Elgin Watchman
A monthly podcast focused on environmental sustainability issues in our city and throughout the Fox River Valley
Elgin Watchman
Update: City of Batavia's Single Use Bag Fee Ordinance
Welcome to episode 29 of Season One, which is a special edition podcast following up on the city of Batavia's efforts to pass a Single Use Bag Fee ordinance (which is something the city of Elgin has been trying to do for more than three-years).
In episode 23, Erik floated down the mighty Fox River and facilitated a panel discussion with two Batavia Environmental Commission members and a city council member. The focus of that discussion was the city of Batavia's proposed Single Use Bag Fee ordinance.
Interestingly, the city of Batavia had started its Single Use Bag Fee ordinance efforts around the same time as the Elgin Sustainability Commission -- approximately 2018/2019.
In the final analysis, both cities were in exactly the same place with their proposed ordinances. So, The Elgin Watchman decided that Batavia was a good benchmarking partner for Elgin's efforts, and Erik has been following Batavia's story for comparative purposes.
Well, there is breaking news coming out of Batavia. So, Erik called Batavia Environment Commissioner Alex Zelles to check-in on the situation and asked her to share the news with Elgin Watchman listeners in this episode.
In addition to updates on the Single Use Bag Fee ordinance, Erik and Alex talk a little bit about a recent joint meeting between the Batavia, Geneva, and St. Charles sustainability commissions.
For more information, please visit our website, LIKE our Facebook page, and subscribe to our podcast using one of the many RSS Readers on our Buzzsprout podcast platform.
And if you haven't downloaded The Elgin Watchman's Single Use Bag Fee Advocacy eGuide, please do so ASAP:
- Go to our Waste webpage at www.elginwatchman.com/waste
- Scroll a little bit down the page and you will see it
- Expand it to full screen, read, and click the buttons/links to learn more
- Consider downloading or sharing the eGuide with likeminded friends
- Start calling and emailing Mayor David Kaptain and all city council members using the information on the last page of the eGuide. Ask them to please adopt the Single Use Plastic Bag Fee ordinance
You can make a difference. Get involved . . . get engaged . . . and always keep watch!
Welcome to the Elgin watchman Podcast coming to you from Elgin, Illinois, the historic home of the now defunct Elgin Watch Company. The Elgin watchman podcast is a monthly show focused on environmental sustainability issues in our city and throughout the Fox Valley. And now, your hosts, Erik Anderson and Thiago, welcome to the Elgin watchman podcast.
Erik Anderson:My name is Erik Anderson. And as you heard on our last podcast, my podcast partner Tia Augason is running for Elgin City Council, which is why she's currently taking a seven month sabbatical from the podcast why a seven month sabbatical? You might be asking, well, because we here at the Elgin watchmen podcast are all about integrity, and independence in our coverage of environmental sustainability stories and happenings around the Fox Valley. In other words, we don't want you our loyal Elgin watchman listeners to have to decipher political rhetoric from what we bring to your ears every month. And while I love my wicked smart podcast partner, and I wish her nothing but the very best and the upcoming municipal elections being held on April 4 of 2023. Our loyalty is to you, dear listener, and speaking of loyalty, that makes me think a dog's those amazing canine companions who fill our lives with love and make us complete. They can also be tenacious and persistent when it comes to enjoying a big fat juicy bone, which can also be a quality that describes us at the Elgin watchmen podcast, especially when it comes to our coverage of the city of Elgin's proposed single use bag fee ordinance that is sitting on the city manager's desk and stuck in the city of Elgin's City Council parking lot. Today's special edition podcast episode is a follow up to our reporting in Episode 23, where I picked up our podcast equipment, and paddled my way down the mighty Fox River to the great city of Batavia. In that episode, I interviewed Batavia environmental commission members, Alex Zelis and Emma Cole. In addition to Batavia city, Councilwoman Abby Baek about their community's efforts to pass a similar single use bag fee ordinance. If you did not get a chance to listen to that episode, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. I think there are lots of good lessons for Elgin to learn from our brothers and sisters downstream from us. Now, you're probably asking, Why are you revisiting the Batavia panel discussion, Erik, and that is a very good question. Dear listeners. The reason is that a little birdie told me the other day that good things were happening in Batavia with regards to their single use bag fee ordinance efforts and it made sense to check back with Alex zealous Additionally, as you may remember from that panel discussion, the Batavia environmental commission had been invited to a Tri Cities regional meeting with other sustainability Commission's in the area. And while I know Curiosity killed the cat.
