NLR voids law on hiding trash bins
Alderman:‘We made a mistake’; most businesses refused to comply
(The red writing belongs to the Hays For Senate Committee)
By Jake Sandlin
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
LITTLE ROCK — North Little Rock aldermen admitted making a mistake in forcing businesses to screen their large garbage bins and voted Monday night to repeal the city law that had largely been ignored.
After listening for an hour to several irate business owners, aldermen voted 7-0, with one abstention, to repeal the city’s “Dumpster law.” About 120 people packed the council chambers for the meeting.
The requirement already had cost a handful of businesses thousands of dollars to meet, while the vast majority of businesses in the city refused to comply. Enough support gathered after the law went into effect Jan. 1 to lead a repeal effort.
“We made a mistake,” said Alderman Cary Gaines, who sponsored the original legislation last year and the repeal approved Monday. “I think it’s time to change it and try to repeal it.”
The fight could continue. Mayor Patrick Hays, who has veto authority, said last week that he wouldn’t support a total repeal of the law, only modifications to it. Hays said Monday night that he would not go against the near-unanimous vote of the City Council. God he is just so brilliant and decisive.
Alderman Charlie Hight passed on the vote. A package of amendments Hight offered failed to obtain a second from other aldermen.
Early in the meeting, Gaines said he would also offer an amendment to “grandfather in” existing garbage bins because he didn’t believe a full repeal would pass. As momentum grew from speakers at a public hearing during the meeting, the repeal gained favor and Gaines didn’t request an amendment.
Rob Callahan, a real estate company owner, told the aldermen, “There is no support at all” for the screening requirement.
“We keep moving forward with ways to tweak it just so somebody might dislike it a little less,” Callahan said, speaking about the possible amendments. “The only logical answer is to repeal this.”
The law required existing garbage bins to be screened so that they and any trash around them cannot be seen from a city street or a dwelling. New businesses would have had to meet stricter requirements regulating location and placement of garbage bins.
An amendment passed in November to exempt industrial areas from the new law was also repealed by Monday’s vote.
The council issued a moratorium on enforcement of the law in February, at Hays’ urging, once city officials realized there were too many noncomplying businesses to ticket.
The city didn’t do much better following its own rule, failing to screen a number of garbage bins used on city properties. Hays said Monday the city would follow whatever the City Council decreed. Why doesn't everyone just understand that the brilliant mayor is the law here and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or does? It's his way or the hi-way and that is the way it must be because he is so brilliant. We did pick up a rumor that Nobel Prize talk is begin to swirl around his name.
The City Council approved the law in January 2008 but gave almost a year for businesses to comply. However, many business owners complained that the requirement could cost $2,000 or more in some cases for each trash bin.
A small percentage of the city’s approximately 3,500 businesses complied, according to a city Code Enforcement estimates based on a survey of one of the city’s four wards in February. Gaines said that after talking with business owners, he believed the number of businesses in compliance was far less than that.
“This was simply a bad piece of legislation,” Alderman Murry Witcher said before the vote. “The ramifications were something we didn’t talk about or consider. We did a disservice to our business community.
“But, we do need some compliance,” he added. “We need to come back after some thought and establish some rules for our community.”
Thirteen speakers spoke against the law, with several chastising the city for what some said hit while the nation is in a recession. Three times Hays asked the crowd to quiet down after speakers were applauded. People had better start paying attention to exactly what this brilliant man says. He'll go off on their asses if they ain't careful. And he will soon have a security man with him at all times. HFSC
“I’m looking at $21,000, because I’ve got seven Dumpsters,” said Dennis Toland, an apartment complex owner. “We’re just hanging on in hard, hard economic times.”
Another business owner said $3,000 would be “a month’s profit” in his business, while another said he had spent more than $2,900 to screen his garbage bin that he was told still wasn’t done properly.
Speaking for many of his members, North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce President Terry Hartwick asked the council to repeal the law, calling it an action “against our businesses right now.” We should thank our stars this Hartwick guy couldn't keep it in his pants twenty years ago and was chasing that little cheerleader all over the place. If it hadn't been for that, our brilliant and unbelievably beautiful PHH might not have become the forever mayor in my beloved birthplace.
Wayne Rathbun of Waste Management of Arkansas, which picks up businesses’ garbage bins, said the company had lost six customers this year because of the new city law. The city’s beautification effort had wrongly caused hardship to many businesses, including his company, he said. My grandaughter loves the green recycle bins that we are paying for every month. She uses it for her cat's litter box.
“I’m very disappointed in my hometown because my business has been attacked,” Rathbun said. “You cannot legislate taste.” Mr. Rathbun, you can't have back your campaign contributions to the mayor and Joe Smith just because of this. That would make you an indian-giver.
After the vote, Hays thanked the crowd, but also offered a civics lesson. And if they are wise, they will listen to every damn word this brilliant politician and politically brilliant individual utters. Oh my god, he is so smart and such a good orator and such a handsome young thing too.
“If we had had this kind of input a year ago,” Hays said, “I don’t think we all would be sitting here now.” Oh my god. This was such a dramatic moment for me. When this brilliant man opens his mouth and talks, I just can barely contain my giddiness. I just can't wait until he knocks ole Blank Lincoln off her high horse.
Arkansas, Pages 7, 9 on 04/14/2009
