St. Paul council's garbage hauling vote won't stop the trash talk

A garbage bin in St. Paul.
A garbage bin on St. Paul's west side.
Jon Gordon | MPR News 2016

Opponents of St. Paul's organized trash collection program petitioned the City Council twice this fall to let voters weigh in on the new system, but they still won't make the ballot.

The City Council on Wednesday rejected the latest petition, arguing that the city's garbage plan is not subject to a referendum. It's the latest skirmish in a yearslong battle over trash and other public services in St. Paul. This one is likely to end up in court.

The council last year voted to end the decades-old practice of letting residents pick and pay their own trash hauler. City officials called the system inefficient, with multiple garbage trucks going up and down alleys daily. Residents were also not required to buy trash service, which the city said encouraged illegal dumping in parks, alleys and roads.

The city put in place two new ordinances then contracted with a coalition of the old haulers. It divided the city into zones, assigned garbage collection days and set citywide prices, which officials said would save money. The new service started Oct. 1.

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Opponents of the new plan say it's unfair to require every residence to pay for trash service. Some residents say they saved money in the old system by sharing a trash bin with neighbors; others say they waste little and don't like being required to buy a service they hardly use.

Council members on Wednesday, though, said state law gives them the authority to set trash policy and that a referendum wouldn't change anything.

"It's not that you can't have a referendum in the city of St. Paul. It's that you have to have a legal basis, or the state law needs to permit a referendum on that issue," said council member Chris Tolbert. "So, it's not us choosing what's to go on the ballot or not. It's the law. State law has prohibited what can and can't go on the ballot."

Tolbert was one of six council members to reject the effort to put the city's new garbage plan to a vote. Only council member Dan Bostrom dissented. He warned his colleagues that they risked alienating their constituents.

"Folks go through the process and get the required signatures for a referendum and then we say, 'Yeah, that's nice, but we have found a way to get around it.'" Bostrom told the council Wednesday.

"I want to encourage public discussion and transparency and the democratic process on this issue," said council member Rebecca Noecker. "I don't like this vote either, but I don't want citizens to go through this whole process of referendum that we can legally answer only one way."

Opponents say they sought a referendum and repeal vote because they couldn't get the council to listen.

One petition organizer, Alisa Lein, said her family has more than a dozen residential rental units in the city. She says they're paying $4,900 a year for service and trash carts that they didn't ask for and don't need. The city isn't responding to residents' concerns she said, adding that a court battle is the likely next step.

"I don't think that the people of St. Paul will sit back and just let this ride out," she said following after the council meeting. "It will possibly help motivate a lot of people to step up and help the cause."

Elections officials have suggested next year's general city election would be the best option for a referendum. But legal battles over trash have drawn out for years elsewhere in Minnesota.

The issue may end up on the ballot anyway, indirectly. The entire City Council is up for election next year, a factor that could have played a role in Wednesday's decision to reject a referendum.

None of the council members said so, but being on the same ballot with a trash fight — an issue that's upset thousands of people — probably isn't the re-election campaign most city officials want to run. Critics of the garbage plan say they may recruit challengers for council seats and make the election a referendum on City Hall, rather than its garbage plan.