Dallas Sanitation Director Jay Council has resigned following a period of apparent dysfunction in his department after he implemented a schedule change to the City’s trash pickup system.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced Council’s resignation on Wednesday in an email sent to Mayor Johnson and the City Council, among other officials, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Council plans to leave Dallas and “will be transitioning out of his current role” as sanitation director. No further reason was given for Council’s resignation.
“We thank Jay [Council] for his service to the Dallas community and wish him the best in the future,” the City said in a statement sent to The Dallas Express by public information officer Ashley Guevara. “The City is committed to delivering service to our residents that continues to exemplify our values of service of empathy, ethics, excellence, engagement, and equity.”
Cliff Gillespie, who has served as assistant director of the department since 2019, was appointed as interim head of the sanitation department by Broadnax, according to the city manager’s email.
“I want to sincerely thank and acknowledge Mr. Council for his service to the city of Dallas and congratulating [sic] Mr. Gillespie on his new role in guiding the Sanitation Services Department,” wrote Broadnax.
On Thursday, Broadnax told The Dallas Morning News that the City will search for a new permanent sanitation director over the next few months. Gillespie will be considered for the role if he applies, according to Broadnax.
Under Council’s leadership, the sanitation department received public scrutiny for failing to collect garbage for several Dallas residents over the entire month of December, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
This failure followed the implementation of a trash collection schedule change that was intended to improve route efficiency.
In January, Council said that city attorneys and other officials were exploring the possibility of reimbursing residents whose trash was not collected.
However, The Dallas Express asked Guevera for an update on this and was told, “The Dallas City Code does not authorize credits for missed or delayed garbage or recycle collections.”
Noah knows his grammar, not just trash reporting. I saw the [sic].
And Mr. Broadnax doesn’t remember his grammar, in which he was taught to not split infinitives.
Or maybe he was a DISD graduate, in which I wouldn’t expect his teachers to teach him NOT TO split infinitives, HAHAHA.
Mr. Council was hired as Dallas City Sanitation Director in July 2021. Less than 2 years on the job. It can’t always be mid management’s fault.
Good point. But I’m cynical enough to expect the lords and ladies of Dallas government to avoid accountability at all costs. While I’m not the least bit a fan of Mr. Council, the buck certainly won’t stop at the City Mangler’s desk. Nor will it under any circumstances reach the Mayor’s orifice.
(Note: mangler and orifice are intentional.)
Dallas is going down because it’s ALWAYS ABOUT MONEY!
Stop paying all these big wheels sitting behind the desk earning all this money and use it for our Police Dept. and Fire Dept.
I use to be proud to say I live in Dallas but not anymore. No more apartments. Fix the side walk, curbs, in zip code 75211 …Western Park Dr. 2600 block.
Need to give citation to these ugly resident on Illinois for the way they just have there house’s boarded and add to the house. The front yards is ridiculous give citation to the property owners. But yet they are getting new sidewalks in front of there ugly house.
We need who EVER does the budget in Ft. Worth. Ft. Worth is passing Dallas on alot of things. Dallas ????
Make Dallas stand out and offer better sites for tourists to go and see
why do we have to go to Frisco, Allen, Plano, and most McKinney.
So after Dallas Sanitation Director Jay Council screws everything up, he runs away! Probably because he was about to be fired. Coward! Leaving your mess for someone else to clean up. That’s the Liberal Democrat way.
Let’s see a show of hands. Who believes that the Dallas city government would reimburse Dallasites for inadequate service, for which we’ve paid and not received?
Wishing Jay Council a more peaceful next job. It seemed that he really tried, and that schedule change was difficult for anyone to lead. Like being in charge of the school lunch. There are some jobs that are thankless.
I wish others in the department would leave! Maybe, just maybe some good people would fill the shoes of those who can not do the job correctly! After destroying my property over 4 times. The sanitation department calls me from the service truck in front of my home. Too lazy to get out and speak to me, then hangs up when finished with conversation! Could not even say thank you, sorry or good by! They never fulfilled their agreement to the issue.
Now my block has to move our waste carts to the front? I do not get what is going on with our sanitation department but I wish the city would clean house and hire people that will do the job right and stop littering our city and destroying property because they drop more trash than they pick up and destroy property. God forbid they see trash on the ground because they will kick it before they pick it up! I do not care what end the city starts with but they should fire them all and start over! They are turning out city into a trash wasteland.