Garbage Man Faces Suspension, Warning After 'Trashing' Los Gatos Property

A West Valley Collection and Recycling garbage man, who picks up trash on Old Blossom Hill Road, is facing safety and operational violations following a complaint from a Los Gatos resident who said he's been dumping on her property and occasionally missing pick-up.

Glen S. Long, district manager for WVC&R, told Jennifer Kretschmer on Wednesday that the driver has also been suspended for an undisclosed amount of time and issued a warning letter that will go in his file.

"[He] should not have been on the truck" Long said, adding that the garbage man used a tire to weigh down/compact recycling materials in his truck, which constituted a safety violation.

"We also determined that the reason he was on the truck was because it was full, in this situation he should have broken off the route earlier and made the extra trip to our MRF (material recycling facility) when the truck packed out," Long wrote Kretschmer in a lengthy email trying to explain the garbage man's conduct.

Regarding the debris Kretschmer said the worker dumped on her property the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 11, Long said the driver was adamant that he didn’t throw anything out of the truck but was making sure nothing came out of the hopper while driving down the highway on his return trip. 

"He stated that he was rearranging and packing down what was in the hopper," Long wrote.

Long then goes on to say that garbage man "is a good driver" having recently witnessed him stopping at a cart that was tipped over and cleaning the mess up.

"He did not know we were there, so what he did was all on him," Long said. 

Long also indicated he had the agency's call center manager pull up all missed pick-up information from Kretschmer's street since January of 2012 and he only came up with four on her street and between four and five on Mary Way.

Long said four missed service calls from Old Blossom Hill Road were made since September and that he had talked to several neighbors and found one that said the agency had been inconsistent of late regarding recycling. 

But the rest of the neighbors "were very happy and had no complaints or suggestions," Long said.

Long, who stopped by Kretschmer's home on Wednesday, then reassured her he's not discounting her complaint and apologizes for the garbage man's behavior.

Sign up for the free Los Gatos Patch newsletter | Like Los Gatos Patch on Facebook | Follow @GatosPatch on Twitter | Blog on Los Gatos Patch | Follow Los Gatos Patch on Instagram