Unknown:That meeting happened a few weeks ago and inquiring minds want to know what happened and why the Elgin sustainability commission wasn't invited to play their fun little reindeer games. So without further ado, and more blah, blah, blah on my part, let's jump into our Elgin watchman Wayback Machine and check in with Elgin environmental Commissioner Alex Zelis, and see if she has any breaking news to share with us.
Erik Anderson:Welcome back to the Elgin watchman podcast. Alex, how are you doing today?
Alexandra Zelles:I'm good, Erik. How are you?
Erik Anderson:I'm doing fantastic. I'm actually physically sitting in my Florida condo, and it's 80 degrees down here. And I called home andI hear that it's a little colder up there.
Alexandra Zelles:Just a little bit colder. I mean, I'm a winter lover. So the weather right now feels a little bit balmy. You know, mid 40s. Today, it's getting cooler tonight. But all in all, not a bad late all day.
Unknown:Yeah, I don't dislike the winter. It's my husband who really likes the warmer weather. And so we got a condo down here. And it's part of a retirement strategy. I kind of like snow around the holiday time. So I'm hoping that by the time we get our rear ends back up into the Fox Valley area, there'll be a beautiful dusting of snow on the ground. And we'll be ready to celebrate the holidays with friends and family. So fingers crossed.
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah, yeah, that would be lovely. I hope for that as well.
Erik Anderson:So it dawned on me that there's a possibility that there are people listening to today's podcast who may not have tuned into the last podcast, and they may not know who Alex is. And so would you like to maybe reintroduce yourself to our audience in the way that you'd like to be introduced?
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah, of course. So my name is Alex Salas. I am a resident of Batavia and a member of the Batavia environmental Commission, we are an all volunteer commission that kind of worked to guide and be a sounding board for the city and city council to implement and work towards sustainable and environmental initiatives in the community.
Erik Anderson:Fantastic. And thank you for your service. Now the last time we spoke, I was in Batavia physically. And it was a wonderful fall evening, I think I remember watching you bicycle in and park your bike as I was unloading my podcast equipment, and I facilitated a small panel discussion between you and a fellow Commission member and a sitting member of your city council. And we talked a lot about whether the Batavia City Council was going to pass your Commission's single use bag fee, proposed ordinance at the time. So for any podcast listeners who didn't tune in for that, I don't know, it was maybe a month and a half ago, two months ago. But that's kind of where we left it off. And I think I asked the city council member if she would predict when she thought the city council would take action. And she was quick. And she said, I hope they're gonna take action by the end of this year. So by the end of December of 2022, and she rattled off a bunch of reasons why that was important, some of which was budgetary, and all that stuff. And so a little birdie told me the other day that you might have an update for us. And so I thought I'd dial you up and see if we can get an update.
Alexandra Zelles:So where are we at with all that? Yes. Well, we do have an update. And we are very happy to report that the single use bag ordinance in Batavia passed. Yeah.
Unknown:Yay.
Erik Anderson:That's fantastic.
Alexandra Zelles:So we're all super excited. It's been a few years of actual work, kind of prepping for it. And even before that, a year or two of talking about wanting to do it, and what does that maybe look like? So yeah, it's, it's done. It's here.
Erik Anderson:That's super exciting, especially after that long, long journey. And as I remember from that panel interview, you guys have been working on it about as long as the city of Elgin's sustainability Commission's waste workgroup, I mean, it was pre pandemic when they started. And as I recall, you too, I mean, it was 2018 or 19, or something like that, when you guys started cooking up the idea of, hey, we need to reduce plastic consumption in this town and other towns are starting to put a single use plastic bag fee in place. And we should look at that. And so it's been a long road.
