Idiot-proof trash cans and the Cedar Rapids City Council

In my previous post, I wrote about the Cedar Rapids City Council wanting to spend half a million dollars to idiot-proof, the city's Yardy carts. I think I may have called the Cedar Rapids City Council crooked. I definitely called them stupid. But crooked is such a strong term, perhaps bordering on slander or libel. If you look at the comments on the Gazette article on the issue you will see that I am not alone.

In the article Councilman Shey said of his relationship to Brokaw:

I guess it gets back to, do relationships cause a person a conflict of interest? ... If you know somebody who is appearing in front of the council, is that a conflict of interest?”

Gulick and Corbett also downplayed the influence of their relationships with Brokaw. As I said in my previous post. these relationships are not necessarily illegal or even unethical. In a town this size, especially with a buy local policy, the council will know many of the vendors it deals with.

[[ warning, what follows is a run-on sentence ;-) ]]

On the other hand, in an environment where we are concerned about paying for existing services, spending half a million dollars on a no-bid contract, for a product that nobody wants, to solve a problem that most Cedar Rapids residents say does not exist, with a vendor who cannot sell it to any other customers, after the fiasco regarding bidding on the Sinclair demolition — that seems the height of stupidity.

So, in retrospect, I meant to call the city council stupid and I am not apologizing for calling the city council crooked.

Comments

[Cheryl H.]

I am not in favor of yardy carts, period. I am definitely not in favor of spending money to change them. I have used mine 6 times since they were issued, five times to remove root balls from shrubs I removed, and once for a rotten mail box post. Had I contracted the shrub removal work done, I would not have used the cart those 5 times. My yard waste goes into my own compost pile and it used on my own garden beds. Why should the city run those expensive trucks around to remove valuable and useful organic materials from every yard when those organic materials could be used by homeowners to alleviate the need for chemical fertilizers?

The 6 times I used my cart, I followed the directions and did not move the cart while it was open. I did not fall into the cart. The cart did not fall over on me. The present carts work if people follow the directions. If they spend money to "improve" the carts, some idiot will figure out a new way to be hurt by them. This is not a game a city can win. In this litigious society, this is exposure the city does not need. So I say, collect the yardys and melt them and make some nice park benches and let's be done with yardys all together.