Garbage Ethics Reform in Chicago Sets an Example

Garbage is the principal regular point of contact between individuals and their local government. If people are happy with their garbage pickup, they are likely to be happy with their local government. For this reason, smart high-level local government officials make sure that garbage pickup is done well.

In Chicago, the members of the board of aldermen wanted to be given credit for garbage pickup. They also wanted to use it as a way to provide their supporters with jobs. To do this meant ward control over garbage collection and a garbage collection map based on wards, not on what was most efficient. This meant more trucks and more employees, more votes for incumbents, and more costs for taxpayers.

According to a WBEZ Radio article last year, Mayor Emanuel shifted the garbage collection map to one based on a grid designed for efficiency. The new map has 33 zones instead of 50 wards. The savings in money, as well as in alderman control of city services and jobs, is large. The article provides an interesting history of garbage pickup in Chicago.

This is not a new story, but it's worth considering because too often government ethics reform is seen as limited to changes to the ethics code or enforcement process. Changes to garbage collection, like changes to procurement, grant, and land use processes, can be equally important.

This is why it is valuable for ethics commissions to study, hold public hearings on, and make recommendations about these processes. They should not wear blinders that make them think that their responsibility for government ethics is limited to the program they oversee.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

---