Taylor Campaign Ratchets Up Green Waste Issue
Taylor campaign targets Bartlett over green waste issue
BY ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writer
Former Mayor Kathy Taylor’s election campaign has gone green – green waste, that is.
A strongly-worded radio ad, social-media posts and news releases have made a campaign issue of the city’s yard-waste collection problems in recent weeks, questioning Mayor Dewey Bartlett’s claim that he knew nothing of the problem and demanding refunds for trash customers.
The city has taken yard waste collected at residents’ curbs to its trash incinerator almost since the beginning of its new trash and recycling program Oct. 1, but for months it continued requiring residents to affix 50-cent green-waste stickers to bags of yard waste, and it still charges a 70-cent green-waste fee on customers’ utility bills.
Taylor says the revelation has eroded trust in city government and that the problem indicates “a larger issue of accountability in the Mayor’s Office.”