli said the reason the company gave him was that litter cans in the area were left open, allegedly by Ramelli's workers. Ramelli said the problem of open lids is a longstanding one, and is attributable to people digging through the trash. Ramelli called the termination "totally unjustified."
Ramelli owns the trash bins, and he requested $300,000 to be made whole, he said. Ramelli said that KBS didn't respond to Ramelli Waste representatives for months about whether or not the company would share in the raise the company got from the city under its contract extension.
In February, according to Ramelli, KBS responded and said they hadn't negotiated a raise for Ramelli. Ramelli says his firm and others, not KBS, do all of the work.
"I think it's very unfair that KBS has done what they've done to us," Ramelli said. "KBS does nothing except for own the contract."
Barial ordered both sides to appear in court March 18 for a hearing on the restraining order.
A KBS representative didn't immediately respond to a phone message requesting comment.
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