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah, yeah, it has. And I got involved a little bit earlier than midway by after I joined the commission. And that was just really a few months before the pandemic, I think, like a lot of things. Pandemic threw a wrench into plans and was paused. But finally, you know, several months ago decided it's time to bring it to city council and see what they think and where they want to take it. And so we're happy that they took to heart our message and the data we presented and decided to actually take action. That's so exciting.
Erik Anderson:You've got to be just absolutely, you know, excited out of your mind, because it's always good to see a good plan come together in the end, right? Mm hmm. Yep. Well, fantastic. Well, if you got a little bit of time, I want to ask you a few details. So do you still have a few minutes to hang with me here?
Alexandra Zelles:Yes, I do. So one question that's been lingering for me is I try to put myself in the shoes of people who go through these processes before I interviewed them. And I was I was thinking to myself, I wonder if they were any surprises along the way. Remember, Erik asked Alex, when you get a chance. Were there any surprises? I mean, was there any any surprise pushback from the business community? Were there any angry residents who showed up at the city council chambers on the day of the vote and rattled city council members? Did any city council members who you thought were going to support it didn't support it? Or you thought were definitely against it? But then in the end, they came through and voted for it? Any surprises? Um, yeah, a few surprises. So the Committee of the Whole the week before the city council meeting, they meet as a committee to discuss things, of course, they did discuss the ordinance and Committee of the Whole and that was generally a very positive discussion, and made the motion to carry that over to council for final votes the following week, which was November 21, which is the day that we are that council passport. And then there were a couple members voting who were not at the previous week's discussion of the ordinance. So there's kind of a rehash of what was discussed previously and their thoughts about the ordinance. What surprised me in terms of Visitors who spoke at the meeting, we had one business speak against the ordinance, which, you know, we didn't expect 100% Buy in right now, which is fine. To be fair, this is a business that was a little bit of an outlier. So the ordinance has businesses that are 5000 square feet, or greater implement the single use backseat. And this is a business that really does not generate many bags, it's a jeweler. So they talked a lot about the burden that would place on them. And the perception of customers coming into their store and getting a very nice bag to take home, their purchase, you know, if you imagine a jewelers bag that you might get, I was surprised, actually, that council kind of stuck to their guns and did not make an exception, they, you know, we're pretty firm that we're using the 5000 square feet as a cut off, those are demonstrated to be the size businesses, you're talking about grocery stores, department stores that are pushing out a lot of bags, people's purchases. So you know, that's really the intent of that 5000 square foot, of course limit. I was surprised that they stuck to that. And I totally understand and respect this business owners kind of unique situation and that they're an outlier compared to a lot of the other businesses. But hopefully, you know, we can work on it over time and hopefully get some more buy in and we'll see how that goes.
Erik Anderson:Let me share why your response is surprising to me. What you were surprised about it sounds like was the Batavia city council members stuck to their guns and they didn't like put another exception into the ordinance to accommodate this business owner. What was surprising to me was this jeweler, and I'm sure they're fabulous people and everyone should shop them. But they were concerned. Again, this is the surprising part for me, they were concerned that somebody was coming in to spend hundreds most likely 1000s of dollars in very fine jewelry, that their customers would be put off or upset over having to pay 10 cents for the bag to carry it out. Yeah, and that was what surprises me that came up. Yeah, that was something that came up in the discussion too, was your fine, jeweler jewelry is expensive. And someone made the point to that, you know, if you buy something for somebody, oftentimes you're going to, you know, come to the store to get a gift bag to go with it that cost more than 10 cents. So, thinking about it in that way that there is a cost to everything in questioning with when we make a purchase, should we automatically receive a bag, and not and when I say there's a cost to everything, it's not even just considering the monetary cost of you purchasing that bags, but also the cost of raw materials and the energy to produce that bag and then transport that bag and totally the cost of if somebody is only using that bag once and then tossing it maybe somebody will reuse it again, that would be great. But yeah, there's a whole slew of hidden costs that we don't often think about So you said something interesting . . . and file this under "details that Erik's curious about" . . . you guys wrote your ordinance so that it only applies to retailers who have a square footage or retail square footage of 5000 square feet or larger. And I want to say the Elgin ordinance doesn't have any of those restrictions. What went into the thinking there? Why not apply it to all retailers? Why did Batavia decide? Well, let's focus on 5000 Square feet and above?
