Morristown puts a lid on flimsy trash ordinance that stuck residents with costly day in court

On Thursday the Morristown council introduced fixes to a garbage ordinance that may have stuck up to 50 residents with $50 court fees.

If the town can’t refund their money, it at least owes them an apology, Council President Stefan Armington said after the meeting.

“It doesn’t seem fair to me…a whole host of people got it wrong,” Armington said of the ordinance, which carries fines of up to $109 for failure to put curbside trash in a receptacle.

A livid resident last month pointed out to the mayor and council that the measure actually gave residents an option of placing their trash at the curb in a securely tied garbage bag. He said he was threatened with a summons for doing so.

By then, as many as 50 individuals had received tickets and had to appear in municipal court, according to Armington. He said the town prosecutor cut them a break on the fines, but they still had to cough up $50 court fees.

Because of the discrepancy discovered by the resident, town Attorney David Minchello said he instructed the prosecutor not to impose any new fines or fees for these violations until the amendments are approved.

Persons previously socked with court fees are out of luck.

“If the case has been adjudicated, it’s been adjudicated. There’s nothing we can do,” Minchello said at Thursday’s hybrid meeting.

‘NOBODY READ THIS ORDINANCE EXCEPT FOR ME’

The amended 27-page ordinance, introduced by unanimous vote and scheduled for adoption on Dec. 13, 2022, still puzzled council members. It strikes a reference to plastic bags while requiring a metal or plastic container “as well as a device to secure the lid to the container.”

Pressed by Armington to define “device,” Minchello said “anything whatsoever that keeps that lid from flying off due to the wind is a device that secures the lid.”

Councilman Robert Iannaccone, who is a lawyer, questioned whether the revised ordinance also mandates placing recyclables into containers with lids. “The language is just not clear, and we don’t want any more problems with this,” the councilman said.

The changes only pertain to trash, Minchello responded. Recyclables need containers but no lids, chimed Mayor Tim Dougherty.

Dougherty added that court appearances no longer are mandatory, though it’s not clear from the posted amendments if they ever were required.

Enforcement was stepped up after complaints in June about rodents infesting a Third Ward neighborhood, where residents weren’t using garbage barrels.

As for holes in the ordinance, Armington suggested things may have fallen through the cracks as Minchello replaced town Attorney Vij Pawar, appointed to a judgeship in the summer of 2021.

While the council does review agenda items, “we assume if an ordinance is presented to us from the administration, it has been signed off by the law department for legal compliance,” the council president told Morristown Green.

The revisions were triggered by Michael Quattro, who trashed the code at an October council meeting.

“You were going to take me to court on a crappy ordinance,” fumed the First Ward resident, calling it vague, poorly written legislation that never defined what constitutes a garbage container.

“This is like Trump declassifying documents in his mind. What you think this ordinance says is only in your head. When you actually read the ordinance, I can put as many Hefty bags at the curb as I want.

“You guys have an oversight function. Nobody read this ordinance except for me. That says a lot about the government here, from…code enforcement to the mayor to (the council) to everybody in between…’Sloppy’ and ‘careless’ are not words I like to have associated with my attorney,” Quattro said.

Viewers at home had difficulty following Thursday’s developments. Nearly a year after the town introduced livestreamed council sessions for residents wary of COVID-19 at in-person meetings, the technology continues to baffle the administration.

Online viewers saw only a dark screen with the town clerk’s name on it. The garbled audio was largely unintelligible. Apollo 11 streamed better video and sound from the moon — more than half a century ago.

Neighboring Morris Township is among area towns that appear to have figured out hybrid meetings, an advance in open government spurred by the pandemic.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

The council cannot introduce new laws to close a year. So Iannaccone asked the administration to use next month’s finale to provide updates on several long-pending matters.

They include plans to condemn a former lumberyard to create a park, renegotiation of Morristown Airport’s 1981 lease, the status of special needs housing at new apartments on Morris Street, and the blanket deployment of 5G antennas by Verizon.

Dougherty announced the town has received $11,000 from the Morris County St. Patrick’s Parade Committee for police overtime at the March parade.

The mayor also issued a proclamation for next week’s World Pancreatic Cancer Day. And resident Bill Byrne got kudos all around for his award-winning work on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities.