CLEANING UP SPRINGFIELD’S GARBAGE
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takes them to administrative court, convened weekly on Wednesday mornings.

Many are landlords who own multiple rental properties and, regardless of the new ordinance, leave it up to their tenants to deal with garbage.

“On some of the trash service issues, they are able to get service and they don’t have to go to court,” Taylor says. “Others will come in and be like, ‘Why do I need trash service?’ It’s a city ordinance for you to have trash service at each one of your properties.

If it’s rental or if you own it. “A lot of the property owners will put into their leases that the tenants need to get the trash service, but now since the ordinance has passed that the property owners are responsible, I write up the property and send a letter to the owner.”

Last week Taylor took two solid waste cases to court. The first was 802 Indiana, for not having garbage service. After his initial inspection Taylor sent the property owners one of his “love letters,” informing them that unless they signed up for garbage service, they’ll go to court for breaking the law. The case was dismissed when owners eventually showed proof that they signed up for garbage service.

The second was 533 Wood, for harboring solid waste and garbage. Usually when inspectors find trash outside of a property or in the alley — like in the case of 315 E. Rafter, Taylor says — they call on public works. But in this case, the property owner didn’t have trash service for three months and instead stacked refuse in her garage.

Taylor requested a search warrant to enter the structure to abate the problem. The city’s trash ordinance, which went into effect on April 1, 2008, gives Taylor and the other housing inspectors the support they need to stop these cases from cropping up. Sponsored by Ward 6 Ald. Mark Mahoney, the law mandates waste haulers to provide monthly reports listing their customers’ addresses, fines residents $250 a month for not having garbage service and, as Taylor mentions, holds landlords responsible for service sign-up.

When it was approved, several aldermen clamored that the ordinance needed more regulation. Mahoney told Illinois Times: “I’m satisfied that we took a step. I know some think the ordinance doesn’t go far enough, but in a year we’ll see how it works and go from there.”

In December the city established the Springfield waste and recycling commission to review the ordinance and evaluate whether or not it’s working. The nine-member commission, comprised of neighborhood association representatives Polly