San Jose councilman, businesses work on bag ban details Monday, January 18, 2010 By Stephen Baxter, San Jose Mercury News The San Jose City Council's most vocal critic of the city's upcoming ban on plastic and paper shopping bags is now facilitating discussions with business leaders to help craft the new law before it takes effect in 2011. In September 2009, the City Council directed its staff to draft an environmental impact report to shield the city from potential lawsuits. Councilman Pete Constant — who cast the sole vote against the bag ban — led a discussion in November with roughly 40 business leaders at the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, and city environmental officials took note of their concerns. "Some of the concerns were about the $650,000 cost of implementation," Constant said recently. "I wonder how we can justify that when we're laying off employees and we're short-staffed in our police and fire departments." As city leaders hashed out the law with public meetings and attorneys' vetting in 2009, environmental advocates and council members such as Sam Liccardo said plastic grocery bags should be banned because they can clog waterways and kill wildlife. Grocery stores and convenience stores in San Jose that distribute the bags pay for them and pass on that cost to consumers, Liccardo argued, so the bags aren't "free" in an economic or environmental sense. This fall, when city officials notified stakeholders that they were drafting an environmental report, they received 225 pages of feedback. Emy Mendoza, San Jose's zero waste planner, said the draft environmental report is expected to be distributed in February or March, and public comments will be taken after that. A city ordinance is being drafted simultaneously, and Mendoza said it would go into effect no sooner than January 2011. At the November forum, Constant said store owners worried aloud about customers bringing bags in to stores and shoplifting. Other business owners asked why restaurants were exempt, since much of the trash in San Jose waterways comes from fast-food wrappers and bags. "One person said, 'If we're trying to pick up litter, why not just hire people to pick up litter?' " Constant said. For more information on the bag ban and the environmental process, contact allen.tai@sanjose ca.gov or visit www.sanjoseca.gov/ planning.eir/eir.asp.