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah, that's a fair question. And that was also something that this business owner brought up is why is it just a select group of I think it's ultimately around 17 businesses and the data that applies to you right now, I think, for our commission, and some members of City Council's Well, their thought is this is a starting point. We know that typically these larger retailers are produced or not producing but resulting in the most number of single use bags that are being dispersed into the community. I know for me and the Commission, and some others uncomfortable, like I said, I think the larger goal is to eventually implement this city wide. I think this is a starting point, again, like trying to educate people get buy in, you know, see how things are working, and then down the road evaluate. Can we expand this to all of our businesses will encourage encourage other businesses to implement their own bag fee or when they want to. I think the other thought behind it is a lot of our small local mom, pop shops in town have a lot less resources, and staff to track bag usage like that. Whereas a lot of these bigger businesses like the Jewel Foods and Target stores, they have accounting people who like that is their job. So there was a little bit of at least right now trying to limit some of that kind of extreme burden on some of the smaller stores. But my hope is definitely in the future to see this expanded. And then, you know, maybe it also instead of, or in addition to single use bags, also expanding that to carry out containers for food. And yeah, oh, yeah, Styrofoam? You know?
Erik Anderson:Can you refresh my memory? I didn't go back and listen to the previous panel discussion podcast before I called you. And I probably should have shame on me. But how much of a fee is being placed on bags? And that's both plastic and paper in Batavia with this ordinance? And then how does that fee get divided up between city and other stakeholders? Can you just maybe refresh my memory?
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah. So I was just reviewing the ordinance before, before we talked, but it's going to be 10 cents, and each retailer will retain four cents, and the remaining six cents will go to the city. Was there any kind of special science that went into coming up with that formula? Or we're hunting? No, six cents goes to the city and four cents goes to retailers. I think we were kind of using a lot of our other local examples. So I believe wood stock does that, you know, some other communities in the area. So really just trying to keep it kind of consistent. That seems to be what people are doing.
Erik Anderson:And another curiosity that I have is . . . does this go into effect like now? I mean, you guys passed it in November and bam. I mean, are Batavia shoppers starting to pay for their bags in December? Or I want to say Didn't we talk about a phasing period and public education? How did you guys settle all that?
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah. So the ordinance Well, the fee, this fee will go into effect in July, July 120 23. So that's next month, you know, phase in period. Yep. So the city is hiring a local marketing firm to develop an education campaign. So that will start happening. I think sometime early in the year, January, February, there's social media social media campaign, reaching out to the retailers that are affected, to put up posters that the city's going to develop, educating consumers as they're going into the stores that this is coming in trying to change some habits and crime people, not just customers, but also stores that this is going to be coming in July and more people we can get onboard and used to it and advancing so better all around, hopefully be less of a shock to people when it does happen.
Erik Anderson:Yeah, boy, that sounds like a super reasonable approach. The city council didn't think that entire education campaign needed to be developed before they voted on it. They voted on it and said, We're going to phase it in. And during that phase in period, we're going to hire a marketing guru, and they will design it and will implement it in all be great in a universe. That's kind of that's kind of how it sounds like it went down, right? Y
Alexandra Zelles:Yep. Yeah. And I mean, even leading up to the ordinance being presented to council, city staff had already reached out to firm to have some initial discussions and get some quotes. So there is a little bit of information for the council to review in the in that regard relates to education campaign. So I think it was just kind of like before really pulling the trigger on actually hiring that firm, you know, wanting to make sure that the ordinance was going to happen.
