Statements made at City Council meetings often play fast and loose with the truth, but the statement made by City Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter at the Thursday, Aug. 15 meeting was that the city wasn’t doing exactly what it was doing.
In the discussion about the program to end loose leaf collection in Greensboro and require residents to either place their leaves in biodegradable paper bags or in the 95 gallon bin that the city will provide, Abuzuaiter said, “I want to make it very, very clear to those listening and watching we are not ending loose leaf collection. We are not ending loose leaf collection. We are just going to pick it up in a different manner.”
A few minutes later the City Council voted 7-2, with Councilmembers Zack Matheny and Hugh Holston voting no, to end loose leaf collection beginning in the fall of 2024.
Bagged and canned leaves are not loose leaves. The whole debate was about whether to continue the current practice of the city, which is to vacuum up piles of loose leaves raked or blown to the street by residents, or to end the practice of collecting loose leaves and requiring residents to place the leaves in bags or in the city provided container in order to be picked up.
Despite what Abuzuaiter repeatedly stated, the council voted to end loose leaf collection and, according to Deputy City Manager Chris Wilson, if in the fall of 2024, residents pile their loose leaves at the street rather than have the city pick up and dispose of those leaves, the resident will be charged with a code violation and be subject to fines and penalties.
Both Matheny and Holston noted when they spoke that the city was in fact ending loose leaf collection, but it is somewhat surprising that none of the other six members of City Council who favored ending loose leaf collection spoke up to correct Abuzuaiter for the public.
Matheny said, “We literally in the last two years by a majority vote of council have raised taxes by $120 million. That’s a lot of money and now we’re taking a service away. I don’t think that’s very appropriate.”
Holston said, “We talked about doing a trial program. The loose leaf collection and trial was done in the summer, the summer when leaves are still on the trees. At the very least there should be a real trial like a real business would do.”
Holston added, “There is a savings being promoted as part of this program. There is a savings for the city, but the cost burden is being shoved over to the property taxpayer, to the property owner that has to purchase those bags and purchase the equipment to make it easier to get leaves into the bags. So there is a savings, but a savings for everyone, and we have raised property taxes for the past two terms.”
If you’re going to drop a good service then cut our taxes that supported this service.
I question the savings ploy as I question the honesty of this council. This is a crock and another way to charge citizens for a service to be removed. I am so glad I did not vote for any of these so called council members. It would be nice to see them work on reducing taxes and not build a bigger city government and supply tax dollars for personal pet projects . I will continue to not waste my vote and pray all current members will be voted out of office. I know…it won’t happen.
What a bunch o f snakes. Cannot trust a single one of them. This city is out of control unless you are in the proper neighbor hood or on the payroll of the city, or have friends in high places with the proper leaning. They do not care a thing about the taxpayers other than to collect your money and refuse to add anything that benefits you. Would rather spend over 80 million on a playground for east Greensboro.
Since the loose leaf collection won’t end this fall, there is adequate time to put enough pressure on City Council to force them to rescind their foolishness. I, for one, will do everything I can to keep the issue in their minds.
What will you commenters do?
Let’s burn our leaves! That’s a wonderful memory I have from my childhood……of course back then we had a Republic, not several Fiefdoms, starting at the City and County level, reaching all the way to the Federal Government
Wonder how many gutters, sewer lines will become clogged? This new service will provide more problems than solutions. City council raises taxes, takes away services and gives money to programs without accountability to the citizens of Greensboro. (ie-cure for violence) Pitiful! These clowns and city manager are destroying a city that one stood proud and was recognized as a leader. Now it is recognized as a joke due to our lack of leadership.
Stupid!!! Just another tax so they can spend on some political agenda that doesn’t help our community. Great job!
With the record tax increases, the city has the funds to improve the leaf collection service. But that assumes they would want to. This is disgraceful. They tax more tax money and eliminate a necessary and popular service. So we’ll just have to pay the high tax and then reach in our pockets to pay for leaf collection. They could at least pick a section of town and run a test program this Fall. Anyone who runs in my district on bringing back leaf collection gets my vote. The council thinks the 40% who want to keep leaf collection is not enough to bother with. Arrogance!
