The Pensacola News Journal tried to get Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward to say if he believes the city should have notified the public that it was taking its recyclables to the landfill.
Over the course of two minutes, the mayor talked about the global market for recycling and the challenges facing small towns, but he didn’t answer the question.
Mayor Hayward said, “I think recycling in itself, globally, is a big issue, and I think if you look at a lot of coverage of recycling right now and look at the LA port and how much recycling is sitting out there and the cost of doing business…Do we need to be building a recycling facility?”
He continued, “If you look across the country, commodities are extremely down. China’s not buying a lot of our recyclables. So recycling’s very important. I also think we owe it to the taxpayers our fiduciary responsibility and making sure what fees we are passing on to their customers.”
The PNJ reporter asked, “Do you think people care a lot about recycling?”
“They do, I do it every week,” said Mayor Hayward. “I think they need to be educated, and I think we have been educating them on recycling on a global scale. And I think every small town in America is faced with these challenges now with recycling. No one’s buying recyclables anymore.”
With a smile, he added, “And it a good conversation, and you read all the newspapers across the country.”
I think we need a Hayward translator to explain his answer.
Residents deserve answers to these four simple questions:
1. When you were made aware that the city had stopped sending its recyclables to Tarpon Paper?
2. Who made the decision to not notify the Pensacola City Council and the residents of the decision to take recyclables to the landfill?
3. Will you propose to the Council that the residents be given a rebate since the recyclables weren’t processed as promised?
4. Why has it taken over seven months to negotiate a recycling contract with ECUA?
This isn’t difficult. After being in office for eight years, the mayor should be able to answer basic questions about city operations.