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JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- Within weeks after the new trash program went into effect last fall, city officials proclaimed it a success.

"I think, for a major undertaking of this size, for the first time in our city, it's been a true success,” Jefferson City Sanitation Director Charlie Lansford said.   

However, the mandatory trash collection fee and recycling program was surrounded in controversy since it was first discussed. Now, opponents, including the local group Citizen’s Action Committee, are hoping to turn back the clock by putting the issue on the ballot.

"The trash service was fine before,” Citizens Action Committee member Arthur Brown said. “All of a sudden, it's mandatory.”

The Citizen’s Action Committee organized a petition drive that they hope will lead to a public referendum of the trash ordinance. The group will collect signatures all day Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Eagles Lodge on Missouri Boulevard.

“Just give the people a choice,” Brown said. “If it was put to them before, it probably would have voted down because of the way it was force on us.”

The Citizens Action Committee must gather the signatures of 825 voters to get on the ballot.

To cover the cost of a curbside recycling program, the new ordinance required everyone, with certain exceptions for low-income households, to pay the same amount for trash pick-up. Most people have ended up paying less than they would have under the renewal of the old program. But some people, particularly those who once paid by bag, now pay more.

City officials said that they did not anticipate the opposition, which is now a petition campaign.

"I don't think that discussion was ever had, but it doesn't necessarily surprise me,” Jefferson City Administrator Steve Rasmussen said. 

Rasmussen said there could be significant complications with trying to un-fire the waste collection gun, which includes an enforceable contract with Allied Waste Systems. 

Rasmussen said the council approved the new program because it makes for a cleaner, more livable city.

“That's the kind of the Abraham Lincoln position and that is you know what's best for most of the people most of the time,” Rasmussen said.

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