BAY CITY, MI – A trash bin is just a plastic receptacle, rolled out to the curb once a week, rolled back in after the garbage truck rumbles by. But in Bay City, these humble bins have become the object of $200 fines, angry phone calls, and a civic debate about fairness and responsibility.

Residents who forgot or delayed bringing in their bins after pickup recently found themselves cited, lumped into the same category as those who abandon rusting cars in their yards or dump illegally on vacant lots. A blanket ordinance, written to cover nuisances broadly, had swept up the ordinary procrastinator.

Commissioner Craig Kokaly of the 2nd Ward was among the first to hear the discontent. His phone began ringing. Social media lit up. People were outraged. The punishment didn’t fit the crime, they

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