The National Action Network is collecting 10,000 signatures to challenge the Bibb County garbage bill ordinance, so we set out to verify if an ordinance can actually be overturned by a petition.
The sources we used were David Oedel, who is a law professor at Mercer University, and we also checked out information from the Georgia Code and Georgia Constitution for the answer.
"We have thousands of signatures already, and we are making that push for the last 3,000 signatures we need," said Sarah Hunt, president of the Middle Georgia branch of the National Action Network.
Hunt says she has a few thousand signatures and wants a judge to throw out the ordinance.
But is it possible to overturn an ordinance such as the garbage bill by petition?
Oedel verified that you can, but it does not happen every day.
"Yes you can petition the court for a opportunity to unwind this ordinance and to get a general vote on this question," Oedel said.
Oedel says the process is still tough.
"Petition repeals are a rare event in Georgia. They do occasionally occur, but there is a real high hurdle in being able to get these kinds of ordinances undone", Oedel said.
Section 36 of the Georgia state code confirms that people can amend their local charter or repeal ordinances by petition,
A city the size of Macon would need to get around 13,000 signatures from registered voters.
Once local officials confirmed those signatures, it would require local voters to approve repealing the law.
So we verified that YES, you can change a local ordinance by petition, but state law sets a high bar.
Even if the ordinance was challenged, your trash bill would still be due by April 2.