Erik Anderson:So, enough of sticky details, I want to get back to a little celebratory, you know, victory lap here. One thought I had was, or one question that I have is, is there anything that you're most excited about now that this ordinance has been passed? And you guys are starting to look towards implementation? I mean, what gets you really excited about the passage of this ordinance Alex?
Alexandra Zelles:I'm excited to hopefully be a reduction in plastic and paper bags that are that are making their way into our community. I was just from my day job. I was outside I'm I work as a environmental consultant. So I was out at a project site and there was so much plastic litter plastic bags around these waterways that that I was working at. And it just reminded me have, this is why we need to change our habits and our behaviors and really think about this from resource extraction all the way to end of life, like, where is this thing going? Once I take it out of my house, I think sometimes I get kind of caught up in feeling like there's so much happening in the world and you know, climate change issues. You know, forests, deforestation, so many things. But taking a step back, I mean, like, this is one thing that our community can do, to try and make a positive change. And hopefully, other communities in the area, see what we've done and think, hey, we can do that too. And the more that we can all do this and have a collective change, the bigger impact it is, yeah, that gets me really excited. We had not taken a shine. But it just it made me think we did have one person sent a letter into the red during the council meeting. And this was a person who does not live within the city limits of Batavia, but is in the township. They were not happy with this ordinance, they said that if it passed, they would no longer shop in Batavia, they would not go to any of the local businesses, they would only step foot in city limits to deliver their tax payments. And they express their belief that this ordinance is just virtue signaling, and doesn't actually do anything. But the data just don't support that we know from other communities that have implemented single use backbeats, that it does have a significant impact on the number of fats that are being consumed.
Erik Anderson:So, I don't mean to interrupt you, but do you have any recollection of what any, generally speaking and it would any that data might have said? And the reason I asked that question is because when we were interviewing one of Elgin's sitting city council members, and she used to work for the city a long time ago in in waste management -- recycling and trash pickup and managing the waste management contract. She was wondering if if there was an expected amount of you know what the reduction in plastic would be? And if there was going to be any goal setting by the sustainability commission. And she kind of wanted to know those things before she would vote for it. And I thought, well, that's fair. And but then I thought, how would you know? I mean, you don't know until you do it. Right. And so do you guys have any? Like, I don't know if goals are too robust of a word. Do you have any targets? Or do you have any expectations as an individual Commissioner, in terms of how much plastic reduction there may be? Any expectations?
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah. So that's a really good question. And again, that was something that did come up as well, the first after the first year of the fee being in place Council, we'll be revisiting that. So Got it, got it. We'll be able to track based on the fee that retailers are submitting to the city, how many bags are being used from the date that the fee is implemented to, you know, tracking it till whatever date? People want to preview that. And we're also hoping that prior to the see during the education campaign, we really want retailers to track single use baggies such as well, so smart that we benchmark Right, right. Yeah. So we can hopefully have data, you know, starting now, even before the education campaign, and I'm, you know, I'm not savvy to how retailers track bags, I assumed that they have to purchase bags at some point. So they're probably tracking, right that some extent, what their inventory of that is, yeah, it'd be great to have something that's basically starting now, before the education campaign is even initiated through the education campaign, and then the start of when the thing goes into effect. And then, you know, maybe month by month or quarterly, however, we want to review that. Yeah, as far as a specific reduction goal, we don't have a, you know, a percentage in mind of like, do we want 50% reduction? 80%? I mean, ideally, it would be great to feel like 100%.
Erik Anderson:Right?
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah, in our mind that we really don't want to collect any fee. But, you know, I don't think that I think, you know, people are still gonna buy bags, but hopefully we see a pretty significant reduction. And then after that initial year councils going to revisit and see is this having the desired impact? Is that the reduction that we want to see or do we want to try something else? So
Erik Anderson:That seems fair. Okay.
Alexandra Zelles:We'll see.
Erik Anderson:So that actually gets me to my my next question. And that is, do you have any concerns? After that ordinance ordinance passed? Or any? If not concerns, do you have any? Oh, heck, I'll be dramatic. It what's keeping you up late at night now that that ordinance is passed? Now that the dog has caught the car? I mean, is there anything that concerns you or anything that you're looking at, you're like, that's going to be a steep hill to climb concerns?
