It matters because concerns such as truck traffic, smell and life of the landfill will all be affected should the landfill be made available to garbage from outside the city. Hartzman seems to insinuate that the profit motive of the company contracted to operate the landfill might be given priority over Greensboro's interests. Are we contemplating a scheme that will be optimized for Greensboro's citizens or something that will maximize the profit potential of a company?
So George is right to ask how much of the garbage will come from Greensboro and how much from elsewhere. He hasn't received an answer to his inquiries and he's frustrated.
Here's the thing though, while we would hope that the people at City Hall would be willing to answer questions (in my experience, they generally are), there are no consequences if they don't. They are, however, bound by law to provide public records on request. I've suggested to George that, instead of asking a question, he ask for records that contain the information he seeks. It's a different approach that really shouldn't be necessary -- someone should just answer his question -- but it's the approach that has the weight of law behind it.
I've suggested to George that he make a records request something like this.
"Public Records Request: Provide me with all records in any form that document any estimation, predictions or expectations of the geographic sources for the garbage that would go to the White Street Landfill if it were reopened for household garbage and/or any estimation, prediction or expectation of the amounts of same, said estimations, predictions or expectations having been made by any party or entity."Citizens should not have to get all lawyerly to get information from their government, but in this case it appears necessary.
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