NEW YORK, NY June 09, 2005 —After a long day last-minute lobbying, the City Council voted down Mayor Bloomberg's plan to re-open two garbage transfer stations. The rejection, which is likely to be vetoed by the mayor, will test the council's power to change the mayor's trash plan.

REPORTER: An unusually divided council took up the mayor's proposal to re-open two marine waste transfer stations in Brooklyn, and one in Manhattan. speaker Gifford Miller opposes the East 91st Street station, which is in his district, but many councilmembers see it as a way for Manhattan to finally handle its own waste.

Miller told his colleagues the transfer stations were their only bargaining chips with Bloomberg.

MILLER: This council should not surrender its leverage over the solid waste management plan by approving piecemeal portions of the plan.

REPORTER: But Queens Councilman Tony Avella brushed aside that argument, and Miller's proposal to look at two west side sites.

AVELLA: If the issues that are being brought up before us today were truly legitimate, they would not be being brought up at the 11th hour, 59th minute. The no vote was not decisive.

REPORTER: Miller will need five more votes to override mayor bloomberg's expected veto.