Alexandra Zelles:I don't know that there's one specific thing that I can pinpoint as a concern. It's more general, in that, we know that there's a lot of work still to be done, getting the ordinance passed, just to start the six month education campaign, I think it's going to be vital to this working, I think, you know, we want to do this in the least burdensome way possible, and we don't want people to feel alienated, we want this to be equitable. So you know, figuring out the best way to communicate this to the TV ends, and also people who don't live in the TV, but visit Batavia shops in Batavia. So, you know, I, I do think that this initial education period can be really important. And then following that, I will say, thinking about the future, like, you know, year and a half in the future, when Council comes back and reviewing progress to date, the ordinance does include a repealer. I guess that's probably a important detail. And know, the language, specifically says the city and environmental commission will review the program and provide a report to the city council in July 24, to allow the city council to determine whether to alter, replace, or repeal the program. All right. So, you know, that's a little bit of a out. That's a concern for Yeah, for the City Council to decide that. This isn't what we want me doing. Hopefully, you know, I think everybody's hope is that everybody who's shopping in Batavia and the businesses see this as a good thing. It's something that that I think most people agree is important, even the couple people who voted against the ordinance to say we think these things are important, but their main concern was burden the businesses and extra fees that people might have to pay, which you know, we always go back to this is an avoidable fee. Any bag you want. Any bag, it can be a plastic bag you already have. But yeah, so anyways, good. I'm going down the rabbit hole a little bit. That's my tangent. But yeah, so that's, I think that's kind of a concern of mine. Looking into the future, in that July 24. Mark is what's going to happen, then, I really, I do hope that it stays and everything works as we hope it will work.
Erik Anderson:Oh, it's hard to predict the future. My magic crystal ball broke a long time ago. And I'm sure yours did too. So, let's live in the present. And let me just say Congratulations once again. Well, I hope there's a big celebration down in Batavia amongst you and all your fellow commissioners. And actually, if I can make an admission on my end, I'm just a little jealous. And you know, I find myself wishing if only the Elgin City Council was as brave and as visionary and as progressive as your city council, but they'll have a chance and I'm sure it'll be sometime soon if not shortly after the municipal elections. But yeah, a little jealous, but I'm so excited for you guys. This is I love when the hard work pays off that it's just awesome. So congrats. Thank you so much. It dawned on me while I was talking to you that there was one other thing that we haven't we didn't talk about in our pre production chat that we talked about during the panel discussion a few months ago when I met you guys in Batavia and that was there was going to be this big. I don't know sustainability commission powwow. Um, where a few different cities Batavia St. Charles, maybe Geneva? I don't know I don't know if Aurora had a seat at the table but different Commission's from sustainability Commission's from different communities. We're going to come together and I think I asked in that podcast. So What are y'all going to talk about? And you? You said you kind of baited the hook and said, I'll let you know after it happens. And so it's happened, right? It has happened? What did you guys talk about?
Alexandra Zelles:It largely was not one specific topic. We all gathered. We kind of reintroduced ourselves and just talked about what each of our Commission's goals were over the past year and what we were hoping to do coming up. You know, St. Charles was kind of they've also been talking about a single use bag ordinance. They were actually within part of our initial planning meeting. They had joined and kind of worked on presentation
Unknown:Jim's with us and draft ordinance. So, you know, they're
Erik Anderson:I love that. And here's why I love that. I tend the St. Charles, their version of environmental Commission. They they're looking to do this as well, I'm not really sure about where their city council is at on that. But yeah, so yeah, it really just, it was just a meeting of the minds and looking to the future, what each of our groups are looking to do, and where we can align on things and kind of tag team as a the Tri Cities area. to think that we local residents living in our local municipalities, and when we start to look at environmental issues and concerns out, heck, I'll say at problems, we tend to look for local city solutions. And environmental issues, they don't know political boundaries, you know, these lines, we draw on a map that we call, you know, this is Batavia, or this is Elgin. Mother Nature doesn't care.
