I truly hope that our Orion Township Board elected officials will remember the information that was first presented to them by JoAnn VanTassel, and then later shared and written about by me and then published in The Lake Orion Review in January of 2015 that was in regards to waste haulers:

Re: No Authority for Townships To Contract with Single Private Waste Hauler

Nowhere under the Michigan Compiled Laws is there any language granting the authority for any Charter Township Board to act on its own accord and mandate, setup and contract with a singular private waste hauler to be the only residential hauler township wide.

Or, for that matter for even businesses and/or multiple dwelling complexes. Nor, does the MCL’s grant any provisions for a township to act as a penalty/fee collection agency for a private contractor.

All Charter Townships in Michigan are governed by the Charter Township Act MCL 42.1 – 42.34. Section 42.1 stipulates that Charter Townships are also governed by MCL 41.1 – 41.110c of the General Township Act.

Section 42.15 does allow the Charter Townships to adopt and enact ordinances on granting and prescribing licenses to Solid Waste Haulers .. such as our township’s current Ordinance 73.

Under MCL, section 42.31 a Charter Township may set-up its own solid waste disposal system and then maintain, operate it alone with its own township waste hauler disposal service.

A Charter Township under Section 42.31 would set-up its own Public Waste Disposal Department/s with township owned waste hauling, yard waste and recycling trucks and its own contracted employees.

It does not allow a Charter Township to contract with a private operator to do collections for just certain sectors of a township. The township board would then have to set-up a special assessment on property to defray for all the costs that would entail.

Therefore, any further Orion Township Board discussions or actions on the subject of having a Single Waste Hauler mandate for all the residents of Orion Township would be futile and in vain. Because, there is nothing under the Michigan Compiled Laws that grants any Charter Township that written authority to do so.

That does not rule out the fact that Homeowners Associations and neighborhoods do have the authority under their own accord and support of their residents to decide whether or not they wish to go with single waste hauler.

To find the information presented above you can Google search ‘Michigan Legislature.’ Then – click on ‘Basic MCL Search’ and enter the MCL number that you wish to find.

You can also find the whole ‘Charter Township Act’ by clicking on ‘Chapter 42.’ There is also the capability to print the information that you have searched and found.

Sincerely,

Mary MacMaster

Orion Twp.

Submitted on www.lakeorionreview.com.