ABC40 reports that a settlement was reached today in the lawsuit against the city regarding the attempted trash fee. From the station:
[T]he 2007 trash fee was declared invalid. In fiscal year 2008, which begins on July 1, 2007, Springfield residents will have the choice of paying the city 90 dollars per year to remove their trash or they can arrange for private trash pickup.
Those who have already paid their fee will have the option of getting their money back or using the money already paid to pay the new voluntary fee starting this July.
During a press conference on November 21 in response to the filed suit, Springfield Mayor Charles Ryan said that picking up the city’s trash is the thing at stake here.
"I think it’s very clear," he said, "that wherever [residents] are going to go [for trash pick-up], they’re going to pay substantially more than they would be paying the city of Springfield with a trash fee. So all they’ve gotta do is say they don’t want us to pick it up, and they give back the barrel, and show proof that they’ve got somebody else. This is from a public health and environmental point of view."
"We followed the procedure set up by the Department of Environmental [Protection]," he continued. "You don’t leave a city this size with no controls over how the rubbish is going to be picked up, or whether it’s going to be picked up. We have very serious concerns about that. It’s not too much to expect the people who are not going to have us pick it up will indeed have it picked up by somebody who is qualified to do it. I think it’s a very reasonable exercise of the city’s responsibility."
Based on Marla Goldberg’s preliminary report for the Republican, it sounds as though the primary change for the fiscal year 2008 trash fee is the wording of the order. Lowney writes, "The control board amended its order on Dec. 18 to stress that households can choose whether to participate." Lowney reported that the lawyers for the case agreed that this revised order would be acceptable.
