City of Gary Garbage Fee
For Release: Tuesday, August 4, 2009 For More Information, Contact: (219) 939-9511
Doug Grimes, President, Miller Citizens Corporation (MCC) (219) 614-8743
(Gary, IN) The challenge to the City of Gary and their annual $5.2 million garbage fee is not going away!
Douglas Grimes, president of the Miller Citizens Committee, said today that the Gary City Council in their meeting on July 21st did not pass and adopt an Ordinance approving the establishment of garbage collection fees.
According to Grimes, “the council for whatever reason, simply never voted to adopt the fee ordinance!” Councilman Roy Pratt made a motion to reconsider the vote taken by the council at its July 7th meeting when the garbage collection ordinance was defeated. The council voted to reconsider the July 7th vote on the ordinance at its July 21st meeting. The motion to reconsider made by Councilman Pratt passed with a vote of 5 to 4. Grimes said, the passage of the motion to reconsider is not the same as voting to pass and adopt the ordinance to impose the garbage collection tax.
Grimes cited the Council’s own rules and Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure in support of the position that when the vote to reconsider the July 7th vote passed, the July 7th vote was canceled “as completely as though it had never been taken” and that the “question immediately recurs upon the question reconsidered.” Grimes said that after the motion to reconsider passed, the fee ordinance should have been brought to the floor for a vote. It was not. The Chair’s declaration, after the 5 ayes and 4 nays vote on the motion to reconsider that “Council Pending Ordinance duly PASSED” cannot change the fact that the meeting minutes demonstrate that the Council did not vote on the garbage fee ordinance at the July 21, 2009 Council meeting.
As a result, Grimes said that since the council did not pass and adopt the garbage collection ordinance the Gary Sanitary District cannot, legally, collect the garbage collection fee from the taxpayers of Gary. If they attempt to do so, under the current circumstances, the sanitary district and the city would violate Judge Webber’s order that requires that the city council adopt the fee ordinance before the sanitary district may collect the fee from taxpayers.
“We are still a society of laws,” said Grimes, “and we are required to conduct city business in accordance with the council’s own rules and the statutes of the State of Indiana. The garbage ordeal could have been averted but for the sanitary district and the City’s rush to add to the profits of Allied Waste on the backs of Gary workers. This issue can be resolved by reinstating the 49 city workers who lost their jobs and by using the city owned vehicles and equipment to collect the garbage as we have for at least the past 35 years and save money in the process.
Story posted: 8/4/2009
For Release: Tuesday, August 4, 2009 For More Information, Contact: (219) 939-9511
Doug Grimes, President, Miller Citizens Corporation (MCC) (219) 614-8743
(Gary, IN) The challenge to the City of Gary and their annual $5.2 million garbage fee is not going away!
Douglas Grimes, president of the Miller Citizens Committee, said today that the Gary City Council in their meeting on July 21st did not pass and adopt an Ordinance approving the establishment of garbage collection fees.
According to Grimes, “the council for whatever reason, simply never voted to adopt the fee ordinance!” Councilman Roy Pratt made a motion to reconsider the vote taken by the council at its July 7th meeting when the garbage collection ordinance was defeated. The council voted to reconsider the July 7th vote on the ordinance at its July 21st meeting. The motion to reconsider made by Councilman Pratt passed with a vote of 5 to 4. Grimes said, the passage of the motion to reconsider is not the same as voting to pass and adopt the ordinance to impose the garbage collection tax.
Grimes cited the Council’s own rules and Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure in support of the position that when the vote to reconsider the July 7th vote passed, the July 7th vote was canceled “as completely as though it had never been taken” and that the “question immediately recurs upon the question reconsidered.” Grimes said that after the motion to reconsider passed, the fee ordinance should have been brought to the floor for a vote. It was not. The Chair’s declaration, after the 5 ayes and 4 nays vote on the motion to reconsider that “Council Pending Ordinance duly PASSED” cannot change the fact that the meeting minutes demonstrate that the Council did not vote on the garbage fee ordinance at the July 21, 2009 Council meeting.
As a result, Grimes said that since the council did not pass and adopt the garbage collection ordinance the Gary Sanitary District cannot, legally, collect the garbage collection fee from the taxpayers of Gary. If they attempt to do so, under the current circumstances, the sanitary district and the city would violate Judge Webber’s order that requires that the city council adopt the fee ordinance before the sanitary district may collect the fee from taxpayers.
“We are still a society of laws,” said Grimes, “and we are required to conduct city business in accordance with the council’s own rules and the statutes of the State of Indiana. The garbage ordeal could have been averted but for the sanitary district and the City’s rush to add to the profits of Allied Waste on the backs of Gary workers. This issue can be resolved by reinstating the 49 city workers who lost their jobs and by using the city owned vehicles and equipment to collect the garbage as we have for at least the past 35 years and save money in the process.
Story posted: 8/4/2009
