Bloomington - Cynthia Bemis Abrams speech
Councilmember at Large Cynthia Bemis Abrams spoke out against Government Managed Trash Hauling at the City Council meeting on May 4, 2015 stating that the proposal failed to meet any of the city goals set in the beginning of the process.
The following is a complete transcription of her speech from the council video which is available on the city's website:
“I’m not in a position to be able to support this action of the… of Jack’s motion because I am a firm believer as many of you know that an action is a tactic that needs to achieve a goal and if you are not adamant about achieving your goal and understanding what the goal is then the tactic and the action become questionable uses of energy and resources.
And I appreciate the good work of the OCOC in terms of really turning over every rock, every stone, exploring every opportunity to make the process as rich as possible and deliver the consideration that is here, but because this entire tactic is prevised in a solid waste that we never really brought forward as we brought forward some of our other plans for the full public consideration we are left with the bone structure of that plan and the goals that were outlined in it. And those are twelve really lofty goals, they are busy goals, and they are to improve the value of services, they are to enhance public information and awareness. This is for the large plan of it all; but this being or most significant and visible action tactic within that plan makes these goals so much more important, enhance public education awareness, enhance coordination among government agencies, improve recycling composting and waste reduction, be sure all residents have adequate recycling services, there are twelve, so there are two pages, improve hauler reporting systems, improve safety, reduce road wear impacts, lower environmental impacts, increase use of resource recovery facilities, allocate adequate staff resources, and finally to promote local economic development.
So as we wrestled with those goals last summer and we had some really good conversations, so this all this has been evolving going all the way back to 2012 we have meeting, I am in receipt of meeting minutes where this was discussed in a very rudimentary conceptual phase and it has been a lot of good discussion that has involved everything from the private sector and the role of the marketplace but we get to July 28th, when these goals are again discussed and it was you Mr. Keel who presented then some responses to some of our concerns. Where we were presented with a powerpoint that says that the recycling rates well the conclusion there’s no indication that an organized recycling will help recycling rates and tonnage.and unless there has been some additional reporting that we weren’t privy to or is in minutes that we don’t have that would be helpful to know from hear going forward, that regarding environmental impacts that we have market forces and state and federal regulations that have the greatest impact regarding environment that local regulations can be imposed in both the open and organized systems and that organized collection can reduce the number of trucks in a neighborhood. That obvious is a cause and effect relationship. That with environmental impacts the conclusion is that it not likely that organized collection will have significant environmental benefits compared to other collection systems. With regard to neighborhood impacts, and again focusing on livability, safety, pavement life, I could go verbatim but I will just do highlights and say that with regard to safety that trash vehicle crashes are uncommon, there is no accident history in Bloomington, that you yourself stated that regarding pavement life it is difficult to gage lower maintenance needs and that the conclusion is that truck volume could be reduced but the perceived safety may improve but there is no measurable difference in road maintenance costs.
So I am left with really good, you are our expert, this was information brought, it was the reason it made more sense to continue over those stones and to the degree then that I say does this advance the goals that we put forth, does organized collection do that and that based on living my entire life in this community I still see that there are a number of values that are held by the citizens of this community that are sort of the opposite of what we are continuing to talk about here as an initiative of the city and that is that across the dynamic of our private public sector and even our non-profits the city does what the private sector cannot do, the city provides the resources that no private sector endeavor can possibly provide such as ice rinks and ice gardens and golf courses.
But the free market as much as possible is allow to, we embrace it, we love competition, we are as competitive of a city as you are ever going to find and I think we only need to look at the enthusiasm of which we had CenturyLink present to us an interest in applying for a franchise, a cable franchise for us to realize that perhaps the days of Comcast being the sole provider of cable services could be over and isn’t that a great thing what that would mean for service and price. And then I guess finally it comes down to the fact that, and people come to Bloomington because they want the opportunity to choose, they want to make as many choices as they can and that was articulated by people of all ages from all walks of life from all corners of the city and its that reminder of what we all learned in 9th grade civics what we learned in 10th grade economics about the role of government and where it fits into all of this.
So I guess in the end, I am a strong defender of those principles as are the people of Bloomington, and in absence of a compelling argument as to why what we are experiencing with regard to truck traffic is more important than those principles I don’t sense the validity of that argument and cannot support the hauler proposal. Thank you.”
