St. Louis County illegally forces residents to pay for unwanted trash collection under threat of criminal prosecution, a class action claims in St. Louis County Court. Three trash haulers are named in the suit.
Named plaintiffs Paul Marquis and Cathy Armbruster say the county violated its charter by not giving residents 2 years notice and not holding an election to give voters the right to approve the trash districts.St. Louis County ignored an Oct. 21, 2008 Missouri Appeals Court ruling that it had to give residents the notice, the suit states. The plaintiffs say that failure to pay for the trash services could result in fines and imprisonment.
The class consists of all St. Louis County residents and business owners within trash districts 1-8, who paid for trash services due to the illegal ordinance. It seeks damages and wants the ordinances declared void. It is represented by Robert Schultz of Chesterfield, Mo.
IESI MO, Veolia ES Solid Waste Midwest and Allied Services are also named as defendants.
How much tax payer money has been spent, continues to be spent and will be spent ongoing on this program. It will never return the benefits the county has claimed. And, could in fact cost the county and the taxpayers a lot more.
ReplyDeleteI don't think county management has any idea as to the total cost to impliment this program . . . and it's still not working in all areas. Three lawsuits speak for itself. They're not cheap.
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