The New Orleans City Council's Public Works Committee meets today to discuss the problem that greets a lot of residents as soon as they walk out there front door: piles of garbage waiting to get picked up.
Committee members want to hear from city hall's sanitation and public works departments on the delayed trash collection. Mayor's Office spokesman Beau Tidwell says it is a problem that goes back before the storm.
"This is a capacity issue and not a money issue," said Tidwell. "Labor conditions in that industry going into this pre-storm, we know we were having difficulties."
Council members want to know what the mayor's office is doing to deal with it, as Hurricane Ida's power outages led to more garbage than usual being brought out to the curb.
"We're at a situation now where we are dealing with, in some cases, three times the amount of work, and 25 percent of the capacity," said Tidwell, who said city hall has contracted out for extra help.
"We will have additional capacity on the ground by the end of this week," he said. "We urge patience. We know it's stinky, we know it's unpleasant, it's not something anybody would wish for, but where we are is something we're working through as quickly and efficiently as we possibly can."
The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at the city council meeting chamber in New Orleans City Hall.
