Skip to main contentMore than a week after WW reporters Chris Lydgate and Nick Budnick informed the city's top elected official that they had heisted her recycling for a story about privacy (see "Rubbish!," WW, Dec. 24, 2002), Mayor Vera Katz refuses to say whether she plans to follow up on her threat to pursue legal action against the newspaper.
"The mayor does not wish to comment at this time," said deputy chief of staff Judy Tuttle last week.
On Dec. 18, Katz angrily reclaimed her recycling from the two reporters in a meeting at City Hall and dismissed them without a word. Later that day, she issued a statement that read in part: "I consider Willamette Week's actions in this matter to be potentially illegal and absolutely unscrupulous and reprehensible. I will consider all my legal options in response to their actions."
The other two public officials whose refuse WW snatched, Police Chief Mark Kroeker and Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schrunk, have both argued that trash grabs against citizens are perfectly legal, though they each reacted differently to news that their own waste had been purloined.
Kroeker, who has argued that garbage is public property once placed on the curb, nevertheless tossed Budnick out of his office when told that his own refuse had been taken. He subsequently warned his troops about privacy.
"Please be aware that none of us should have an expectation of privacy when we put out our trash," the chief wrote in a bureauwide Dec. 17 email obtained by WW. "P.S. Learn from me, use a shredder." Although Kroeker was not reachable for comment, The Oregonian reported that he subsequently referred to WW reporters as "bottom feeders."
Schrunk appeared the least bothered of the three by news that WW had swiped his castoffs. He recently filed a notice of appeal with the Oregon Court of Appeals seeking to overturn a Dec. 12 ruling that garbage is not public property.
The district attorney says he has mixed feelings about WW's archeology. He wasn't thrilled to read an inventory of his household trash but says that people need to realize how vulnerable they are. "I think that you've done a service in informing people that dumpster-diving can be a gold mine," he says, adding that Santa brought him a cross-cut shredder for Christmas.
Meanwhile, at least one of Katz's colleagues is backing her. "I have not talked with the mayor, but my hunch is that she feels her privacy has been unnecessarily violated," says City Commissioner Erik Sten. "I think that she has every right to be angry, and I also think that [WW] made a legitimate point."
Other media have picked up on the Garbagegate story. KUFO (101.1 FM) composed a fictional list of 10 things found in WW's trash (granola wrappers, unused razors, etc.). The Seattle Times saw fit to editorialize about Katz's outburst, saying in a Dec. 26 piece titled "The lady doth protest too much" that "Katz is mad but the lesson is good for everyone." And on Monday, muckrakers Budnick and Lydgate appeared on MSNBC's Jerry Nachman show.
WWeek 2015