"We've given them a letter saying that Republic, that is, that they have breached our contract, and now we're going to be fining them," said Mayor Catherine Moy.
FAIRFIELD, Calif. — The mayor and city of Fairfield are threatening to sue Republic Services over weeks of no trash pickup.
As sanitation workers continue their strike in several cities, trash is spilling over at dump sites and mounds of trash bags are in the hot sun in Fairfield.
"Sour, smelly, stinky. We have cats in our house, so I have also that stuff in the bag too," said John Cunningham, who lives in Fairfield.
Many residents are resorting to dumping their trash in large bins around the city. ABC10 visited the one located at Allan Witt Park Wednesday.
It's the result of Republic Services workers navigating labor strikes for another week, with their union at the negotiating table, but Fairfield residents say they are fed up with the stinky mess.
"It's just trash all everywhere because it It's windy in Fairfield, right? So our streets are everybody's garbage is out, but the wind is blowing garbage can tops off and blowing garbage around," said Alexis Cobbins.
Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy says maggots and spills are causing a health hazard, and they feel they have no choice now but to move forward with legal action.
"We've given them a letter saying that Republic, that is, that they have breached our contract, and now we're going to be fining them, and the reason for the fines is so we can reimburse our citizens for charges for which they got no service," said Moy.
Moy says the city will sue if negotiations between Republic Services and the Teamsters don’t end soon.
She says they prefer not to go that far, but it's getting to the point where they need to be very aggressive.
"That includes using other contractors to come in and take over the contract, so that's a big loss to them but we will do it," said Moy.
Cobbins questions who's going to help people come down to a trash site and she is calling for a resolution.
"It's just lack of regard for the citizens of Fairfield and what all we have to experience and I'm not ... I definitely stand with the workers if they're not being paid fairly," Cobbins said. "So it's like pay the people the wage, stop being greedy and let's get this resolved because it's not healthy."
The mayor is asking residents to call Republic Services and tell them that they've missed a pickup.
The reason for that is that they need that on the record if they move forward with legal action.
She also says people can use their other bins for trash placed in plastic bags or can use one of these dump sites:
For more updates on the trash situation, you can visit the City of Fairfield's website here.
ABC10: Watch, Download, Read