A coalition of St. Paul property owners has filed a lawsuit against the city, accusing city and county officials of illegally blocking their attempts to put organized trash collection on the voter ballot for a public referendum.
Dubbing themselves St. Paul Trash, the opponents of the city’s new system of organized trash collection filed suit this week in Ramsey County District Court.
The suit, which lists property owners Bruce Clark, Peter Butler and Ann Dolan as plaintiffs, names the city of St. Paul, city clerk Shari Moore and Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky as defendants.
The plaintiffs request the court to immediately suspend a key city ordinance that created the organized trash collection system, “pending approval or disapproval by the voters of St. Paul. … (Plaintiffs) ask that the respondents be required to either prepare for citywide election a ballot that includes the referendum … or repeal the ordinance forthwith.”
The 110-page suit was filed Thursday on behalf of the plaintiffs by attorney Gregory Joseph of the Halper & Joseph law firm in Waconia.
TWO PETITIONS, AND AN OVERRIDE
Working with a consortium of 15 private haulers, the city began organized trash collection on Oct. 1. Every neighborhood is assigned a private hauler and a collection date, so there’s no overlapping in routes.
Opponents have raised a variety of objections, from pricing and free-market arguments to questions about whether there are sufficient incentives built into the system to encouraging recycling. Under the new system, every household in a one to four unit building is assigned its own cart with its own account. There’s no discount for sharing carts.
By the time opponents submitted a referendum petition with 5,800 signatures to Ramsey County Elections last September, St. Paul had already spent $4 million on 73,000 new wheeled, lidded trash carts and signed a five-year contract with more than a dozen trash haulers, including national companies such as Republic Services and Waste Management.
Opponents submitted a second petition seeking to block organized trash collection on different grounds a few weeks later.
The second petition, which contained more than 6,400 signatures, seeks a public referendum on city Ordinance 18-39, which was instrumental in establishing organized trash collection in the city for homes of one to four units.
Ramsey County Elections found 5,541 signatures to be valid, as in unique signatures from registered voters. But the city council quickly adopted a resolution noting the city already had a legally-binding contract in place, and that the petition was overruled by state statutes giving cities legal responsibility to determine how trash collection will be completed.
The resolution found the petition “legally sufficient but … the subject matter is not appropriate to submit to the electorate,” and called the petition “an unconstitutional interference with the agreement between the city and the consortium, (that) conflicts with state public policy.”
The plaintiffs argue that the city is misinterpreting state law, which does not mandate a particular type of collection.
“Organized collection is optional on the part of a city,” states the suit. “(State statute) makes it clear that the legislature is indifferent toward a city’s chosen method of collecting waste.”
On Friday, St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson said that the city is still reviewing the lawsuit.
“The city implemented organized trash collection to ensure that all residents have consistency in service and pricing, and to reduce truck traffic and pollution within our neighborhoods,” said Olson, in an email. “The city’s decision not to subject the ordinance to referendum at the next election was appropriate and legally justified in these circumstances.”
COLLECTING UNPAID BILLS THROUGH TAX ASSESSMENTS?
Among the issues raised by opponents with St. Paul Trash is whether the city has the legal right to impose financial penalties for unpaid garbage bills, and to recoup unpaid trash bills through assessments on property tax bills.
The city council is pursuing an amendment to the city charter to give the council explicit authority to establish, amend or repeal civil penalties for violations of city ordinances.
The St. Paul City Charter Commission is scheduled to take up the issue at 4:30 p.m. Monday.
St. Paul Trash is hosting informational meetings on Saturday and Sunday, as well as March 3, at various libraries throughout the city.
To fund the lawsuit, the coalition has also begun a fundraising drive on its website at StPaulTrash.com.