Speaker 1: Nine C visitor directing staff to draft an ordinance banning the use of gas powered.
Speaker 0: Okay. So I brought this referral because actually other cities have interchanges that ban gas powered leaf blowers. And nowadays there's many electric alternatives, battery operated alternatives. And I would like to see us join other cities that have banned the use of gas powered leaf blowers or two of these entertain the referral questions. That's why I brought the referral. Yes member matter SC.
Speaker 6: I move this referral item number to refer matters after schedule. The Future Council meeting agenda.
Speaker 5: Could I have a comment?
Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
Speaker 7: I'm so following a second.
Speaker 6: Please follow following our rule. Yes, it's appropriate to provide a a motion to help focus the conversation.
Speaker 7: Okay. And I seconded it.
Speaker 0: Vice Mayor, second motion. And so my staff is.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you giving it a low priority because as compared to other things where we're dealing with. That's appropriate. And also, I would just the flier is not exactly instructive because it's just a picture and some words and it doesn't talk to me about how you do the enforcement piece. And so that's, you know, an ordinance is only as good as its enforcement. I'm not saying not to do it. Those things annoy me, too. But, you know, you stop and think about do we want to take police off the streets to pursue leaf blowers? Or maybe we need a little more information about what other cities do.
Speaker 0: Or may remember already. I'm not sure what's to go next.
Speaker 7: So I think we have a staff member here who was going to make a statement. And then I also have a question at some point.
Speaker 2: Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, I am Liam Garland, Public Works Director. And after seeing this referral, we convened our crack in-house team, community development director, recreation and Parks Director and Chief Building Official to talk through the referral and I think be helpful just to share a little bit of context. It is true that there are a number of cities in California who have banned gas, gas powered leaf blowers. The number is about 19 that have done that. There's another five, strangely enough, who've banned both gas or electric leaf blowers. So essentially saying you got to use your rake. And then there's about 60 who who have various regulations around noise or timing of those, the use of the blowers. We looked at back and this is mainly thanks to the chief building official. We looked back in code enforcement complaints to see how frequently this issue had come up past ten years, about three times. In terms of a as a code enforcement matter. It's not a lot of complaints coming in. There is the challenge with enforcement. That is always a challenge with ordinances like this. On the positive side, our Recreation and Parks Department is already setting a new course with electric leaf blowers. And so there's a bit of a mini pilot going on already with city staff to see if there's a loss in efficiency or function or if the costs are too much by transitioning over there. So that's something, honestly, that Public Works is now taking a look at and thinking about just on our staff and our contractors to see if we can move toward electric blowers. And then finally, there's the climate plan where this was actually an explicit bullet point in the scope of work of the climate plan . And so from staff perspective, that's sort of the vehicle to figure out if it's the right time to make that move. It would mean that in the outreach this fall and winter, it's something we could be talking to the community about. And then essentially as the plan comes back to council in draft form in January or February, it's either, you know, reclamation, one, two, three, or perhaps we figure out something that suggests we shouldn't be moving forward with it. So that's staff's recommendation is to have the climate plan be the vehicle for figuring out if this is the right move for Alameda.
Speaker 7: So my question was actually going to be, where are we as the city? I think it's hypocritical for us to ban something that we are currently using. So I was I'm happy to hear that we are at least looking at it within our city departments and with our contractors. I also think that rather than just banning something, it's really important to educate people and offer them alternatives. So I think if this is coming back to us as part of the Climate Action Plan, perhaps as part of the motion that's being put forward, that this could be part of that. And also that we perhaps put incentives or information out there to just educate people about the differences. I'm personally opposed to them, but I think a lot of people use the equipment that they have. They don't realize that there's new technology out there, that it's affordable, that sort of thing. And I also think that incentivizing the behavior and educating on it is going to get us much better results than just an outright ban from the beginning, much like with our our ban on on straws or saying straws upon request only. We did a lot of outreach and education around that through our different community groups. And I think we're still doing that outreach and education, every one of us, every time we go to our restaurants in town. But it it's going to be more effective if we go about it in that approach. So I'm happy to hear that we've already started on it. I'm looking forward to having the Climate Action Plan come back and having this be a component.
