It appears the City Council may back away from the decision to fine people $25 for not rolling their garbage cans back from the street by 7 p.m. on garbage collection day.
City Councilmember Yvonne Johnson interrupted the City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 19 to bring up the garbage can issue.
Johnson said, “I’d like to ask for us to table the decision we made about the garbage can fees. I want us to talk about some other options.”
There is a parliamentary procedure for bringing a matter that has been voted on back before the City Council. It is called reconsideration. A motion for reconsideration can be made by any councilmember who voted on the prevailing side. If the motion passes then the matter is back before the City Council as if no vote had ever taken place.
Johnson – who was first elected to the City Council in 1993 and was mayor from 2007 to 2009 – however, didn’t make a motion to reconsider. She said she wanted to “table the decision.”
Johnson said, “I’d like to talk about other ways that we can have the same result and encourage neighbors to be neighbors.”
Johnson added that she had heard from a lot of people who didn’t like the action of the City Council to fine people.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan asked if the City Council needed to vote to bring the matter back up.
City Attorney Chuck Watts said, “I don’t think that requires a vote.”
The result is that no vote was taken to reconsider the action taken by City Council to impose a fine of $25 for residents who don’t roll their garbage and recycling containers back from the street by 7 p.m. on collection day.
The ordinance doesn’t require residents to roll their garbage and recycling cans back from the street by 7 p.m. on collection day, so it is unclear what authority the city has to fine residents for not doing something the City Council would like them to do.
The current status of the $25 fine is hard to follow.
The City Council voted to implement the roll back fine beginning on July 1. However, without any vote, the decision was made to institute a 120-day moratorium on implementing the fines.
Now, again without any vote, the City Council appeared to agree to reconsider implementing the $25 fine. No one spoke against Johnson’s suggestion that the fine be tabled and, much later in the meeting, Councilmember Hugh Holston said he agreed that the City Council needed to “rethink that program.”
This City Council has, during the past four years, often ignored parliamentary procedure and its own policies, so it seems fitting at its penultimate meeting that the City Council would follow that same confusing procedure.
What is the current status of the $25 fine? Who knows.
Council ignoring parliamentary procedure is just another in-your-face to the citizens of Greensboro. They are NEVER held accountable for any wrongdoing.
Typical to zero in on something so trivial as garbage cans when the City looks like a third world country – trash everywhere!
Too bad Yvonne Johnson did not bring up the budget. She received complaints from constituents about the garbage fee but a huge tax increase has not caused any complaints? This council is a big joke, they are concerned about a 25.00 fee but in the mean time are hurting their constituents with the largest tax increase ever. Yvonne is the one that stated at a forum that the council was going to cut our taxes,,,, she failed to mention that was from the revaluation rate.
TIME FOR A CHANGE ! Vote for Katie Rossabi, Tony Wilkins, Thurston Reeder and write in Chris Meadows for Mayor.
Only blacks people can get away with this crap
Are there any White people in Greensboro?
Maybe council can hire an expensive consultant to do their job and make an expensive stupid decision like they would normally do.
Easy decision. They don’t need the revenue from the $25 fine with the property tax increases.
Sounds like they are taking notes from the Sedalia town council and planning board.
Can we have recall elections before the actual election? For shame. Shenanigans can and are regularly hidden by running roughshod over parliamentary procedure and City Attorney is complicit in illegal council actions regularly.
What a bunch of losers! You know what you can all do with your own city-issued garbage cans – sideways.
If I understand correctly, the council created a fine for citizens failing to meet a non-existent requirement (cans off the street by 7pm) in an existing ordinance. I thought one of the primary duties of the city attorney was to read to those councilpersons who can’t.
Well, it is obvious that Chuck Watts does not know the difference between tabling and reconsideration. Tabling is before any action has been taken during a meeting and is required by motion to bring it off the table; reconsideration is after an action has taken place and must be voted on to be reconsidered, and reconsideration motion must be made by someone who voted for the action, and yes requires a vote. Actually, Johnson should have made a motion to Amend Something Previously Adopted. Yes, Mr. Watts, this motion would have required a vote.