Sonoma Council rejects leaf-blower referendum

City officials shift winds again regarding leaf blowers|

The Sonoma voting ballot will be choc-a-bloc with initiatives this November – but a leaf blower referendum won’t be among them.

Little more than three months after unanimously voting to place a measure on the ballot asking voters to ban or partially ban the use of leaf blowers within the city limits, the City Council on Wednesday could only muster two votes to that end – and instead, the divided council wound up voting 3 – 2 to direct staff to return at a later date with another try for the council to come to a consensus on limiting the blustery wind machines.

The city has grappled with the issue of leaf-blower restrictions for more than three years now, with proponents of a ban citing the leaf-gathering machines’ life-disrupting noise levels, and saying the flurries of particulate matter created in their wake are a health and environmental menace. Prohibition opponents, however, have argued that their efficiencies are invaluable to landscape work and the hazards are overblown – with only a handful of residents having lodged complaints last year with Sonoma police.

All five council members on Oct. 5 voted to direct staff to devise ballot language for a would-be measure, citing their – and previous councils’ – inability to come to a consensus on the issue.

But this time out, councilmembers Madolyn Agrimonti, David Cook and Mayor Laurie Gallian did not support a ballot measure, and comprised the majority “ayes” toward bringing the item back for consideration of a tightly restricting city ordinance – such as one banning gas-powered blowers, but allowing electric on weekdays.

Cook was perhaps the most surprising of the reversals; he has long lobbied to send the contentious question of leaf blower rights to the electorate. On Oct. 5, Cook noted how the leaf-blower issue has resulted in “hours and hours” wasted for the city council and staff while they were “not working on housing or minimum wage.”

“If this goes to an election, we’re finally going to get to the end of it,” said Cook at the time.

But on Wednesday he said he wanted to give negotiations another chance.

Councilmembers Gary Edwards and Rachel Hundley, however, said they’d walked down this leaf-blown path too many times and were ready to take it out of the council’s hands and move on.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to important things like affordable housing,” said Edwards, in pressing for a public referendum. “Ban them or not. Let’s get it off the table, let’s get it done.”

Several neighbors in favor of a ban attended the meeting to lobby the council against proceeding with a referendum and offered a compromise solution of banning gas-powered blowers and allowing electric at certain times during the week.

But Councilmember Hundley pointed out that, prior to the council looking at a possible ballot measure, “there wasn’t any willingness to compromise.”

“It is only when this (referendum) started that people were willing to compromise,” said Hundley.

In the end, the vote was 3 – 2 to bring the issue back to council, and city staff will likely return in the coming weeks with another round of leaf-blower restrictions to consider.

Edwards, meanwhile, took it with a grain of salt. “I have a very serious hunch it’s going to be on the ballot anyway,” he said, in reference to conjecture from some community members who have promised to petition for a ballot measure that would overturn any leaf-blower bans the city puts in place.

“Let’s just show that we can make a decision,” said Edwards.

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

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