‘The trash has to go somewhere:’ Jeff Brown draws rebuke over debate answer on Philly sending trash to Chester

Mayoral candidate Jeff Brown came under fire from his Democratic rivals during a televised debate Tuesday for a dismissive comment about the city of Chester.

A Fox29 debate moderator asked Brown, a businessman who hasn’t held elected office, how he’d address complaints of pollution and environmental racism in Chester, where some of Philadelphia’s trash is dumped. Philadelphia has long held a waste disposal contract with Covanta, a firm whose trash incinerators in Chester have drawn decades of rebuke from residents and activists and sanctions from environmental regulators.

Asked if he would change the existing contracts with vendors that handle waste removal in the city, Brown — whose campaign slogan is “Pick up the damn trash” — said he wasn’t sure and seemed to dismiss the neighboring city’s fight against pollution.

“Chester is Chester,” he said. “I’m worried about Philadelphians and how their lives are.”

The moderator asked: “So you don’t care about Chester?”

“I do care, but I don’t work for them if I’m the mayor,” Brown said. “I work for Philadelphia, and the trash has to go somewhere, and whoever gets it is going to be unhappy with it.”

The comment appeared to stun many in the room.

Former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart called it an inappropriate answer, while former Councilmember Cherelle Parker interjected, saying “that response is the same way you treat the Black and brown community” in Philadelphia. It was one of several combative exchanges between the seven Democrats on stage — many of which were directed at Brown, a fourth-generation grocer who has owned a chain of ShopRite stores in the region.

Later in the debate, Parker brought up the remark again in response to a question about public health. Parker said she would work closely with other leaders in the region, name-dropping Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland as “a good friend.”

» READ MORE: For 30 years, she has fought a waste-to-energy plant in Chester City: ‘We don’t have a choice’

It’s unclear how many Chester residents heard or cared about the comments.

Reached by phone Tuesday evening, Kirkland said he hadn’t caught the televised debate, but he wasn’t surprised to hear a candidate being dismissive of his city.

“I wish the world loved Chester,” Kirkland said, “but I understand some people have an ax to grind.”

He added that he didn’t take Brown’s comment personally: “Whenever you get into the political season, it becomes, as Barack Obama once said, ‘silly season.’ It’s a time folks say and do things that they’ll probably regret at a later date. I don’t take any offense to that.”

» READ MORE: Bankrupt Chester could cease to exist as a city without fiscal change, state receiver says

Instead, Kirkland commended Philadelphia officials for their partnership with his Delaware County city, especially in sharing solutions around the biggest issue of the election season — gun violence. While Philadelphia and other big cities saw an explosion of gun violence during the pandemic, Chester reduced homicides by over 60% between 2020 and 2021, which many attributed to a community-driven program linking prosecutors and residents.

“We look for ways that we can be helpful to them as a sister city with regards to crime,” Kirkland said.

On environmental issues, Kirkland also said partnership with Philadelphia remained important, and praised environmental regulations that have blunted some of emissions issues with Covanta in recent years.

Parker, for her part, also referenced Brown’s comments on Chester again later in the debate and noted the racial implications of his response. Chester is 72% Black, according to U.S. Census data.

“If you can think that way about Black and brown people — and if you’re familiar with Chester, you know who occupies it and who lives there — but just the laissez-faire attitude that he employs.” Parker, who is Black, said the “Cherelle Parkers of the world” can’t get away with the same “lack of discipline.”