Speaker 0: And I just wanted to add, I did include. The alternatives in the referral. And there was a so you may only have had three. I know I've had more complaints than three during the time of the mayor regarding this. So they may not always reach out to you all, but we hear from a member already and then.
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. Thank you. I also want to, you know, comments are similar to the vice mayor's. You know, I think we need to be careful if we do this on who is going to have the most impact on and it's probably gardeners. So, you know, I can imagine a lot of them are like rolling in dough. You know, it could be that this perhaps is one of their most significant assets in their gardening business besides a truck, you know, or a mall or something. So I'd like to see, you know, if we could do some incentivizing, even if it's, you know, costing us some money that we could help, you know, help gardeners find a way. Now, there are gas powered, quiet ones, I've understand. So maybe we want to move away from gas entirely. But, you know, if we start doing outreach to the for lack of a better word, industry, we may not feel more comfortable with that rather than just saying, you know, on January 1st, such as lunch and they were going to ban it, you know, and we kind of do a softer approach and get to the same result we want, which is, you know, at some point we have no more gas leaf blowers and Alameda member Ashcraft.
Speaker 5: And I'm the way I would approach it. And whenever I work with my public works director, Mr. Garland, I'm always impressed by your ability to do very effective, positive community outreach. But I would approach this from a health standpoint. First of all, it is not healthy to be operating a gas powered mower and breathing those fumes, and it isn't healthy for our environment because that's just, you know, adding more emissions to the air. And the other thing is it's they're very loud and not all gardeners wear the headphones that you should be using. And so they are potentially injuring their hearing, too. And Mr. Otis point is well taken about this, that, you know, financial support for many people. But to the extent that it might be possible to, I don't know, partner with some of our local businesses that might offer electric leaf blowers instead that might be not sweetheart deals or anything, but just saying, you know, we might be able to direct people. And then when we're doing our outreach and literature say that's developed, we should think about being at least bilingual to make sure that that, you know, people who are likely to be the users can can get the information in the language that they understand. But I think there's a way to turn this into something more positive. I'm still not sure about the enforcement angle, but there's you know, I'm I'll leave that in your capable hands.
Speaker 3: To.
Speaker 5: Do something.
Speaker 0: So when do you expect that you would come back on this issue?
Speaker 2: By January or February? We would have more information first on how the city's implementation of moving toward electric blowers, how that's gone, what we've learned on costs and logistics. And then the first draft of the plan is likely to be in front of council in January or February of 2019. And that would be this would be a part of that discussion.
Speaker 6: It's already in the plan. The existing.
Speaker 2: Plan. Exactly. And just taking a step back from there earlier in the fall, there's going to be community outreach where this will be part of that discussion as well. And obviously getting a lot of public input on on whether this is the right time to make the move or not. I want to make sure that outreaches also to the gardening community the gardeners. So.
Speaker 0: So my concern, honestly, on that is that it's this is just one component of, you know, other cities have this. The Climate Action Plan covers so many things, and I'm not sure that it needs to be packaged within that or or can't be expedited. So I think it could. But Madame Mayor, Vice Mayor.
Speaker 7: You know, one of the things and Councilmember Ashcraft commented on this earlier was that you've listed it as a low priority. And and I think that the one thing that that's important to note is there have been other things like, for instance, minimum wage and stuff like that, that took over a year in cannabis to come back to us. So having this come back for consideration in terms of further action and if.
Speaker 0: You look at it, I try to remember when did I do the minimum wage referral? I did that one many quite a while ago, so that was another one.
Speaker 7: So I think what I'm hearing from Mr. Garland is that it's going to come back in six or seven months and then we can we can take action on it. And so that's fairly that's quick.
Speaker 0: Fairly. Very good. Thank you. Okay. And then the next item we have is ten A.
Speaker 6: Do we vote on.
Speaker 7: Whether we have a motion on a second?
Speaker 5: And remind us what the motion was, again.
Speaker 6: Is to follow number two. And number two, if you read it, it says to I suppose it says to refer the matter of staff to schedule for a future council agenda. And we have to start right there.
Speaker 2: Taking into consideration.
Speaker 0: The second consideration comments. All those in favor. Hi. Thank you. Motion carries unanimously ten a.
Consider Directing Staff to Draft an Ordinance Banning the Use of Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers. (Mayor Spencer)