Kevin McGill an Atlanta, Georgia garbage man has been sentenced to 30 days jail for starting his shift thirty minutes too early.
The garbage collector who works for Waste Management Inc took a guilty plea after violating an ordinance in well to do Sandy Springs that bans collections before 7am.
Despite never having been to jail or even appeared in the court system before, the sanitation worker would be rendered his stiff sentence.
It would only be after an attendee mentioned if the man could serve his time on the weekends (his sentence began on February 5th) and work during the week in order to continue supporting his wife and two children that McGill was given any leeway.
McGill’s sentence now mandates that he check into prison at 6pm on Fridays.
Since his sentencing the man has filed a motion to withdraw his plea told the man’s attorney, Kimberly Bandoh citing the fact that McGill didn’t have an attorney present during his sentencing.
Told the lawyer: ‘Give him a warning,’
‘He’s the employee. He’s not the employer. Sentencing him to jail is doing what?’
‘This is the most excessive punishment for an ordinance of this nature I’ve ever seen,’
The sentencing came after Court Chief Solicitor Bill Riley asked for the stiff sentence after McGill set about picking up trash around 5am in the suburb with the presiding judge agreeing.
Picking up trash before specified hours is a prohibited offense in the municipality.
Despite protests that the sentencing is onerous, Riley has told ‘fines don’t seem to work’ and ‘The only thing that seems to stop the activity is actually going to jail.’
The solicitor said according to a report via WSPA that residents of Sandy Springs, which include professional athletes and executives for Delta Air Lines, begin calling 9-1-1 when they hear early garbage men.
Riley would reiterate it was the right decision to punish McGill, who had only been on the route for three months, rather than his company, which the city has contracted to pick up its residents’ trash.
Reiterated the prosecutor: ‘The company doesn’t start that truck up. The company doesn’t drive that truck down the street.’
Riley would add that early garbage collections are a ‘nuisance to residents who want to sleep’ and that his office had met with Waste Management after previously punishing its employees for violating the ordinance.
A representative for the company went to the courthouse with McGill, who was also ordered to pay a $1000 fine.
Financial reports indicate that Waste Management cleared $14 billion dollars in revenue last year.
Marla Prince, a spokesperson for Waste Management would tell the UK’s dailymail that ‘The incident with WM employee Kevin McGill is very unfortunate and we are currently working with WM Legal Counsel to resolve the situation’.
Sharon Kraun, a spokesman for Sandy Springs, would reiterate that garbage collectors had been offered ‘fair warning’ and that they had no choice but to sentence the man to jail.
Kraun would add that Waste Management, which had amassed thousands of dollars in fines suspended McGill for violating its policies before appearing in court.
Along with his jail sentence, Vice reports the garbage collector was also sentenced to six months probation.
Interestingly the municipality has privatized almost all of its city services, including its local courts, its communications, parks, economic development and call center operations.
Its website states that ‘this business model fosters a proactive, responsive and efficient approach to providing city services.’
if you deviate from the route WM wants you to take, WM terminates your employment.
this is murica in a nutshell. and they wonder why I would not fight for this country. its not worth fighting for
I propose that as a protest to the unjust that has been done to this man, that everyone that has been driving through Sandy Springs to make it a point to discard as much trash from your vehicle as possible. As the streets become littered with various plastic bottles, napkins, and the like, this will send the appropriate message to Mr. Riley and the Judge for this most unjust treatment of this husband and father.
If I had to deal with stuck up rich people who call 911 for picking up garbage too early and a ridiculous ordinance, I would refuse to pick up their garbage in their neighborhood. Let the spoiled rich people do like they do on the reservation and take care of their own trash.
The company should be penalized based on commerce. He accepted what they gave him because he does not know the law. Ordinances, codes, regulations,statues apply to the federal jurisdicationj. what does this mean? what ever the federal government creates it rules. He accepted that he was a corporation so they get to do what they want with him. Judge should be ashamed to even waste his time with this case.
Half the problem is the ordinance, the other half is the people. I’d personally be elated if my garbage people showed up early considering sometimes they don’t show up at all.
The affluent residents of Sandy Springs should be jailed for calling 911 because the garbage man started to early. Get real people.
He should be punished, he has done the route before, he knows the rules, when I first read the title I thought it was harsh to punish him at all, but he knew what he was doing, maybe the sentence is a little too harsh, I’d rather a lighter sentence for the infringement, and the employer to take disciplinary action over his disobeying the rules -sack him if necessary…