GARY | Mayor Rudy Clay has requested a tour of Gary Sanitary District operations, a board member said.

Sanitary board Vice President Charles Jackson said Tuesday that Clay asked him to help arrange a tour of the district.

Clay has acted as special administrator of the district since taking mayoral office in 2006. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Jackson's announcement came the same day that a judge further explained his ruling in a legal dispute between the city and Gary citizen group, the Miller Citizens Corp.

Under his decision, Gary officials have to put out to bid the city's contract for garbage removal, Judge Thomas Webber said.

In October, the group and 28 Miller residents filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a contract between the GSD and Allied Waste Services, including collection fees.

Webber affirmed his February ruling, which deemed the contract "null and void."

His ruling, Webber said, meant the district must put the trash pickup contract out to bid, which it did not do when signing with Allied Waste.

"They have to pick up trash," Webber said. "But they just need to make a bid."

Allied has continued to collect trash, and GSD attorney Hamilton Carmouche said Tuesday that customers withholding city trash collection fees could face GSD-prompted water shutoffs.

Webber confirmed Tuesday that he lost jurisdiction over the case after the city filed an appeal of his ruling earlier this month.

Because it is no longer in his jurisdiction, Webber did not say whether the city is in contempt of his order by continuing the pickup.

He cannot and would not rule on any contempt issue unless the case is returned to his courtroom, he said.