Portage residents will head to the polls in May to decide if the city’s trash will be picked up by a single hauler or multiple garbage collectors.
That's after the Portage City Council approved the "Take Back the Trash" special election petition on Tuesday.
In July, Waste Management won a bid to become Portage’s sole trash hauler, which sparked pushback from some residents who wanted to continue to choose their hauler.
But with the contract already signed and set to begin this year, there are now concerns from residents about what penalties the city might face if voters shoot down the one-hauler system.
“The $23 million or whatever it was, the quite large sum of money that we have settled for this contract. Are we still held accountable for that? Because if we are, that comes out of the taxpayers' money," Portage resident Judy Salters said during public comments.
Portage Mayor Patricia Randall addressed these concerns after the vote.
“We don't have those answers. This has not occurred before. So we will be engaging in an attorney recommended by the Michigan Municipal League to dive into the questions,” Randall said.
“Do we have to pay a penalty? Do we have the term of five years committed and then go to back to the system that we have? So, all your questions that you have raised this evening, we have had ourselves.”
The special election petition was promoted by Kalamazoo-based garbage collector Best Way Disposal, which lost the bid to become Portage’s sole hauler.
In addition to promoting the petition, individuals associated with Best Way made significant donations to anti-single-hauler candidates who ran in November's city council race. That includes current council member Kathleen Olmsted, who received $3,000 in total from members of the Balkema family associated with the Best Way business.
The Balkemas also donated to the unsuccessful campaigns of city council candidate Jay Woodhams and mayoral candidate Nasim Ansari.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
