Overflowing Cans Led to Garbage-gate

When saw trash overflowing from downtown designer garbage receptacles in Benicia, his first call was to City Hall.

"I've always had an issue with the city not doing things," he said. "We have empty tree wells, we've been trying to get the sidewalks cleaned for two years and we have a garbage issue in the downtown that's not being addressed."

Petersen's reaction when he thought merchants and the city weren't being responsible: He took trash from a can outside  and placed at the business's front door. But its surveillance system , leading to his resignation from the Benicia Economic Development Board.

Before that happened, Petersen asked staff to look into for garbage generated by their businesses. Cans full of waste from businesses on Friday meant there was no place for tourists to put their trash on weekends.

In a town obsessed with attracting tourists that has a tourism program costing around $300,000, Petersen saw trash on the sidewalks as a negative affecting Benicia's image with visitors and how they would report it to others.

"There are two places where I have an issue," said Petersen. "The trash can at First and D streets  and the trash can at First and H Street. I would find mounds of trash heaped around those cans, to where you've got a portable toilet on the sidewalk."

"When Mario (Giuliani) came on board, I showed him pictures of the trash," said Petersen, referring to Giuliani's appointment last year as interim economic development manager.

Giuliani confirmed that Petersen had approached him about the trash problem and that he had assured Petersen he would speak to downtown merchants about it.

"Mario promised he'd talk to the merchants to see if he could get merchants to not use city-owned trash cans," said Petersen. "I showed him mail labels I'd taken from different cans. He never spoke to Dan (Graf)," owner of Computer Doctors."

Giuliani says he spoke to many First Street merchants about trying not to use the city-owned cans and has spoken to most of the merchants in Treasury Commons, the small retail-office complex at First and East D streets. But he said he had not had a chance to speak to Graf.

Meanwhile, Petersen was starting to get a little antsy because he wasn't seeing the kind of improvement he was hoping for.

"I called the code enforcement officer to see if there is a code to stop people from dumping their business garbage in the public trash receptacles," he said. "I called Roger (Core) to ask what to do about it, and I just got frustrated."

When Petersen saw a full trash can on a Friday night, he assumed that Giuliani had spoken to Graf and that Graf was ignoring a request by the city. 

"If I had known Mario hadn't had a chance to speak to Dan, I never would have done this," said Petersen. "I thought this merchant had been spoken to by the city."

Petersen  said when he pulled the trash out of the receptacles and taped it to Computer Doctor's door, he was trying to make the point: "Can't you take your trash across the street to the Dumpster you share with your wife?" a reference to business, .

Petersen admits that what he did was wrong. The Monday following the incident he resigned from the Economic Development Board even though he had only a few months left in his term. "Dan (Graf) did me a favor," Petersen said. "I'd rather not go out like this, but I'm away from all that political stuff."