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John Nephew


Maplewood City Council Policy & Politics

 



The Trash Should Go IN the Can...

...not be taped on the outside!

While Bob Cardinal inserts his campaign literature with a trash hauler's bills, the campaign of Rebecca Cave is taking another approach: attaching flyers (attacking me, promoting her) to peoples' trash cans when the bins are out on the curb for pick-up day.  Starting last week I've been hearing from residents angered by this campaign tactic.  People on both sides of the organized trash debate are telling me that they don't like these political attacks stuck on their bins.

Here's an example of one resident's reaction:
By now I'm sure that you've seen the Rebecca Cave flyer that has been taped to Tennis Sanitation trash bins. I called Tennis today and talked to the lady who answers the phone. I asked her why they were putting political campaign literature on their trash bins. She said it wasn't them.

I asked if they were doing anything about it -- had they asked the people doing it to stop?

"We don't know who's doing it," she replied.

I told her that the flyers had Rebecca Cave's name on them.

"Well, you'd better call her, then," she said.

I asked if anyone from Tennis had told the Cave campaign to stop attaching the flyers and she said no. I told her that I didn't believe that they had no knowledge of it, and I didn't believe they were helpless to prevent it from happening again.

I also said I'd switch to another hauler if I got another campaign flyer taped to my bin. She said she'd pass my comments on to her boss.
I have no reason to believe the haulers have anything to do with this campaign tactic (and from what I can tell, it's happening to all trash bins, not any specific company or companies), but it can certainly create a public relations headache for them, as this message shows.

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More sensationalism from Mr. Nephew.

So it is wrong to tape a campaign lit piece to a garbage can? What law prohibits that? There is none.

If you can't do this, then what about people who put lit in the door? Or how about the newspaper box? They must be just as guilty.

We better start vilifying Sen. Chuck and Rep. Leon because they have used one of these methods at one time or another in their campaigns.

How about US Mail? I hope people get the point.

Personally I find it much more palatable to receive a piece of lit on my garbage can than the other options. At least the people are not going on to my private property to drop their lit. They are staying at the curb. Let's give credit where credit is due.

What it boils down to is that people put their can out in the public right of way, just like they put out a newspaper box. It is all fair game for any kind of advertising material.

The only protected place by law is the inside of the mailbox, or any part of the mail box that placement would interfere with the mail carriers operation of the box. That is where people get in trouble with stuffing stuff behind the flag. Beyond that, everything else is fair game.

I would venture a guess that the biggest complainers on this issue are those that have Nephew signs in their front yards.

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