Govt is not in business to make a profit. They extort our money to pay for services that the residents need. Loose leaf collection among many other things, such as POLICE PROTECTION. Our govt is self-serving, and uses our tax money to feather-bed their own nest.
Say it ain’t so, Mark Kay.
Miller-ask any officer. I led the initiative to get our officers the raises they deserve. And, increase our starting pay to an appropriate level. I agree with you that Police Protection is the most important and I have done my part to make sure they are given appropriate raises.
My comment was about loose leaf collection.
And your council slow rolled raises for months. They will finally take affect September. When you all bumped up the city manager’s pay to $300,000 did he wait months? And where are the take home cars like every other agency in NC? And no, adding 20 cars a year for 5 years does not cut it. You all spend millions like you are buying a meal deal at McDonald’s. All of you have been on the council for years and very little changes.
I watched you turn down zoning for a CHURCH on Gate City Boulevard because it was going to offend Sedgefield. Are you going to do the same for Starmount, Starmount Forest, Hamilton Lakes, and Hamilton Forest on Friendly Avenue. I have heard the developer has already proposed going from 26 units to 15. That seems like the plan all along-set the density really high and then make it look like the city council has “compromised” by making it only 15 units. I already know Hoffman will sell her district down the river. I have seen her do it before.
Abuzuaiter was just on FOX8 News at 5:00 PM still lying to the citizens of Greensboro. Paraphrasing – She said that Greensboro is NOT ending loose leaf collection now, next year or forever. As John Hammer said, “bagged and canned leaves are not loose leaves.”
IGNORANT citizens keep electing STUPID people to City Council.
I suggest that we reschedule municipal elections to the same time (and ballots) as we elect state and national offices so that the local officials can hear from more than the 12% or so of voters who bother to vote in currently scheduled municipal elections. If that doesn’t work to get better representation, then we might want to enact municipal recall provisions, or even a requirement that a candidate receive 25% of the eligible vote base in order to actually be elected…
Amen brother. The council changed elections to off years in the 80s for the very reasons you state.
As was stated, raise taxes, cut services. Weeds growing taller than guardrails, streets do not get fixed. This is a town in decay. We are fortunate to have business growth at the airport and mega site, and all of the apartments going up, but with all of this additional income I see no improvement in the infrastructure. Absolutely no traffic enforcement. My wife and I have, after a lifetime of living here, decided to move. I can no longer remain in a city that has a government that allows a beautiful town to follow in the footsteps of other democrat run areas. Fortunately we will miss very little here.
Bye bye and sell your house above market value don’t hurt the people who are making good money on their homes!
Hey GSO taxpayers,
Now that that has been decided, be prepared for leaf pickup to become privatized. Somebody will make a buck on it somehow.
I will vote against every council member who voted to end loose leaf collection, and will advocate with every person I know/ meet to do the same. I expect a tax refund so I can pay someone to do this for me as I am an older adult.
We need a lot of votes, more than the few that elected this Council. The Council moved the election to dates off the Presidential election every 4 years. Most people don’t bother to vote in the off years – so we get what they didn’t bother to do.
I predict the lawn maintenance bill to quadruple for residents who pay someone to maintain their lawn, during “leaf season”. This may be difficult for elderly residents on a fixed income.
Providing one 90 gallon container for leaves is a waste of taxpayer dollars. The money would be better spent providing residents with plastic bags. I hope the bags are going to be recycled, rather than added to a landfill.
Tim C. – Plastic bags will be outlawed on March 1, 2024; thereafter, you must use biodegradable paper bags.
Not sure why my comments weren’t published from yesterday. No problem. I’ll be happy to change my future comments to leaf pickup.
We have published all the comments we have received from you and if you will resend your comments we will publish them.
John,
You have to give her credit for at least trying to cover
and how much will it cost for the city to purchase thousands of new yard waste bins, PLUS the new trucks with the claws to dump those bins? Current yard waste trucks are just normal garbage trucks that load into the back manually.
Oh but you overlooked one thing Jeff. When those new trucks pick up the bins to dump them think about how leaves, like paper will fly around…only far worse. Then you have to clean those up…AGAIN!
So should I expect a fine if leaves are in the street in front of my house?
Good point! They call the wind Maria.