LEBANON — Some Upper Valley communities are protesting a proposal that could force their municipal employees to comply with Lebanon’s “welcoming ordinance” in exchange for using the city’s landfill.
Town officials argue the ordinance — which prevents Lebanon police, employees and volunteers from asking people about their immigration status or sharing information with federal immigration authorities — doesn’t belong in a contract meant to cover trash.
“We’re not opposed to it at all. It just doesn’t feel like it’s germane to a solid waste agreement,” Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said in an interview Tuesday.
Griffin said she was recently made aware of a provision in new landfill agreements that would require town officials to abide by Lebanon’s ordinance when issuing landfill permits.
The city is testing a new permitting system that would allow residents from 23 Upper Valley communities to obtain for a pass to the Route 12A facility at their local town clerk’s office. New agreements with those towns are needed before the program’s scheduled Sept. 1 launch.
Hanover, which has a similar Fair and Impartial Policing ordinance, isn’t ideologically opposed to what Lebanon is asking, Griffin said, but “it has no place in a solid waste letter.”
Similarly, some Vermont communities have expressed concern that their employees would be subject to the Lebanon ordinance, Neil Fulton, chairman of the Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste Management District, said Wednesday.
The district includes the towns of Bridgewater, Hartland, Norwich, Pomfret, Sharon, Strafford, Thetford, Vershire, West Fairlee and Woodstock.
Municipalities, Fulton said, are concerned that the agreement would “require other towns to comply with an ordinance not related to the use of the landfill.”
Fulton, a former Norwich town manager who represents the town on the district’s board, declined to comment on the matter further, saying its attorneys are currently reviewing Lebanon’s proposal.
However, it doesn’t appear that the city is willing to budge on the issue.
“I have made clear our position. I don’t think we’re asking a whole lot of people anyway,” City Manager Shaun Mulholland said Wednesday.
The landfill agreements are needed because of a provision in Lebanon’s ordinance applying it to law enforcement and any other “agency of the City of Lebanon.” That includes city employees, volunteers and anyone “with access to agency information which is not available to the general public.”
In this case, town clerks would have access to Lebanon’s permitting system, Mulholland said.
“So when they do that — when receiving information, acting as agents of the city — they need to comply with the ordinance’s provisions,” he said.
Mulholland added that he doesn’t think following the ordinance would cause any problems. Essentially, he said, towns have to promise not to discriminate or offer information from Lebanon’s system to immigration authorities.
“I can’t imagine that immigration would want that information anyway,” he said.
Mulholland told the Lebanon City Council last week that a trial of the permitting system using residents of Lebanon and Hanover should wrap up this week.
Once the full program launches later this year, eligible residents should be able to request a free permit on Lebanon’s website or obtain one for $10 from their own town clerk’s office. For those who go the online route, a permit would be emailed and could be stored on mobile phones.
When landfill users arrive at the facility, a staff member would request to see the permit and scan a code that would create a ticket that tells the city who is dropping off trash and how much. City officials say punch cards would continue to be used for payment but could someday be phased out.
Along with Lebanon, Hanover and the solid waste management district communities, the other towns that are eligible to use the Lebanon landfill are Canaan; Cornish; Enfield; Grafton; Lyme; Newbury, N.H.; Orange; Orford; Plainfield; Hartford; and Fairlee.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.