City manager says he knew of green waste program change
By KEVIN CANFIELD and ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writers on Aug 15, 2013, at 3:19 PM Updated on 8/15/13 at 7:27 PM
Local Politics
City voters on Nov. 12 will consider separate ballot propositions to extend 1.1 percent in sales taxes up to seven years for $563.7 million in roadwork and other capital improvements projects and to issue $355 million in general obligation bonds mainly for nonarterial roadwork.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett and former Mayor Kathy Taylor have eight weeks to make their cases before voters go to the polls Nov. 12.
City Manager Jim Twombly acknowledged Thursday that he knew months ago that the city had stopped delivering green waste to the city’s green waste facility.
“If you want a yes or no answer, yes,” Twombly said Thursday.
Councilor Jeannie Cue told fellow councilors that Twombly knew during an afternoon committee meeting. Twombly was not present, but he confirmed Cue’s assertion in a brief interview with the World.
During Thursday’s meeting, councilors demanded to know who was aware that the city had stopped disposing of green waste at its green waste facility and when that person was made aware of that.
“We have a responsibility to the public to tell them the story,” Councilor Blake Ewing said during a committee meeting.
Trash Board Chairman Randy Sullivan, who has said that board members only recently learned of the situation, told councilors that the problem was an operational one and that no one thought it “was going to develop into what it was.”
It was during that discussion that Cue mentioned Twombly’s name.
The World reported last week that yard waste picked up at residents’ curbs has been taken to the city’s trash incinerator since at least January because equipment at its mulching plant could not remove the plastic bags in which residents are asked to place the material.
The city still required residents to affix those bags with a 50-cent "green waste" sticker, and an average $1.09 a month in each customer's trash bill goes toward green waste.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett said last week that the World’s story was the first he heard of the situation. He said it prompted him to recommend to the city’s trash board that it outsource yard waste collection to contracted crews who would continue incinerating.
Twombly typically attends trash board meetings in Bartlett’s stead.
Local Politics
City voters on Nov. 12 will consider separate ballot propositions to extend 1.1 percent in sales taxes up to seven years for $563.7 million in roadwork and other capital improvements projects and to issue $355 million in general obligation bonds mainly for nonarterial roadwork.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett and former Mayor Kathy Taylor have eight weeks to make their cases before voters go to the polls Nov. 12.