Alexandra Zelles:Yep,
Erik Anderson:Watersheds span states, sometimes, I mean, look at the Mississippi Watershed. And so if we're going to solve real things in this world, we need to get together and you know, simply start conversations like the one you guys started, you know, with other Commission's and other communities, which is, hey, what do you guys do and down the road from us? And let me tell you what we're doing and where collaboration makes sense. I assume that bubbles out of a conversation like that, and I find that really beautiful. So I don't suppose there's any reason why Elgin wasn't invited to the table. Is it just that you guys want to do your little tri city thing? Is, Elgin blacklisted? Are we not beautiful enough for you?
Alexandra Zelles:I don't you'll have to ask St. Charles about that. You say they put the meeting together. But I think my understanding, you know, I'm slightly newer member to the Batavia environmental commission. I've been on the commission for about three years now. And I had never attended one of these Tri Cities meetings before. Like, they do them maybe annually. And then, you know, we since I had been Commissioner, we never had one, which may be, you know, COVID Again, the pandemic, but I think, yeah, I mean, you know, St. Charles Geneva, Batavia has their whole like Tri Cities thing going on. But I think it would be great to have, every once in a while, a broader Fox Valley meeting, you know, Aurora, all the way up to Elgin, it really is a long corridor with a lot of unique communities along it, and it would be great to hopefully align what we're doing.
Erik Anderson:Well, in the spirit of the holidays, I just want to say we would love to play your little reindeer games. We've had a lot to bring to the table, we really do. But we are so proud of the work that you and the Batavia environmental Commission has done and what the Batavia City Council has bravely done. And you know, the approach the common sense approach that you guys are taken to, you know, wading into this and doing the right work, which is public education, and then sitting back and evaluating it after a year or 18 months, or whatever it is, you know, that is, as Elgin hopefully starts down this path, I guess they've been down this path as they get closer to adopting a similar resolution. And I'm guessing it'll happen after the April 4 elections. But who knows, they can surprise me. I am sure that the work that you guys have done will provide even more of a blueprint for Elgin on how to move forward. Can I give you a call, if I have any additional questions, as Elgin starts down or steps down the homestretch, I guess, is the best way to put it or . . .
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah.
Erik Anderson:Or can I just check in to see how you guys are doing with implementation, maybe coming out of your education phase in six months, or maybe shortly after it gets implemented? And just checking to see how things going?
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like I said, we would love to see this within happen across the Fox Valley. So yeah.
Erik Anderson:Fingers crossed. Yeah.
Alexandra Zelles:We would love to be a sounding board or kind of case study for some other communities and share our experience and get some others on board.
Erik Anderson:Well, I'll pass that along. I know that a lot of commissioners and city council members listen to our podcast, and you can be sure that we'll be forwarding a link to them. And so you guys are totally a resource, and you are totally an inspiration. So thanks for your leadership and everything you guys do down there.
Alexandra Zelles:Yeah, of course.
Erik Anderson:Happy holidays to you. And I'm sure that we'll be in touch again soon. All right.
Alexandra Zelles:Thanks so much, Erik. Thanks, Alex.
