PORTAGE, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – There could be unintended consequences to the fight in Portage over who will haul homeowner’s trash.
The ballot language proposed by petitioners could eliminate some other popular city services.
Opponents challenged city council passage of the new single hauler trash program, which the city says will provide lower rates and more environmentally friendly service. It came after the city had already contracted with Waste Management to take over the routes in March. Opponents said it took away their right to choose providers.
City Manager Pat McGinnis says passage of the ballot language provided by the petitioners could require that city programs to remove leaves, yard waste and other trash may also have to be eliminated because they are provided by a single hauler.
“Within the next 30 days we’ll be prepared to discontinue those services if in fact it looks like that’s that the new ordinance would require now.”
He says they are asking outside attorney’s whether they would be liable.
Mayor Patricia Randall says they still aren’t sure what passage of the referendum might mean, but they do know that it will cost taxpayers money to conduct the election.
“There are a lot of things that we aren’t sure of at this time that we have outside counsel that is guiding us through this at the taxpayers expense,” Randall says, adding “This election is costing us $55,000.”
Last night, the city council tweaked the ballot language just to make it clearer, and plan to pass it by the petition committee to make sure they agree before submitting it to the Kalamazoo County Clerk.
Everyone interprets what they read differently. The way I interpreted this, is due to the fact that Patricia was unsuccessful at cramming this single hauler scam down our throats and she encountered a much bigger backlash than they expected, they are threatening to eliminate leaf and brush pick up which is paid for buy the tax dollars WE PAY! For some reason it reminds me of when I’m dealing with my grand kids and when they don’t get their way, they throw a temper tantrum. Like I said, everyone interprets things differently.
Hence the name ” communist portage” what a ship of fools! Is little Donald in the building!?!?
It seems that the people complaining about having the single-hauler trash service must have a lot of extra money to spend on this. I am thankful for the package that Mayor Randall, City Manager McGinnis, and the other members of the the team have been able to negotiate. $14 per month is a far cry from the $178 per three months from Republic. I hope that it stands.
Excellent points. This could have been avoided if the mayor and city council had been open and forthright. Their decision had been most likely been decided before any public “input” was requested. The citizens of Portage are not, and were not, fooled.
To be truthful, I have no opinion on which hauler is used, but I do on how the situation was handled. Now the city council is attempting to skirt the wishes of petitioners by threatening to eliminate brush and leaves pick up.
Shame on the Portage City council for doing an end run on the citizens they were elected to serve.