Council will hold city to waste plan obligation

Councilmembers could sue over the city's failure to submit a 25-year plan on time

The City Council approved a measure yesterday that could allow them to sue the city administration for failing to submit a long-awaited 25-year solid-waste management plan on time.

The administration published the draft of a plan totaling more than 300 pages last month. However, some councilmembers sharply criticized the document, saying the administration has still not met their demands as required by a law passed last year.

"That draft plan they showed us is, frankly, garbage," said Council Chairwoman Barbara Marshall. "We're looking for how we can solve our problems. What we got is a statement of our problems."

A city ordinance said the city administration must submit a 25-year Integrated Solid Waste Plan by Jan. 1. A consulting company for the city published a five-year plan.

The resolution, which passed 8-1 with the lone dissent being Councilman Gary Okino, requests that city attorneys take all necessary steps to ensure the city Department of Environmental Services submits the plan.

Eric Takamura, Environmental Services director, said there were delays in meeting the deadline because the department was researching details on shipping trash and curbside recycling programs. He added that the consultants were abiding by a state law that requires a five-year update on its solid-waste plans.

In a news conference in October, soon after the resolution was introduced, Mayor Mufi Hannemann said the City Council should not be wasting taxpayers' time and money in reviewing this measure because the plan will be completed.

"This resolution, in our opinion, is moot," Hannemann said. "We're basically going to ignore this resolution, period."