Erik Anderson:Well, there you have it. I have two big takeaways from that interview. Takeaway Number one. The Batavia City Council demonstrates that they're more progressive and effective than the Elgin City Council by beating Elgin to the punch and passing their single use bag fee ordinance first, council members appeared to be resolute in doing the right thing regardless of municipal election looming on the horizon in a few months. Who knew? There appears to be politicians who understand that they are elected to do the people's business and not just work on getting themselves reelected by sidestepping potentially difficult and challenging issues of public policy? Go figure. My second takeaway was this Batavia, St. Charles and Geneva's sustainability Commission's they understand that they don't exist in a vacuum political boundaries are just lines drawn on maps and what one town does in the area of sustainability can have an effect on what happens next door. So, transparency and cooperation are important when it comes to policymaking on issues pertaining to sustainability. Maybe the Elgin sustainability Commission can work on getting themselves an invitation to the next Tri Cities regional meeting, or perhaps the Elgin sustainability Commission can take a page out of the Tri Cities sustainability Commission's book and exercise some leadership upstream and provide some leadership by inviting the Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg Commission's do something similar dare to dream. But who knows. Santa is on his way, of course. But I found myself wondering throughout my interview with Alex was . . . when will the Elgin City Council take action on the proposed single use bag fee ordinance sitting on their desk? I also found myself wondering, are we really going to have to wait until after the upcoming April 4 municipal elections for them to take action? And I also find myself wondering, will the single use bag fee ordinance become an election issue? And more importantly, will the Elgin watchman podcast and make this proposed ordinance an election issue? Hmm. Inquiring minds want to know, all I have to say is stay tuned. If you are also wondering some of these things throughout today's interview. I have two suggestions for you. Suggestion number one, go to our website at www.elginwatchman.com/waste. Scroll down that page just a little bit and download our Special Edition II guide on this particular issue. Not only does it recap our coverage of the single use bag fee ordinance issued during season one of our podcast but it also provides you with interesting facts, links to additional resources and email addresses and phone numbers for the mayor and city council members for your advocacy. Pleasure. Please remember the most important position in our great democracy is the unelected position of citizen. That's right, you and when we aren't involved in the process, either by voting or making our voices heard the entire system goes to hell. So make your voices heard and tell the mayor that if he wants to serve for an unprecedented fourth term and those incumbent city council members who are appearing on the April 4 ballot, that if they want your vote than they should do the right thing and vote before the election on this proposed ordinance, which was recommended and sent to them by the Elgin sustainability commission months ago. My second suggestion for you is when a city council candidate comes to your door in the coming months asking for your vote, or when you attend one of the upcoming City Council candidate forums after this holiday season, ask them where they stand on the proposed single use bag fee ordinance. Inform yourself before heading into the voting booth and make sure the candidates you vote for a line with your values. Okay, as I stepped down off my soapbox and start wrapping up this special edition of our podcast I want to share a little piece of gossip that I heard through the grapevine the other day, that same little birdie, who told me about the celebrations happening in Batavia also told me that City Hall and the Elgin Chamber of Commerce are done talking with local businesses about their feelings and thoughts of the proposed single use bag fee ordinance in Elgin and According to our sources, businesses did not light their torches and pick up their pitchforks and start marching towards city hall in opposition to the proposed ordinance. It sounds like they were ambivalent and even generally supportive as most business owners were in Batavia and in many other communities across our great country. And this should not be a surprise to any of us. As we discussed in many of our previous episodes on this subject, business owners would be silly to oppose it because this ordinance generates revenue for them because the city will will be splitting the fee with them. And as for local residents and voters come on seriously. Nationwide polling shows a big majority of us support ordinances just like this one and why wouldn't we? After all, I have a box stuffed with single use bags in my garage and a car trunk stuffed full of reusable shopping bags. This public policy's time is now and someone needs to tell our security cat Mayor David captain and or incumbent city council members that it's okay to come out of hiding and start doing their jobs or they may find themselves out of a job on April 4, when all the ballots are counted on election night. On that note, let's bring this special edition episode to a close a big thank you to Alex zealous for agreeing to be interviewed for today's show, and lots of congratulations to the city of Batavia and that community City Council for doing the right thing. And honestly, just doing the job they were elected to do a quick programming note to all of our listeners to stay tuned in the coming weeks as we bring Season One of the podcast to an end. Not only will there be one final episode covering the December Elgin sustainability commission, but there will also be a handful of public service announcement infomercials dropping that you won't want to miss. And with all that said, and until next time, I encourage you to find ways to get involved, be engaged. And always keep watching and don't forget to go download that e-guide on our website.
Wally The Watchman:Thank you for listening to the Elgin watchman podcast. If you want more information about what you've just heard on this episode, visit our website elginwatchmen.com. The Elgin Sustainability Commission meets the second Tuesday of every month. Check out our website for meeting details. Do you have an idea for a future podcast? We want to hear it drop us a line at info@elginwatchman.com Thanks for listening.