(Audience applause)
Councilmember at Large Cynthia Bemis Abrams spoke out against Government Managed Trash Hauling at the City Council meeting on May 4, 2015 stating that the proposal failed to meet any of the city goals set in the beginning of the process.
The following is a complete transcription of her speech from the council video which is available on the city's website:
“I’m not in a position to be able to support this action of the… of Jack’s motion because I am a firm believer as many of you know that an action is a tactic that needs to achieve a goal and if you are not adamant about achieving your goal and understanding what the goal is then the tactic and the action become questionable uses of energy and resources.
And I appreciate the good work of the OCOC in terms of really turning over every rock, every stone, exploring every opportunity to make the process as rich as possible and deliver the consideration that is here, but because this entire tactic is prevised in a solid waste that we never really brought forward as we brought forward some of our other plans for the full public consideration we are left with the bone structure of that plan and the goals that were outlined in it. And those are twelve really lofty goals, they are busy goals, and they are to improve the value of services, they are to enhance public information and awareness. This is for the large plan of it all; but this being or most significant and visible action tactic within that plan makes these goals so much more important, enhance public education awareness, enhance coordination among government agencies, improve recycling composting and waste reduction, be sure all residents have adequate recycling services, there are twelve, so there are two pages, improve hauler reporting systems, improve safety, reduce road wear impacts, lower environmental impacts, increase use of resource recovery facilities, allocate adequate staff resources, and finally to promote local economic development.
So as we wrestled with those goals last summer and we had some really good conversations, so this all this has been evolving going all the way back to 2012 we have meeting, I am in receipt of meeting minutes where this was discussed in a very rudimentary conceptual phase and it has been a lot of good discussion that has involved everything from the private sector and the role of the marketplace but we get to July 28th, when these goals are again discussed and it was you Mr. Keel who presented then some responses to some of our concerns. Where we were presented with a powerpoint that says that the recycling rates well the conclusion there’s no indication that an organized recycling will help recycling rates and tonnage.and unless there has been some additional reporting that we weren’t privy to or is in minutes that we don’t have that would be helpful to know from hear going forward, that regarding environmental impacts that we have market forces and state and federal regulations that have the greatest impact regarding environment that local regulations can be imposed in both the open and organized systems and that organized collection can reduce the number of trucks in a neighborhood. That obvious is a cause and effect relationship. That with environmental impacts the conclusion is that it not likely that organized collection will have significant environmental benefits compared to other collection systems. With regard to neighborhood impacts, and again focusing on livability, safety, pavement life, I could go verbatim but I will just do highlights and say that with regard to safety that trash vehicle crashes are uncommon, there is no accident history in Bloomington, that you yourself stated that regarding pavement life it is difficult to gage lower maintenance needs and that the conclusion is that truck volume could be reduced but the perceived safety may improve but there is no measurable difference in road maintenance costs.
So I am left with really good, you are our expert, this was information brought, it was the reason it made more sense to continue over those stones and to the degree then that I say does this advance the goals that we put forth, does organized collection do that and that based on living my entire life in this community I still see that there are a number of values that are held by the citizens of this community that are sort of the opposite of what we are continuing to talk about here as an initiative of the city and that is that across the dynamic of our private public sector and even our non-profits the city does what the private sector cannot do, the city provides the resources that no private sector endeavor can possibly provide such as ice rinks and ice gardens and golf courses.
But the free market as much as possible is allow to, we embrace it, we love competition, we are as competitive of a city as you are ever going to find and I think we only need to look at the enthusiasm of which we had CenturyLink present to us an interest in applying for a franchise, a cable franchise for us to realize that perhaps the days of Comcast being the sole provider of cable services could be over and isn’t that a great thing what that would mean for service and price. And then I guess finally it comes down to the fact that, and people come to Bloomington because they want the opportunity to choose, they want to make as many choices as they can and that was articulated by people of all ages from all walks of life from all corners of the city and its that reminder of what we all learned in 9th grade civics what we learned in 10th grade economics about the role of government and where it fits into all of this.
So I guess in the end, I am a strong defender of those principles as are the people of Bloomington, and in absence of a compelling argument as to why what we are experiencing with regard to truck traffic is more important than those principles I don’t sense the validity of that argument and cannot support the hauler proposal. Thank you.”
(Audience applause)